Modular Saunas Are Changing the Game for Commercial Builders in America

The North American wellness real estate market is experiencing an unprecedented boom. From luxury hotel brands swapping traditional pools for thermal suites to the rapid expansion of urban bathhouses like Bathhouse NYC and Othership, the demand for high-capacity, commercial-grade saunas has never been higher. However, as developers and general contractors rush to meet this demand, they are colliding with a significant bottleneck: a severe shortage of experienced commercial sauna builders in the United States.

For decades, the default approach to sauna construction in North America has been "stick-built" — constructing the sauna piece by piece on-site. While this method can work beautifully for small residential projects when executed by a master craftsman, applying it to high-traffic commercial environments often leads to costly delays, structural incompatibility, and inconsistent quality. In response, the industry's leading operators are shifting their approach. Instead of asking local carpenters to figure out complex thermal engineering on the fly, they are turning to manufacturers who engineer and prefabricate modular sauna systems in climate-controlled factories.

This shift from on-site construction to precision manufacturing is not merely a trend; it is a fundamental restructuring of how commercial wellness spaces are built. By partnering with established modular manufacturers, developers can empower their existing general contractors, bypass the structural challenges of commercial framing, and deliver world-class thermal experiences.

The Knowledge Gap in Commercial Sauna Construction

Building a commercial sauna is fundamentally different from framing a standard room. A commercial sauna is an extreme microclimate, subjecting its structural envelope to intense heat, rapid temperature fluctuations, and high humidity for up to 18 hours a day. When general contractors attempt to build these spaces using traditional framing techniques, they are often set up to fail.

The primary issue is not a lack of skill among American builders — US contractors are exceptionally good at measuring, leveling, squaring, and executing complex architectural plans. The problem is a knowledge gap. Building science is actually well understood in the United States, led by experts like Matt Risinger and a robust community of high-performance builders. However, that knowledge rarely intersects with the highly specific requirements of thermal wellness. Many excellent commercial builders understand how to frame a high-rise, but they simply do not know how to go about adding a sauna to a commercial space with brick walls and steel framing.

Furthermore, the United States lacks a standardized certification for sauna builders. A review of industry forums and contractor networks reveals a consistent frustration among developers trying to find builders who understand Finnish sauna standards. Endemic mistakes plague US commercial builds: contractors frequently use drywall as a backing material (which degrades rapidly in high heat), and they routinely fail to include the critical air gap between the vapor barrier and the interior wood cladding, leading to rot and structural failure.

One of the most destructive and common errors is what the industry calls the "diaper problem" — and it is exactly as bad as it sounds. This occurs when a contractor installs a radiant foil barrier on the interior side of the sauna wall (correct) but then also wraps the exterior side of the stud cavity with a second moisture barrier such as house wrap or polyethylene sheeting. The result is a sealed pocket where moisture has no way to escape. Condensation builds between the two barriers, saturating the insulation and rotting the framing from the inside out. The damage is invisible until the wall fails. In a commercial sauna running 12 to 18 hours a day, this failure can happen in months rather than years.

Another critical point of failure in stick-built saunas is the fundamental incompatibility between commercial building materials and sauna requirements. Commercial properties are typically framed with concrete and metal studs. These materials do not work well with the mineral wool insulation, radiant barriers, and precise air gaps required for a functioning sauna. Metal studs conduct heat rapidly, creating thermal bridging issues, while concrete walls require specialized standoff techniques to prevent moisture accumulation.

The insulation itself presents a significant hurdle. In Europe, sauna builders frequently use sauna-safe PIR (polyisocyanurate) rigid foam boards, which provide excellent insulation and act as a vapor barrier in one step. However, these materials often conflict with US commercial building codes, which frequently require a two-hour fire wall (such as Type X gypsum board) between commercial occupancies. This code requirement is exactly why so many well-intentioned US builders make the disastrous mistake of putting drywall inside a sauna assembly. Without the PIR option, the best way for most commercial builds is a wood-studded wall with an air gap behind it — or a modular sauna, which is essentially the same thing engineered to perfection.

