Should I Have a Drain in My Sauna?
We bet you are looking to build a home sauna and you have everything accounted for. You have the right layout, the good materials and the right spot for it. But somebody told you that you needed to install a drainage system in it too. While some people say it is not really necessary. You are now at a loss and do not know which side to take.
Okay, let’s deal with the question. Do you really need a drain in your sauna? Actually, both of these people may be right. The correct answer to the question depends on what kind of sauna you are going to construct.
Putting a drain on a home sauna depends on a lot of factors. But in reality, in most residential sauna set ups, a drain is not at all necessary. If you think that drains are needed to clear the floor with water, then you can be terribly wrong. Drains in a sauna are not actually constructed for that purpose. Well, almost, but not quite.
If your home sauna’s floor area is always filled with water, you can be doing something wrong. For one thing, you might be simply using too much water than necessary every time you are using the sauna. The amount of water that accumulates on the sauna floor is usually minimal. And it is really much less than what you might have expected.
The reason behind this is that the water poured on the rocks is released mostly into the air. And that being the case, there is going to be a very little amount left to go to the floor. If any, it can be readily wiped dry with a towel. You can even choose to leave the patch of water right there to dry out on its own and that’s still fine.
But if you intend to build a commercial sauna house, you really have to put a drain in there. Why? It is because commercial saunas have to be cleaned on a regular basis for sanitary purposes. And for that reason, you have to wash the floor, the walls and the benches quite often. And washing would require vast amounts of water. This water used for cleaning, in turn, has to be drained out of the sauna floor.
This is the only time a drainage system is necessary. The floor drain would effectively rid the steam room of excess water due to cleaning. And cleaning is going to definitely be essential in a commercial sauna of whatever size and scope.
So as a rule of thumb, if you intend to wash your sauna more than necessary, then you can very well install a drainage system. Else, your sauna could still do even without it. Again, for a home sauna, you need not put in a drain. But you can very well do so if you really wanted. Installing one would definitely be an added convenience for you.