Proper Sauna Care

With very minimal maintenance you can keep your sauna room looking great for many years. The following is only a general guide.

Important: NEVER use a water hose to clean a sauna, as the untreated wood will absorb water and cause

mold, fungi, etc to grow fast and blacken wood fibers.

Saunas should always have vents for fresh to circulate. There should be two vents, or a substitute ½” gap under the door as an inlet.

Do not paint, varnish or stain the interior portions of your sauna. The wood needs to breathe (absorb and slowly release heat and humidity). Also, artificial finishes make the wood surface much hotter, create the possibility of harmful fumes from the wood sealer, and take away some of the “softness” of heat and  steam penetrating the wood. Finnish made Paraffin Oil Treatment Kit is a product that is tested and proven safe for sauna use to protect sauna woods from excess moisture and helps to maintain a clean sauna.

Door handles and floor boards are an exception. These two points of the sauna can get dirty easily. To make cleaning easier, you can safely treat the handles and floor boards with a good wood sealant or polyurethane finish. The door handles and floor boards are not exposed to the high heat as near the ceiling, that may cause off-gassing.

After Sauna Use:

Step 1: After you have finished using the sauna, use a towel to wipe any excess moisture off of benches

and prop the duckboards off of the floor. Leave the sauna door open to air it out completely. The

heat remaining in the rocks and wood should dry the sauna completely, and even can help dry down an adjacent shower area. For duckboard wood flooring, clean surfaces daily to weekly in public facilities or as needed. It is suggested to remove the duckboard semi-annually to clean the sub floor.

Step 2: The simplest method of sauna maintenance is to use a tested and proven safe sauna cleaner such as Sauna Clean (available from Finn Country Sauna). Sauna Clean is an environmentally friendly disinfectant, bacteria remover, and odor eliminator used by facilities with saunas and steam baths. With a hand brush and properly diluted cleaner, do a quick scrubbing of the benches, walls, backrests, etc. After scrubbing, ALWAYS wipe up any excess water   with a towel to protect wood fibers. Commercial saunas should be cleaned daily or weekly depending    on usage, and residential saunas weekly or monthly. This will keep your sauna looking great for years.

Step 3: If you get some dirt, sweat stains, or mold developing anywhere in the sauna (usually if step 2 is missed a few times) try the following:

  • Dilute a few cap fulls pf bleach with water and give a good scrub with a hand
  • To get the benches or sauna paneling looking like new, you can lightly sand with fine grit sand paper about once per year. It will lighten them more to their original

Step: 4:   ALWAYS wipe up any excess water with a towel to protect sauna wood fibers. After cleaning  the sauna, it is recommended to turn on the sauna for a session to help with properly drying wood fibers.

Any further questions, please send us an email, at sales@finncountrysauna.com.

Thanks!