Finding the best wood for a sauna is essential when building your own DIY home sauna. The simple truth is that not all wood is created equal and some types are better at insulating than others. In addition, some woods might look good in a sauna, but can’t handle the extreme heat that sauna heaters promote.

For this reason, its important to choose the right sauna wood for your particular needs. In this article, we’ll go over the top woods used in building saunas. We recommend looking at each one of these wood types until you find the one best suited for your needs.

Best Sauna Wood Characteristics

Before showing you the different types of sauna woods we first want to explain what exactly makes wood good for a sauna. Specifically, we want to talk about the different characteristics that you should contemplate. These characteristics include wood weight, wood strength, wood toxicity, wood shrinkage and etc. Down below we’ll explain each and why they are an important characteristic for saunas wood.

Wood Weight

Wood weight is an important characteristic as it helps determine the price of the wood, the price of delivery, and equipment needed to install the wood. In most basic terms the heavier the wood, the more expensive it will be. Meaning you can spend $500-$1,000 more when choosing the heavier wood over the lighter. This, of course, is just a general rule of thumb and isn’t always the case.

Wood Toxicity

Another huge characteristic to look out for is wood toxicity. Most people who use saunas, use them for their detoxing benefits so you want a wood that has minimal toxins. There is no point in choosing a wood that introduces toxins into your body when the whole goal is to remove them in the first place.

Woods that have been kiln-dried are a great option as this process removes oils and resins that may be on the wood. You also want to ensure you don’t pick a wood that has previously been stained as these chemicals can leak out during the extreme temperatures within the saunas.

Wood Strength

Wood strength is a very important factor as saunas put a lot of stress on wood which can make them split or break. You don’t want to be sitting in your sauna and then all of a sudden the wood breaks. Because of this safety issue, you should pick woods that are strong enough not to crack or give while under pressure.

Shrinkage

The shrinkage of a particular wood is important as it will tell how the wood will age over time. Since most sauna heaters can last decades, it’s important to choose wood with minimal shrinkage. This shrinkage can splinter or crack the wood over time. In some cases, the shrinkage can ruin the whole design of the sauna, making it so you have to redo the whole interior of the sauna.

The Best Wood For A Sauna

Hemlock

In our opinion Hemlock is the best wood for a sauna if you don’t care about tradition. Reason for is that Hemlock has great hypoallergenic properties, maximum strength, very lightweight, and very durable. In addition, Hemlock is typically odorless, resin-free, and available in large knot-free dimensions.

Another benefit to Hemlock is that it’s a lot cheaper than other woods on the market. This is a huge factor, especially if you’re building a larger sauna. For these many reasons we highly recommend using this type of wood for your sauna. It will last you decades and will be cheaper than other options on the market.

Cedar

Cedar wood is one of the most popular woods used for saunas. This is because of its natural look/aromas, it’s very durable, doesn’t decay easily, and its cool to the touch. Although many Cedar built saunas do lose their smell due to the extreme temperatures. This aroma typically lasts a few years and is very inviting to anyone who smells it.

One thing to contemplate is that Cedar is also one of the more expensive woods because of the name its created and various different reasons. So if you do choose this option you will most likely spend up to $1,000 more then if you chose Hemlock or some cheaper wood.

Spruce

Spruce is another popular wood utilized for saunas. This wood is commonly used with Nordic designed saunas which are often found in Finnish areas. Spruce is a white wood with fine grains and very minimal knots. This wood will darken over its lifetime, but will generally remain a light wood.

As for its properties, spruce wood is considered soft, low in weight, and has medium density. Its strength properties are good, but not as strong as some of the above options. Spruce has a slight tendency to split when nailed, which can cause some DIY builders to stray away from this wood.

Basswood

Basswood is another good option for those who are sensitive to aromas and irritants. This is a hypoallergenic wood that is very similar to Hemlock wood in regards to its properties. This wood is relatively strong and is not likely to warp or bend with high-temperature changes. With that being said its also a softwood that is known for hand carving activities.

Basswood is also very consistent with its color and contains very few knots or defects. In most cases, this wood is white to light brown color, which is great for those looking for a neutral color wood.

Conclusion

In the end, when looking at the different types of woods we would have to conclude that Hemlock is the best overall option. This is because Hemlock is a light, durable, odor-free, and cheap wood that can work in any sauna. Once built correctly, this wood can last decades without having to worry about replacing it.

If you want something a little fancier, with a great smell, and a great look then we would have to recommend Cedar. Cedar is well known for being a great wood for saunas, its simply just more expensive than other options which is why we didn’t rank it 1st.

So good luck with building your DIY home sauna. If you want to learn more about building saunas or saunas in general then feel free to visit our blog. We have a ton of content there to help with your project.