What Does a Sauna Session Cost? Garden Sauna Running Costs
Running costs of a garden sauna: wood per evening, electricity per session, the costs people forget, and the habits that cut the bill the most.
Read →How Much Does a Garden Sauna Cost? Prices Compared
The price range for garden saunas is huge, and that is exactly what confuses people. The same sauna can seem to cost twice as much at one supplier as at another. Usually the reason is that you are not comparing like with like.
Our prices as a guide
At Saunacraft the price is for a self-assembly kit, and delivery to Ireland is included in the kit price. The stove is chosen separately. Prices include 23% Irish VAT.
Kits start from 2 690 €. If you would rather not build it yourself, assembly by our crew is available as an option from 1 390 €.
The stove is extra: electric or wood-fired, and with a wood stove you also need a flue. We give the final price of your configuration in the quote.
What really sets the price
Size, but less than you might think. The diameter stays the same and only the length grows, so the step from 2 m to 3 m costs far less than double.
The stove. This is the most common place to economise in very cheap offers. Always ask for the specific model.
A changing room. It changes winter comfort noticeably, because cold air does not blow straight onto the benches when you open the door.
Wall thickness. 44 mm is the standard. Thinner walls lower the price and also the sauna’s ability to hold heat in winter.
What hardly changes the price
Wood stain colour, towel hooks, thermometer, hourglass, ladle and bucket. These items cost very little and are handy for justifying a “premium package”, but they change the price of the sauna itself hardly at all.
Four traps in cheap offers
A price that excludes VAT while the competitor’s includes it. At a VAT rate of 20% or more, that is a big difference on a sauna costing several thousand.
A price without the stove, but a photo with the stove.
A price without delivery. A barrel sauna is bulky freight, and haulage across the country can cost more than the saving you were promised.
A self-assembly kit presented as if it were a finished sauna. Assembly means roughly two days of work for two adults.
How to compare properly
Reduce every quote to one line with five points: size, price with or without VAT, which stove, delivery to your address included or not, and assembly included or not.
Ask every supplier for the final price including delivery to your exact address. That single question clears up most misunderstandings.
Running costs
Exterior wood treatment once a year; with a wood stove, a flue clean once a year; after some years a new door seal and fresh sauna stones. Spread over a year these are manageable amounts, but you should know them from the start.
