Michigan’s Sauna Experts
ABOUT Sauna bath coWhy choose Sauna Bath Co for your sauna? As a Michigan licensed and insured builder with decades of expertise as second-generation sauna builders, we have a commitment to well-built authentic saunas. Sauna Bath Co. has built a reputation as the go-to provider for high quality indoor and outdoor sauna solutions throughout Michigan.
Meet Dan, The Sauna Man
Our story begins in Cokato, Minnesota, home to the oldest still-standing sauna in the United States, the historic Barberg–Selvälä–Salmonson Savu Sauna. This sauna is a testament to the culture of the many Finnish immigrants who settled in the area in the late 1800s. For us, sauna culture isn’t a trend—it’s a way of life.
Our founder, Dan Raisanen, affectionately known as “Dan the Sauna Man,” grew up immersed in the world of saunas. All of Dan’s great-grandparents immigrated to the U.S. from Finland and passed along the love of saunas. As a toddler, he raided candy jars at his father Keith’s sauna company, Sauna360 (frequently known as Saunatec and Finnleo). In the early 1980’s, long before saunas became widely known throughout the US, Keith began importing Finnish-made sauna heaters and building saunas in Cokato. Through a love and passion for saunas, Keith’s company grew to be the largest sauna company North America. The industry has grown immensely since these early days as a “sauna pioneer” and we are proud to continue to serve our sauna customers with the same love of saunas and bend over backward customer support.
From the years spent working in the woodshop, office, and in the field across the U.S., Canada, and Europe, Dan developed a deep appreciation for the different ways people enjoy the sauna experience. Having been apart of over a thousand sauna projects, it continues to be a great joy to be able to improve people’s lives through providing a great sauna experience for customers. Dan and the rest of the staff at Sauna Bath Co enjoy working with customers throughout Michigan providing local, hands-on sauna services. From a Detroit sports arena commercial sauna to an outdoor sauna on the shores of Traverse City, every sauna is unique and we want to help design and build a high quality sauna that will be enjoyed for generations.
It was the family cabin on Lake Superior in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula that left the most lasting impression on how great the sauna experience can be. Surrounded by nature’s beauty, a wood-burning sauna tucked into a cove, crystal-clear water, starry skies, northern lights, and the rhythm of waves, those memories shaped what we believe the sauna should be: a place to reconnect, reflect, and recharge.
Frequently Asked Questions
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When a sauna is professionally designed and built, there isn’t a significant difference in the interior environment between an indoor and outdoor sauna. Both generally start around 40 square feet and utilize the same premium materials and heaters. The true difference lies in the experience before and after using the sauna.
The Outdoor Sauna: A Sensory Retreat The beauty of an outdoor sauna is the deeply traditional, restorative process. It engages all your senses from feeling the brisk outside air, stepping into the intense heat, and then cooling down in a lake, pool, or cold plunge while listening to nature under the stars. Cooling down in water provides an unmatched endorphin rush, making an outdoor cold plunge a highly recommended addition if a natural body of water isn't nearby.
Considerations: When done correctly, outdoor saunas can be a larger investment. Because they must withstand the elements, they are essentially built like a tiny home—requiring a solid pad, framing, insulation, roofing, siding, etc. Wood-burning requires procuring and planning dry firewood and electrical heaters require underground wiring to be run.
The Indoor Sauna: Unmatched Convenience An advantage of an indoor sauna is its ultimate accessibility and convenience. By utilizing the existing walls of your home, it is a highly efficient project that keeps you just steps away from your shower. Picture a 6:00 AM post-workout routine: you turn on the sauna via an app, finish your workout, step straight into 180°F heat, and finish with a quick shower to conquer the day. In the evening, it’s the perfect wind-down to have a relaxing sauna routine all in the comforts of your home. You may be getting home late from the airport and nothing sounds better than a hot sauna before going to bed. The convenience of turning the sauna on remotely so it is hot when you get home and ending the long, busy day with a sauna before climbing into the sheets leads to a quality, deep sleep.
The Ultimate Setup At Sauna Bath Co., we love building both and our employees use and have indoor saunas, outdoor saunas, and wood-burning and electric saunas. We know how to maximize the experience for either space. But what is the ultimate for our team of daily sauna users if we could build the dream setup? A smaller indoor sauna for daily convenience, paired with a larger outdoor sauna for when proper time permits to have a longer sauna session, for hosting friends, and fully immersing in the traditional sauna lifestyle.
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The heater is the heart and soul of your sauna. Choosing the right one is a critical decision, and proper sizing is always our first step. We calculate and consider the cubic footage, glass coverage, stone walls, ceiling height, and whether the build is indoors or outdoors and residential or commercial.
What Sets a Quality Heater Apart? While all UL-listed electric heaters can reach the same temperatures, the true difference lies in component quality, design, and rock capacity.
Deep Rock Mass: We exclusively specify heaters with a deep rock cavity, holding anywhere from 150 lbs to over 600 lbs of stone for large wood-burning stoves. Shallow trays produce a harsh, uncomfortable heat, whereas a deep rock mass creates a soft, enveloping, and high-quality steam.
