Saunas: Traditional & Infrared, Residential & Commercial

What a sauna is and how it works

A sauna is an enclosed, heated room designed for the controlled experience of dry heat. The body warms, the heart rate rises gently as in light exercise, and the result is a deep sweat followed by a feeling of relaxation and recovery. The sauna experience is the cycle of heating, sweating, and cooling, and it has been valued across cultures for centuries.

The sauna is a dry-heat room: humidity is low, though in a traditional sauna a small amount of water can be poured over hot stones for a brief burst of steam, called a loyly. This is what distinguishes a sauna from a steam room, which is a high-humidity environment. The two are different experiences, and a complete wellness space sometimes includes both.

Traditional and infrared saunas

There are two fundamentally different kinds of sauna, and the difference is in how the heat reaches the body.

Traditional saunas

A traditional sauna, the classic Finnish sauna, heats the air. A heater, electric or wood-fired, warms a bed of stones, and the stones radiate heat into the room, raising the air temperature high. The body is warmed by that hot air. The benefits are an authentic, intense, time-honored experience, high heat, and the option of loyly steam. The trade-offs are a longer warm-up time and higher running energy, because the whole room and its air must be brought to temperature.

Infrared saunas

An infrared sauna works differently. Infrared heaters emit radiant heat that warms the body directly rather than heating the air to the same extreme. The room feels less intensely hot, the warm-up is faster, and the energy use is generally lower. The benefits are gentler, more accessible heat, quick readiness, and efficiency. The trade-offs are a different, milder sensation that traditionalists may find less authentic, and no option for loyly steam. Neither is simply better; they are different experiences, and the right one depends on what you want from the heat.

Sauna styles, heat sources, and placement

Saunas come in several physical forms and can be placed indoors or out.

Indoor and outdoor saunas

An indoor sauna is built into a home, often near a bathroom or a home gym, for year-round, weather-proof, private use. An outdoor sauna becomes a feature of the backyard, a destination structure, and pairs beautifully with a pool, a spa, and a cold plunge as part of a wellness landscape. Outdoor placement also makes the traditional cycle of heating then stepping out to cool especially natural.

Barrel, cabin, and custom saunas

A barrel sauna is a distinctive cylindrical structure, efficient to heat and a striking outdoor feature. A cabin sauna is the classic rectangular room. A custom-built sauna is designed and constructed to the space, finished in the cedar, hemlock, or other sauna-grade wood that gives a sauna its scent and feel. Heat sources include efficient electric heaters and, for the most traditional experience, wood-fired stoves.

The benefits of sauna heat

The appeal of the sauna is the experience and the way it makes people feel. Regular sauna use is widely valued for muscle relaxation and recovery after exercise, for the deep sense of relaxation and stress relief that follows a session, for improved sleep, and for the simple, restorative ritual of unhurried time in the heat. The gentle rise in heart rate during a session is sometimes compared to light cardiovascular activity.

The sauna is also the heat half of contrast therapy, the practice of alternating hot and cold. Pairing a sauna with a cold plunge creates the full hot-cold cycle that wellness enthusiasts seek, and pairing it with a spa rounds out a complete recovery suite. As wellness becomes a priority for more homeowners, the sauna has become a genuine centerpiece of the modern backyard rather than an afterthought.

Residential and commercial saunas

A residential sauna is sized and built for a household: comfort, the right wood, and integration with the home or backyard lead the design. A commercial sauna, at gyms, spas, hotels, resorts, and wellness centers, is a heavier undertaking. It is built for continuous public use, with durable, easily sanitized construction, larger capacity, robust heaters rated for constant duty, and compliance with the safety, ventilation, and accessibility codes that govern public facilities.

Commercial saunas must withstand far more use, handle higher turnover, and meet stricter standards, so the materials, the heater capacity, and the construction all scale up. The underlying principle is the same in both settings, an insulated, wood-lined room heated to a controlled temperature, but the durability and code requirements differ considerably between a home sauna and a public one.

Pros, cons, and adding a sauna

The honest summary: a traditional sauna offers the most authentic, intense experience and the option of loyly, at the cost of longer warm-up and higher energy use. An infrared sauna offers gentler, faster, more efficient heat, at the cost of a milder, less traditional sensation. An indoor sauna gives year-round private convenience; an outdoor sauna becomes a backyard destination and pairs naturally with a pool, spa, and cold plunge. A sauna is a genuine investment, and it asks for proper construction, insulation, ventilation, and a correctly sized heater to perform and last.

A sauna is at its best as part of a designed wellness space rather than a unit dropped into a corner. WETYR Pools designs wellness backyards where a sauna sits naturally alongside the pool, the spa, and a cold plunge, with the decking, the layout, and the flow between hot and cold all planned together. If a sauna is part of the backyard you are picturing, designing it into the whole space is what makes it feel inevitable rather than added on.