Builders do not mind following direction, but they do not want an art project they have to figure out on-site. They do not want to be responsible for the building assembly of an extreme microclimate, and for good reason.

The Stick-Built vs. Modular Breakdown:

Structural Compatibility: Stick-built struggles to adapt sauna requirements to commercial concrete and metal stud framing. Modular systems are self-contained, freestanding structures that bypass these compatibility issues entirely.

Material Selection: Stick-built contractors often mistakenly use drywall or locally available lumber. Modular uses thermo-treated or kiln-dried specialty timber (aspen, alder, spruce) selected specifically for thermal stability.

Engineering Precision: Stick-built on-site cutting leads to gaps in panel joints and inconsistent air gaps. Modular uses CNC-machined components with sub-millimeter accuracy, ensuring perfect air gaps and structural integrity.

Timeline: Stick-built takes 4-8 weeks on-site, tying up other trades. Modular takes 2-5 days of on-site assembly.

Accountability: Stick-built is fragmented across framer, electrician, finish carpenter, and GC. Modular has a single manufacturer owning design, engineering, fabrication, and quality verification.

The Modular Advantage: Empowering the General Contractor

Modular sauna construction fundamentally solves the problems inherent in stick-built methods by shifting the complexity of the build from the chaotic construction site to a controlled factory environment. In a modular system, the sauna is engineered as a complete, integrated unit. The walls, ceiling, floor panels, and interior components — including benches, lighting, and heater preparations — are manufactured to exact specifications before being flat-packed and shipped to the site.

This approach offers several distinct advantages for commercial projects:

1. Superior Product Quality and Precision

Modular manufacturers operate with decades of specialized experience rooted in building science traditions. Their engineering teams design each modular unit using advanced CAD software and CNC machinery, achieving a level of precision that is impossible to replicate with a circular saw on a dusty job site. Every bench support, ventilation pathway, and lighting channel is engineered to sub-millimeter tolerances. This precision ensures that the critical air gaps behind the cladding are perfectly maintained, and that the structural integrity of the cabin can withstand the punishing duty cycle of a commercial bathhouse.

Critically, modular construction is the safest possible design for a sauna because it eliminates the diaper problem entirely. The modular sauna wall has an interior radiant foil barrier to reflect heat back into the cabin, but the exterior side of the wall panel is breathable — not sealed. When the modular unit is installed inside a commercial space, the required clearance (often just 1 inch when space is at a premium, though 2 inches is standard) between the sauna's outer wall and the building's existing block or concrete structure creates a vented air cavity. Any heat and humidity that gets through the interior radiant barrier ends up dissipated in this vented space. The trick is making sure the space between the modular walls and ceilings and the structure is vented and not sealed, which is easy to do with a couple of well-placed vents. The system is engineered so that the building's existing concrete or metal stud wall is never part of the sauna assembly at all — it is just the room the sauna sits inside.

Either way, the GC and architect need to make sure the client knows the assembly will eat into interior space early on. There is no good way around that reality of thermal engineering.

2. Bridging the Knowledge Gap

Perhaps the most significant advantage of modular construction in the US market is that it empowers general contractors to deliver world-class saunas without needing specialized thermal engineering knowledge. The factory handles the complex thermal engineering, material selection, and structural design. The local general contractor is only responsible for preparing the base room (providing the necessary dimensions, concrete floor, and utility rough-ins) and assembling the prefabricated panels according to detailed instructions.

Because every panel is numbered and every connection point is pre-drilled, the process leverages what American builders are already great at: measuring, leveling, squaring, and executing a clear plan. Any GC and commercial builder in America, when partnered with the right team, has what it takes to assemble a world-class commercial sauna now, without special skills.

3. Accelerated Timelines and Predictability

Time is money in commercial development. A stick-built sauna can tie up a construction site for weeks, requiring coordination between framers, electricians, and finish carpenters. In contrast, a modular sauna arrives as a complete system. Every minute spent in the factory is actually a gain on the construction site. A large commercial modular sauna can typically be assembled by a small team in just 2 to 5 days, allowing the facility to open its doors and generate revenue much faster.

