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How To Assemble Your Barrel Sauna Kit

DIY Assembly vs. Nootka’s Onsite Assembly

If you’re located in one of the cities where we offer on-site assembly, then we’ve got you covered. If you want to tackle the assembly yourself or live in an area, where we currently only offer flat-packed delivery than this guide is for you. We’ll walk you through the entire process of assembling your barrel sauna kit below.

Required Tools:

  • Impact driver (Robertson #2 bit and a Philips bit)
  • Drill (5/16 drill bit and countersink bit)
  • Table saw or circular saw (must be able to rip the final top stave to size)
  • Adjustable wrench or crescent wrenches (for 9/16″ banding strap tensioner)
  • Allen key (for banding strap buckles)
  • Rubber mallet
  • Level
  • Jig-saw (for wood-burning sauna)
  • Your electrician will need wire strippers, a multimeter for testing, etc.
  • NOTE: The sauna kit includes ALL of the screws, bolts and hardware you need to complete assembly.

What to Expect For Delivery:

The sauna kit will arrive in an enclosed truck with one of our trusted trucking companies (ie: Day & Ross, Bandstra or Van-Kam).

The smaller crate contains the front and rear walls, interior benches, exterior benches, bench supports, cradles, the door, the stove or heater (and wiring) and the hardware. There should be absolutely no issue unloading this crate with the driver’s tailgate. Nootka Saunas pays our freight providers for tailgate usage and since the smaller crate is under 8ft in length, there shouldn’t be any concern from the driver’s side in doing this.

The larger crate contains the roofing for the sauna as well as all of the interior benches and the staves. In some cases the driver will not be comfortable unloading the large crate with their truck’s tailgate. In this case, there shouldn’t be any issue breaking open the crate. The crate will be sealed with clips and/or Robertson #2 (square-head) screws. Once the top and a side is opened, you should be able to hand-bomb the contents of the sauna off the back of the truck. While this can be done by one person, it’s physical work and we definitely recommend tackling it with two people.

   
   
   
Step 1: Setting Up The Foundation For Your Sauna
  • Making sure your 3x cradles are level will ensure a solid build.
  • Make sure you start with the bottom centre stave (the double rounded board seen in the video)
Step 2: Mounting Your Front and Back Walls
  • Look for the stickers on the wall components too match up front and rear wall wings
  • Use easy clues like window location and door frame to determine the “right-side-up” orientation of walls
Step 3: Levelling the Sauna’s Front and Back Walls
  • A rubber mallet works well for tapping the front and rear wall pieces into level.
  • Make sure everything is level front-to-back AND side to side (ie: you don’t want your walls leaning forwards)
Step 4: Mounting Staves On the Barrel
  • Staves are the 2×6’s that run from the rear to the front of the sauna.
  • They have a special profile

Steps For Electric Sauna Heaters (Skip for Woodburning Saunas)

If your electrician is NOT on-site while you’re building your sauna, you can skip this section and there is no issue with the electrican doing the below steps AFTER you’ve completed all of the other steps to build the sauna. We often see electricians coming by a few days after a sauna is assembled to wire it and that’s no issue at all.

Step 5.1: Wiring Your Heater
  • **This step is intended for your licensed electrician**
  • NOTE: All Homecraft Heaters require a NON-GFI breaker
Step 5.2: Mounting Your Heater To the Rear Wall
  • **This step is intended for your licensed electrician**
  • NOTE: All Homecraft Heaters require a NON-GFI breaker
Step 5.3: Wiring Overview
  • **This step is intended for your licensed electrician**
  • NOTE: All Homecraft Heaters require a NON-GFI breaker
Step 5.4: Wiring Your Junction Box
  • **This step is intended for your licensed electrician**
  • NOTE: All Homecraft Heaters require a NON-GFI breaker
Step 5.5: Installing Your Temperature Sensor
  • **This step is intended for your licensed electrician**
  • NOTE: Wiring this in the incorrect location will trip the high-temp limit switch in your heater’s base
Step 5.6: Wiring Your Sauna’s Control Panel
  • **This step is intended for your licensed electrician**
  • NOTE: DO NOT try to ground the 2 gang electrical box. The front control is a low voltage device and does not need a ground

 

Steps For Harvia M3 Wood-burning Sauna Stoves (Skip for Electric Saunas)

Step 5.7: Setting Up Your Harvia M3 Stove
  • IMPORTANT: Ensure that there is a 10ft horizontal radius between the chimney exhaust and other combustible surface (ie: sheds, trees, fences, etc).
  • Make sure you put down the metal flooring under the wood-stove

 

Remainder of Steps for All Saunas

Step 6: Mounting Your Interior Benches
  • Make sure you use 2.5″ screws for this step
Step 7: Securing Your Interior Benches and Mounting Trim
  • Trim/panel is only for electric heater saunas. Countersink the electrical panel cover
Step 8: Installing the Rest of Your Staves
Step 9: Cutting and Preparing Your Top/Final Stave
  • This step requires a table saw or a circular saw to rip the stave
Step 10: Mounting the Final Stave
Step 11: Securing Your Banding
Step 12: Mounting Your Door Handles and Exterior Benches
Step 13: Mounting Your Heater Guard (Only for electric saunas)

Optional Accessories

Step 14: Installing Your Flat Flooring
Step 15: Installing High Performance Metal Roofing
  • IMPORTANT: IGNORE THE STEP of doing a measurement offset AT 57 seconds. Roofing panels should be flush with the front trim/flashing.

 

Step 14: Installing Your Flat Flooring
Step 15: Installing High Performance Metal Roofing
IMPORTANT: IGNORE THE STEP of doing a measurement offset AT 57 seconds. Roofing panels should be flush with the front trim/flashing.