We started working on it with a friend of ours Rick Dirk, who has been doing tile work for many years. Rick helped us dig down 4" into the ground removing the existing crushed stone and leveling our base. He also helped us place the rebar (which is hammered into the earth about 2 ft.) in between two layers of cement blocks, arranged in a circular shape, helping to secure the placement of the blocks.
We of course left a space for the 55 gallon, metal drum, wood stove that we bought a conversion kit for, and we left a space for the doorway. Rob's brother Jeff came up and did much of the work on the stove with Rick that weekend. The wood stove ended up being Rob's birthday present that year, as it is what we needed most to get this project completed! We faced the door of the stove towards the outside of the sauna, having much of the 55 gal drum inside and just the face of the door on the exterior wall. This makes for easy loading and starting the fire without getting any smoke inside the sauna. We then added more rebar and bamboo sticks as we filled the blocks with cob to help keep the circular dome shape.
The chicken wire was added over the rebar and bamboo, then secured with wire. We then installed the cob, sandwiching the chicken wire between the interior and exterior walls. Yes, we made a chicken wire sandwich...
The mix we found worked well was one wheel barrel full of freshly dug earth, one wheel barrel full of sand and one bag of powdered clay that we bought up in Portland Maine. I found that filling the wheel barrel up half way twice was easier to move around then filling it once all the way to the top. We added these three things, then mixed them together with garden tools and added a light spray of water, just enough to wet the top layer, then we stomped it and rolled it from one side to the other with a tarp. Mixing everything on the tarp helped to keep out leaves etc and made it easier to roll the mix back into a ball and then we would flatten it out again, stomping with old boots was really the only way to combine the combination. We did this 3-4 times before adding the straw. After these things were mixed well, then we added the straw. Do not substitute straw with hay! You do not want a food source with seeds in your mix, it will sprout and grow, making your walls weak and when heated, can possibly create a combustion in your sauna. We cut up the straw into smaller portions and shook it out over the mix, covering it with one thin layer of straw, then we mixed that in. If we felt it needed a bit more straw we added another 1/2 wheel barrel. So we combined one wheel barrel of each part of mix, the hay was not packed down in the wheel barrel, it was fluffed up instead.
It started getting colder so we hooked up the flu and secured it between the rebar, sticks and chicken wire and started up the stove to keep us warm as we worked. It didn't take long to realize that if we wanted to be able to use the sauna this year, that we were going to have to do just the outer shell and finish the inside wall the following year. So, we worked on the exterior shell once we had the walls up about 2-3 ft tall. This made the side walls quite thick, (about 3-4") which helps greatly, in retaining the heat.
We installed stained glass and bottles as we built up the sides of the dome. The very top of the dome was the hardest to reach and Rob did much of the cob work there, since he is the tallest! We used blankets to cover the doorway and this worked for the rest of the year.
Just recently, Rob built the cedar door. It looks somewhat like a "Hobbit," door with the rounded edges on the top and it is short enough to have to duck under when entering, but allows for a 6'+ adult to stand in the center.
The first time we used the sauna was a neat experience, as we couldn't wait until the roof was finished, so we could see the moon in the sky as we enjoyed the steam. We watched it rise into the night sky against the light of the moon, quite a moment. Now the moonlight shines through the center blue piece of stained glass and looks very soothing. Crystals and herbs line the inside of the sauna for healing and cleaning. Some of these crystal were found in the earth while we were digging to mix the cob. So it seemed only natural to incorporate them into the structure.
We started using the sauna in Dec and had our first sweat lodge in it the next month. We somehow managed to fit 11 people in this structure for 4 steaming hot hours! We opened the door between each session. Then we had a pot luck after. We plan on offering our services in the local area, to anyone looking to build a sauna. The final steps in finishing are not done yet. We are planning to cover with a linseed oil to protect from moisture, then a coat of plaster wash with red iron oxide to keep it the red earth color. For anyone interested in having us build a cob sauna for them, please call us at SolScapes Design & Build, at 603-970-1080 Jenn or 603-540-2691 Rob
Jenn
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