Predictability is a massive advantage not just for the timeline, but for the finished product. Having a builder give a commercial sauna a try for the first time is an enormous financial risk. With a modular sauna, you know exactly what you are getting. They come together in a way that cannot really be screwed up on-site (though it can take longer with an unskilled crew, an unlevel surface, or poor communication with the manufacturer). This is why having perfect measurements and executing perfect squaring and leveling becomes the most important job on the site.

How Modular Sauna Logistics Actually Work

One of the most common misconceptions about modular saunas is that transporting them is prohibitively expensive or logistically impractical. In reality, the process is well-established and surprisingly straightforward.

A typical commercial modular sauna is fully assembled in the factory to ensure everything fits together perfectly before shipping out. It is then disassembled, flat-packed into crates, and shipped to the site. The shipment arrives at a US warehouse or directly at the general contractor's loading dock. From there, the crates are offloaded with a standard forklift — no specialized equipment is required.

The panels themselves are designed to be carried by hand into the installation space, which is critical for urban projects where elevator access or narrow hallways are the only path to the build site.

Case Studies in Modular Excellence

The shift toward modular construction is already visible in the most ambitious wellness projects across the globe. The operators defining the modern bathhouse experience understand that factory-built precision is the best way to scale reliably.

DWILD: Engineering for the Hardest Commercial Builds

DWILD (DesignWild OÜ), based in Tartu, Estonia, has built a reputation for tackling the complex, highly customized commercial projects that other manufacturers avoid. Their entire team comes from a technical engineering background, and their approach is rooted in digital precision. Every sauna is designed in a full AutoCAD environment, providing DWG files that architects can drop directly into their master plans. This level of integration is critical for commercial projects where the sauna must align precisely with the surrounding architecture, MEP systems, and fire egress requirements.

DWILD's public sauna portfolio reads like a catalog of problems that would break a stick-built contractor. For a high-traffic commercial facility in the United Kingdom, where patrons frequently use the sauna in wet swimwear without showering first, DWILD developed custom bench substructures using aluminum and stainless steel to prevent the rapid degradation that would destroy standard wooden framing within months. For a project in the Swiss Alps, they engineered roof structures rated for 160 lbs/sq ft snow loads. For an Italian client, they delivered an octagonal public sauna with hidden under-bench heaters — a European commercial standard that eliminates the burn risk of exposed heating elements in high-capacity rooms.

What sets DWILD apart is their test-assembly protocol. Every single sauna — including one-off custom builds — is fully assembled in their Estonian factory before being disassembled and flat-packed for shipping. This catches issues that would otherwise surface on-site: a panel that does not seat correctly, a CNC-machined shadow ceiling that needs adjustment, or a glass curve that does not match the specified radius. When the crates arrive at the job site, the GC is assembling a system that has already been proven to work.

Auroom: Scaling Luxury Wellness from One Person to Eighty-Six

Auroom, also based near Tartu, Estonia, demonstrates how modular construction can deliver luxury at extraordinary scale. Founded in 2019 as part of the Thermory Group — one of Europe's largest thermo-treated timber manufacturers — Auroom has grown to 100 employees producing over 4,500 saunas per year, with 2024 sales of nearly $10.5 million and 98 percent of revenue coming from exports to more than 30 countries. Their portfolio ranges from compact one-person cabins to massive 86-person installations, with one of those giant saunas already shipped to the United States.

Like DWILD, Auroom also fully test-assembles their commercial units in the factory before shipping, a step that is crucial for ensuring on-site success. A prime example of their commercial capability is the Les Bains de Lavey thermal spa in Switzerland, one of the country's most renowned wellness destinations. Auroom delivered four distinct modular saunas for the facility, each with unique requirements for materials, temperature profiles, capacity, and atmospheric design. Despite the complexity, the entire project was managed as one integrated delivery — from engineering through manufacturing — ensuring absolute consistency across all four rooms.