Trusted Finnish Brands: We partner with the most reputable manufacturers, including Iki, Helo, Finnleo, and Harvia. These heaters are crafted in Finland, built to withstand extreme elements, and backed by strong warranties.
Our Top Heaters:
Iki for a rock tower heater with a huge rock mass.
Finnleo Laava or Helo Pro for a commercial heater or large residential.
Finnleo or Helo Designer SL2 for a wall-mounted replacement heater.
McCoy Heater Replacements For our Michigan clients, there are still many McCoy sauna heaters in use today. While McCoy Sauna & Steam went out of business in 2014, our personal history with the company makes us uniquely qualified to provide compatible heater replacements—making your classic sauna feel brand new again.
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Sauna Bath Co. is 100% locally owned and operated where we design, build, and install custom saunas throughout Lower Michigan.
Our business is based in Orchard Lake in the Metro Detroit area and our production shop is centrally located in Howell, MI. Howell serves as our operational hub and shop where we build saunas, warehouse parts and supplies, and dispatch our installation teams. From there, we travel across the state to bring authentic sauna experiences to our clients.
Our primary service areas include:
Southeast Michigan & Metro Detroit: Including Orchard Lake, Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, Ann Arbor, Northville, and the surrounding suburbs.
West Michigan: Covering the greater Grand Rapids area and surrounding communities of Ada, Kentwood, Hudsonville, Grand Haven, Holland, and Saugatuck.
Northern Michigan & The Shoreline: Extending all the way up the Lake Michigan coast to Traverse City, Charlevoix, and Petoskey.
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We are a full service sauna company. From a turn-key custom sauna project to replacing an old sauna heater, we are here to support all things sauna.
Our core business at Sauna Bath Co is designing, building, and installing custom saunas. We see far too often the poorly designed and built saunas across Michigan when they are done without the know-how and understanding of how a proper sauna should be. Improper materials and poor heater decisions are made. However, the biggest faults and errors we consistently see relate to ceiling heights, bench heights, ventilation, lighting, and overall footprint and layout for the space.
A custom sauna is an investment in health and wellness but it is also important the fundamentals are met to ensure it is a safe and quality experience. It is a huge disappointment for us to see saunas built that are improperly designed and built because it leads to a underwhelming and detrimental sauna experience compared to what it could be. At Sauna Bath Co we want everyone to have the best sauna experience and be completely fulfilled as the sauna lifestyle is one that is life-altering.
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Getting started is easy—simply reach out to us via our contact page or give us a call to begin the conversation. Because every project is unique, our onboarding process depends on your specific needs:
For Homeowners: We start by discussing your vision and property details. Next, we will schedule an in-person site visit to evaluate your space and begin designing an incredible custom sauna setup tailored to your lifestyle.
For Builders & Designers: We typically kick off the discussion by reviewing your initial floor plans. Bringing us in early in the design phase is crucial; it allows us to recommend key sauna fundamentals right from the start, ensuring a seamless and efficient build process.
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The terms “wet sauna” and “dry sauna” are often used by people outside the industry, but they can cause a lot of confusion. Some people use "wet sauna" to describe a steam room, while others mean a traditional sauna or a “hot rocks sauna”. Similarly, "dry sauna" is often used to describe an infrared room but some mean a traditional sauna.
To make sure you get exactly the experience you are looking for, we don’t use the terms "wet" or "dry." Instead, we categorize heat bathing by its three proper names:
Traditional Sauna: This is a wood-lined room (built indoors or outdoors) featuring tiered benches and a heater filled with rocks. The temperature typically ranges from 160°F to 190°F. You have full control over the humidity by ladling water over the hot rocks to create an enveloping steam. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “sauna” as “A Finnish steam bath in which the steam is provided by water thrown on hot stones; also: a bathouse or room used for such a bath.”
Infrared Room: Often called an "infrared sauna," we prefer the term "infrared room" because it does not use a rock heater and cannot produce steam as the sauna definition defines it. It uses specialized panels to emit radiant heat. Built exclusively indoors in Michigan, these rooms are smaller in size, operate at a lower temperature—typically 130°F to 140°F—and are completely dry.
Steam Room: Unlike a wood-lined sauna, a steam room is a fully tiled space, often incorporated into a walk-in shower setting. A steam generator pumps vapor into the room, creating an environment with nearly 100% humidity at a much lower ambient temperature of around 110°F.
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The sauna heater will run on a dedicated 240v single-phase circuit hardwired directly to your electrical panel. The most common sauna heater size range for a residential sauna is 6kw to 9kw. This range requires a 30-amp to 50-amp double-pole breaker. You must use copper wire only to mitigate heat expansion risks.
It can vary based on the heater manufacturer, but for the majority of sauna heaters we install in Michigan, a dedicated 240v line runs from the main electrical panel to the external sauna control box. A second 240v line is then hardwired from the control box directly into the heater. There are some heaters, such as Saunum, where there is no external control box and it is only hardwired directly to the heater.
We only use UL-certified sauna heaters. We determine the proper heater size based on cubic footage, how much glass is used, and indoor vs outdoor. The controllers we use are Wi-Fi enabled where the sauna can be operated remotely via an app.
