A lot of condo complexes, HOA clubhouses and apartment buildings have a sauna. Most of them were built decades ago, and it shows. The room smells stale, the heater takes forever, the benches are too low to get hot, and the wood at the bottom of the walls is going dark.
Tahoe Sauna Company designs saunas for these buildings. Sometimes that means renovating the sauna you already have. Sometimes it means adding one where there wasn't one before, in a fitness room, pool house, locker room or an unused storage room. Either way, you get a design package the board can review and contractors can bid on.
This page is for HOA board members, condo association managers, property managers, apartment owners and multifamily developers. Right now we're designing a renovation for a condo complex in Mammoth Lakes and a two-sauna locker room renovation at a Tahoe-area resort, so a lot of what's below comes straight from those projects.
Here's what we usually find on a site visit to an older shared sauna. If you recognize three or more of these, it's probably time.
| Scope | What's involved | Good fit when |
|---|---|---|
| Refresh | New heater stones or heater, controls, cleaning and sanding, door hardware, lighting | The room is dry and sound and just tired |
| Bench, lighting and ventilation rebuild | Everything in a refresh, plus new multi-tier benches, under-bench lighting, a real fresh-air intake and exhaust | The structure is fine but the room doesn't perform |
| Full renovation | Strip to studs, new insulation and foil vapor barrier, new paneling, benches, heater, electrical, ventilation and often a new door location | Moisture damage, mold, or a gas-to-electric conversion |
| New sauna addition | Framing a new room inside an existing building (or a new outdoor sauna), plus electrical, ventilation and finishes | The building has no sauna, or the community wants a second one |
Renovations are almost always cheaper than new construction because the room, the power and often the framing are already there. Our sauna renovation cost guide breaks down typical line items. Shared saunas cost more than home saunas because the heater, controls and materials need to be heavier-duty.
A home sauna gets used a few times a week by people who know how it works. A condo or HOA sauna gets used every day by residents, guests and renters who don't. That changes the design.
Shared saunas run for many hours a day, so we spec heaters rated for that (Harvia's Club line is one example), with plenty of stone mass for good steam. The controller matters as much as the heater. You want a run-time limit, a schedule so the room is hot during open hours and off overnight, and a locked or covered control panel so residents can't crank the temperature. Every heater we spec is listed to UL 875, which California's Mechanical Code requires (CMC 939.1).
Six people in a sauna use up fresh air quickly. We design a fresh-air intake near the heater and a fan-driven exhaust low on the opposite side, ducted outside. It's the single biggest improvement in how a shared sauna feels. More detail in our sauna air quality guide.
Clear, knot-free wood on the benches so they don't get too hot to sit on, knotty cedar or similar on the walls, and a tile floor with a drain where possible so staff can hose it down. Benches are built with removable sections so the floor and under-bench areas can actually be cleaned.
We size benches and heater output for peak use, not average use. For a busy building that usually means a bigger room, longer upper benches and a heater on the high end of the room's kW range. See the sauna size guide for the math.
A glass door or window so people can see in, an outward-swinging door with no lock, a guard rail around the heater, a clock or sand timer, and posted rules. These are cheap and they matter more in a shared room than at home. Our sauna safety guide covers the rest.
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This is where shared saunas get more complicated than home saunas. We aren't lawyers, and the final answer always comes from your building department, your attorney and your insurer. But here's what we flag in every HOA or multifamily design.
We can provide a W-9 and certificate of insurance for the association's vendor file. HOA and light-commercial design projects start at $1,500 and get a fixed quote after the intro call. See remote sauna design for package details.
Here's a typical example. The existing sauna is a 12' x 6'3" room with 8-foot ceilings on a concrete slab, with one exterior wall. It has a gas stove, no venting and no floor drain. The association wanted a plan it could present to the board.
The design covers converting the gas stove to electric (which means a new 240V line), a new heater and benches, two overhead lights, a thermostat built into the wall, new ventilation, and moving the door. Our Mammoth contractor partner did the site visit. If you're in the Eastern Sierra, see sauna design in Mammoth Lakes.
Working with an architect or general contractor already? We also do sauna design for contractors, where we hand your team the sauna details and you handle the rest of the project.
Yes. Most HOA and condo saunas we see were built 20 to 40 years ago and have the same problems: no real ventilation, a worn-out heater, low single-tier benches and rot at the base of the walls. A renovation usually keeps the room and framing and replaces the heater, controls, benches, lighting and ventilation. If the walls are wet or moldy behind the paneling, the room gets stripped to the studs and rebuilt with a proper vapor barrier.
Usually a clear scope, drawings or renderings, a heater and electrical spec, and a budget range. Our design package is built for that: a 3D model and drawings the board can look at, a written scope and spec sheet, and a materials list contractors can bid on line for line. We can also provide a W-9 and certificate of insurance for the association's records.
A sauna used by dozens of residents runs far more hours than a home sauna, so the heater should be rated for that. Commercial models like Harvia's Club series are rated for long daily run times, and you want a controller that limits on-time and can be locked so residents can't change the settings. Whatever heater you pick, it has to be listed to UL 875, and you should confirm in writing that the warranty covers shared or commercial use.
It depends on the building and who can use the sauna. Under the Fair Housing Act, multifamily buildings first occupied after March 13, 1991 (four or more units) must have accessible common-use areas. ADA requirements can apply when facilities are open to people other than owners, residents and their guests. California's Chapter 11A lists clubhouses and health and fitness facilities as common-use facilities in covered multifamily housing. We flag the likely requirements in the design, but the final call belongs to your building department and the association's attorney.
Usually yes, and it's often the best move for an indoor shared sauna. You remove the gas stove, cap the gas line, and run a dedicated 240V circuit sized for the new heater. Make sure the building's electrical service has room for it. A 9 to 15 kW commercial heater draws a lot of current, so have an electrician check panel capacity before the board commits to a budget.
No. We do site visits and build through our contractor network around Lake Tahoe, Truckee, Reno and Mammoth Lakes. Design-only work is done remotely, so we can design a renovation or new sauna for an HOA, condo building or apartment complex anywhere in the U.S. using photos, a video walkthrough and measurements, and your local contractor builds from our drawings.
Send a few photos and the room dimensions through our contact form, and tell us whether you're thinking about renovating or adding a sauna. We'll come back with scope options you can take to the board.
12 decisions that determine how well your sauna performs — insulation, bench height, heater sizing, ventilation, and more.
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