Cedar and Stone Nordic Sauna: The Domestic Modular Pioneer

The modular revolution does not have to happen in Europe. Companies like Cedar and Stone Nordic Sauna, based in Duluth, Minnesota, have successfully brought the factory-precision approach to the United States. Founded by Justin Juntunen with a mission to host one million people for sauna to build more resilient lives, Cedar and Stone designs, builds, and installs premium modular saunas across North America.

Their approach proves that domestic manufacturing can deliver the same level of engineering rigor as European factories. By building their saunas in a controlled facility in Minnesota and shipping them as modular units, Cedar and Stone bypasses the on-site knowledge gap entirely. They have led and contributed to some of North America's most ambitious public sauna builds, from floating saunas to brick-and-mortar facilities to large communal saunas welcoming over 100 bodies at once.

KLAFS and Design for Leisure: The Complex Partnership Model

While manufacturers like DWILD and Auroom engineer their systems to be assembled by any competent local GC, other brands take a more complex, proprietary approach. KLAFS, a nearly century-old German manufacturer recently acquired by Kohler Co., produces some of the world's most advanced wellness equipment. However, their systems are highly specialized and require specific expertise to install.

Rather than relying on local GCs, KLAFS partners with Design for Leisure (DFL) as their authorized dealer and exclusive sales and installation partner for custom commercial hospitality projects in the USA and the Caribbean. DFL, a hydrothermal specialist with headquarters in London and Austin, Texas, handles the design consultation, planning, and expert installation. This partnership model — European factory engineering combined with an expensive, specialized US-based installation partner — has delivered award-winning projects at the Canyon Ranch SpaClub in Las Vegas and the Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills, but it represents a significantly different logistical and financial commitment than the direct-to-GC modular approach. It also raises a practical question for property owners: if something goes wrong, a specialized technician may need to be flown in, which could lead to costly downtime compared to other providers whose systems can be serviced locally.

The North American Bathhouse Boom

The influence of modular design is rapidly reshaping the US market. Othership, the wildly popular Canadian social bathhouse concept, recently opened a 9,550-square-foot facility in NYC's Flatiron district featuring a massive 640-square-foot performance sauna capable of hosting up to 90 people. The company has already served over 200,000 guests and is planning a 14,000-square-foot "social spa" on the Upper East Side for 2027. Notably, Othership's saunas have been built using modular designs by both Auroom and Cedar and Stone Nordic Sauna — a telling signal that even the most high-profile North American bathhouse operators are choosing factory-engineered modular systems over stick-built construction.

Similarly, Bathhouse NYC has expanded from its original Williamsburg location to a 35,000-square-foot, three-level flagship in Manhattan designed by Rockwell Group, with further expansions planned for Minneapolis. These operators are scaling at a pace that would be impossible if each new location required sourcing and vetting a local sauna builder from scratch.

The pattern is clear: the brands defining the future of American wellness are not relying on local carpenters to guess at complex thermal engineering. They are utilizing sophisticated, pre-engineered systems that guarantee performance, safety, and durability under the punishing conditions of a commercial bathhouse.

The argument for stick-built commercial saunas relies on a flawed assumption: that local labor is cheaper and more flexible than imported manufacturing. In reality, the hidden costs of stick-built construction — extended timelines, specialized labor premiums, and the high probability of structural failure due to incompatible commercial framing — far outweigh the initial investment in a premium modular system.

For architects, developers, and general contractors looking to capitalize on the US wellness boom, the path forward is clear. Partnering with modular manufacturers is no longer just an option; it is a strategic necessity. By embracing factory-built precision, developers can empower their existing general contractors, solve the concrete and metal stud framing problem, and deliver the authentic, high-performance thermal experiences that today's consumers demand.

Having an American consultant who knows the process on both sides of the Atlantic is essential. Whether you are an architect specifying a thermal suite for a luxury hotel, a developer adding wellness amenities to a multifamily project, or a general contractor who has been handed sauna drawings and needs a reliable manufacturing partner — SaunaNews can connect you with the right team. We work directly with leading modular sauna manufacturers and maintain a vetted network of US-based general contractors, sauna consultants, and installation specialists.

Reach out to hello@saunanews.com to be connected with recommendations, or use our project intake form below.
Start Your Commercial Sauna Project