Kiwifruit grower's hybrid, Bay of Plenty.
Traditional sauna, infrared option.
Our client grows kiwifruit over in the Bay of Plenty and wanted a proper sauna on the property. He started out after a traditional build, but partway through decided he wanted the best of both worlds - so we fitted one end of the room with infrared panels alongside the traditional benches, giving him a true hybrid sauna he can run either way.
Inside it's lined in spruce, with abachi used on the benching - the old-school pairing that's been the standard for generations. Abachi has got harder to find the last couple of years and the price has gone up with it, but we still had stock on hand for this job and it's worth it for the look and feel on the skin.
Heating comes from a Virta heater with external controls, so it's easy to run from outside the room. The stones sit above the heater rather than packed around the elements, separated by a perforated steel plate - so the stones never actually touch the elements. That keeps the elements, which are a consumable part, lasting a lot longer than a standard setup.
One sauna, two ways to heat.
- Spruce panelling with abachi benching, the traditional old-school mix that's increasingly hard to source
- Hybrid layout, with infrared panels fitted at one end alongside the traditional benches
- Virta heater with external controls, for easy operation from outside the room
- Stones kept off the elements, sitting above a perforated steel plate so they never touch the elements, giving the elements a much longer life
The build, photographed.
Same seven stages as any other build.
The design and implementation stages progressed very much like those for any of our other clients. The only difference was the geographic distance and the logistics that came with it.
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