who we are

a simple sauna manifesto

My first sauna was a rustic affair. It took place in Northern Wisconsin, several miles from the Brule River in flat, scrubby pine country where the earth is iron red. It’s the type of place you count deer by the dozen. Remote, quiet, brilliant. The winter was only beginning to wear off, snow clung to the shadows. At the edge of an old horse pasture a chimney puffed from a log cabin — old, weathered white, and capped by a slopped metal roof. The night was clear as glass.

Inside the sauna warmed. The cedar benches, worn smooth from years of use, rose against the walls like rings in the Colosseum. The whole thing was new to me—the ritual, the etiquette—but most of all the heat. Within minutes it had penetrated my core and everything I had ever stewed on or clung to vanished. There was nothing but the sweat, the howl of the wind, and the crackle of logs heating river rock. I paused for a break, stepping out into the night. Steam rolled off my body, the cold winter air meant nothing. The world vanished. 

I set to build my first sauna weeks later. I had been in the trades for well over a decade, but I hadn’t built a sauna before. It was as foreign as the place—Finland—of its origin. But I gathered cedar tongue and groove, insulation, and chimney pipe. My wife and I drove on our honeymoon to northern Wisconsin to buy a Finnish sauna stove. Then I set about squaring and sawing and nailing the thing together. That first iteration is long gone, having been built and rebuilt many times as we worked to refine the structure, but the practice remains. Since then there has hardly been a week I haven’t sat in a sauna. 

And then I had the idea, why not build these for other people? I had framed houses and remodeled homes and done work in many trades, but there seemed few builders who specialized (at least in our area) in saunas. So I gave it ago. That was nearly a decade ago. Today, I’ve been fortunate enough to have built many saunas, from the rustic to the luxurious. 

All these years later I have come to see the value of the sauna like those who have it embedded in their cultures. It’s a place to relax, unwind, and rejuvenate. But it’s also a place of conversation and intimacy, a place impervious to the technical world which saturates our lives. It’s organic and human and quiet. 

I think of saunas as more than a hot room. A cookie cutter box tucked in some remote corner of a yard or corner of a basement. We see saunas as an integral part of your home, as valuable as any bathroom or kitchen or bedroom. Whether they are built within your house or adjacent to, their value is the same. Our saunas are custom made, and built as your house was—with intention, precision, and dedication. We tailor them to your design preferences, we build them not to stand apart from your home, but to seamlessly integrate into them. 

After years of experience, we understand how to build a great sauna. Our custom saunas are built to withstand the elements. We use thermally modified woods and Finnish designed lighting. We source our heaters, and most importantly their stones, from Northern Europe. We integrate technology only to aide in the experience, using mechanical ventilation when needed. We monitor the air quality of your sauna after its construction to make sure it’s performing at its peak. But above all we design our saunas as a place of quiet.

And though it has been years since that first sauna in the northern woods of Wisconsin, I can still see a memory of fogged breathe, the night sky flickering with each new heating. My skin still cools and pricks when I step into winter air. Behind me the sauna still smokes, as it has done for decades. Waiting to gift itself anew. 

—Benjamin