Sauna Timber

Sauna Timber for Sale in Ireland

A sauna asks more of timber than any other room in the house. The walls and benches heat up every session, you sit against them with bare skin, and the air swings from dry heat to steam and back again. The wrong wood weeps sticky resin, gets too hot to touch or splinters. The right sauna wood stays comfortable, smooth and stable, and ages to a richer colour the more you use it.

Our sauna range brings together the boards, trims, door and finish you need to line a sauna, so you can buy the whole room in one order.

Types of sauna timber

The range is split by species, and you can also shop by the part of the sauna you are building.

Alder sauna wood

Alder sauna wood is the traditional Nordic sauna timber. European alder is effectively resin free, so it won’t weep pitch or spit hot droplets as the room heats, and its low density means it warms gently rather than scorching. We stock alder cladding, bench boards and matching trims.

Ayous and Thermo Spruce cladding

Ayous sauna cladding is thermally modified, heated with steam to over 200 degrees for durability and dimensional stability, in a triple slatted profile. Thermo Spruce sauna cladding comes in the same triple slatted profile in a thicker board, light and easy to work.

Shopping by job: cladding, benches and accessories

If you’d rather shop by job, sauna cladding gathers every wall board in one place, sauna bench boards covers the alder seats, and sauna accessories holds the door, trims and wax.

Sauna timber sizes

Pick each piece by the part of the room it goes on:

• The alder tongue and groove cladding, 89×15 mm, is the classic sauna wall and ceiling lining.
• The alder bench boards come in 70×27 mm, 89×27 mm and 120×27 mm for seats and backrests, and the wider boards make the most comfortable seat.
• The Ayous triple slatted cladding has a 129×21 mm working width and gives a textured, slatted wall finish.
• The Thermo Spruce triple slatted cladding gives the same slatted look in a thicker 140×26 mm board.
• The alder corner trims, 28×28 mm and 24×24 mm, finish external and internal corners.
• The glass sauna door comes complete in a laminated alder frame, with 8 mm tempered glass, handle and hinges.

How much sauna timber do I need?

Measure the wall and ceiling area for cladding, and the total length of seat and backrest for benches. The calculator on each product page turns your measurements into a board count. Choose the length on the product page; longer boards mean fewer joints on a long wall or bench. It is worth allowing around 15 per cent extra for cutting waste. Order the cladding and bench boards together so the alder comes from the same batch, because the colour varies between batches. The cart adds the matching extras for you.

Building and finishing a sauna

A few rules make the difference between a sauna that lasts and one that doesn’t:

• Let the boards acclimatise in the room for a day or two before fixing.
• Fix cladding through the tongue with stainless steel pins or clips, and keep a ventilated cavity behind the boards.
• Fix bench boards from underneath with stainless steel screws, leaving a gap of around 5 mm between boards.
• Never use varnish, lacquer, paint or exterior wood finishes inside a sauna. They aren’t made for sustained heat and release fumes when warm.

Protect the walls and ceiling with Saunawood Protection Wax, a tinted, water based coating made for hot, damp rooms that helps the timber shed water and dirt and resists mould. Keep it off the benches.

Browse the rest of our outdoor timber range for a garden sauna’s frame, beams and cladding.