Sauna Kits
Most home saunas sold today are kits: a cabin that arrives as finished panels and goes together on site. Here is what that actually means, what separates a good kit from a cheap one, and where our own saunas sit.
The term explained
What is a sauna kit?
Sauna kit covers two very different things, and the difference matters before you spend anything.
The first is a build-it-yourself kit: cut timber, insulation, a heater and a door, supplied for you or a joiner to construct a room from scratch. Cheap to buy, slow to build, and the finish is only as good as the person building it.
The second, and what most people now mean, is a modular cabin: a sauna manufactured in a factory, delivered as finished wall, bench and roof sections, and assembled on site in hours rather than days. Every Hekla sauna is this second kind. Nothing is cut or finished at your house.
Two ways ours arrive
Quick-build or built for you?
Indoor
A few hours
Quick-build cabins
Our indoor Traditional models are quick-build: the panels arrive finished and most assemble in a few hours. Our infrared cabins go further and are plug-and-play, running from an ordinary socket with no electrician needed.
Outdoor
Kit or built for you
Assemble it or have it built
Garden saunas arrive as a kit too, including the roof, waterproof membrane and shingles. Assemble it yourself, or ask your Hekla stockist to build it for you. Either way you prepare the base first.
Sauna kit FAQs
Our indoor Traditional models are quick-build and most assemble in a few hours, and our infrared cabins are plug-and-play. Outdoor saunas are a bigger job, with a roof, waterproof membrane and shingles to fit, so you can assemble one yourself or have your Hekla stockist build it. Ask them when you order. In every case the electrical connection must be completed by a qualified electrician.
The cabin arrives as finished panels with benches, backrests and the door. Your heater and control panel are chosen separately in the Recommended configuration on each model page, so you get the output and controls that suit the cabin rather than a one-size heater. Our buying guide walks through those options.
For a traditional sauna, yes. A 6 to 9 kW heater has to be wired in and certified by a qualified electrician. Our infrared cabins run at around 2.4 kW from an ordinary domestic socket, so there is no electrical work to arrange at all.
A low headline price usually means untreated softwood, no heater included, or no certification. The timber is the part you cannot upgrade later: wood that absorbs moisture will warp, split and open gaps at the joints after a few seasons of heating and cooling. Spend on the cabin and the heater, and be sceptical of anything that omits either.
A modular indoor cabin like ours goes together in a few hours. A traditional build-it-yourself kit, where a room is constructed from cut timber, is a job of days for a competent joiner. Our outdoor saunas are a longer job because of the roof, and your Hekla stockist can build one for you once your base is ready.
A flat, level, solid and permanent base, prepared before build day. A concrete slab is ideal, and reinforced paving over a solid sub-base also works. Grass, gravel and soft ground are not suitable. You also need one metre of clear space on all sides for assembly.
See one built
A finished cabin tells you more than a parts list. Step inside one at a showroom and you will know immediately what level of build you are buying.
Quick-build Hekla saunas
