The Sauna Co.Design yoursSheet 402 · Guide
The barrel sauna for four, built in Gloucestershire
A four-seat barrel with a glass door, a seat either side of it and a meadow through the back window: the barrel on our homepage, photographed. This sheet sets the photographs beside the barrel as we draw it, and says what each part is for.
402.1 · The build
Staves, bands and a shingled roof
The barrel is one of our four sauna forms: four seats, drawn at 2.10 metres across and 2.40 metres long. In the photographs the staves are held by steel bands with tensioners at the foot, the roof is dark shingle over the top third, and the front is a full-height glass door with a vertical black pull.
Either side of the door, under the overhang of the front rim, a slatted seat: somewhere to sit with the door open and cool down without going back to the house.
402.2 · Inside
Two benches and an electric heater
Two benches face each other down the length of the barrel, so nobody has their back to the conversation. The heater is an electric HUUM: the steel basket of stones against the back wall is the drop shape HUUM sells as the DROP.
HUUM's manual for the DROP says that in a properly insulated room, with a heater of the right capacity, it takes around one hour to reach the desired temperature, and the stones come up to heat with the room. An electric heater runs on its own circuit from the house, certified under Part P; the heater guide sets out what that asks of a house.
Electric or wood-fired: what each asks of the house
The back wall is a half-round window. From the bench the view is the meadow and the tree line.
402.3 · The ground
What it stands on
In the photographs the barrel sits in two timber cradles on bearers, over a bed of sand, with grass on three sides and a path to the water on the fourth.
We lay the base before the sauna arrives and run the cable before the base goes down. The order matters more than the material; see what we say before anything is ordered, below.
402.4 · Start from this
If this is close to what you want
The configurator starts from the same barrel. Change the seats, the heater or the glazing and it redraws, and the drawing comes to us with your garden's details for a site survey.
Or tell us what this build gets wrong for your garden, and we draw from there.
Before anything is ordered
Electrical. A garden sauna almost always needs its own electrical supply, and running a new circuit to an outbuilding is notifiable work under Part P of the Building Regulations. It must be carried out by a registered electrician who can certify it, so you receive the proper paperwork. The exact cable run, board capacity, and protection are confirmed on site, not estimated in advance.
Base & groundworks. Everything sits on the base. The right foundation depends on your specific ground - how firm it is, whether the plot slopes, what's underneath, and where water runs - so we confirm groundworks once we've assessed levels and ground conditions on site, never from a photo.
Sheet 00 · Yours
Describe your garden
A few plain words is enough. The studio turns them into a first design, and we confirm it on a site visit before anything is built.
- Drawn for one garden and built once, to your space and the way you will use it.
- Designed and built from our Gloucestershire workshop. Installed across England and Wales.
- One team from the first sketch to the last screw, electrics included.