Sauna concrete floor


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Old 12-29-13, 05:06 PM
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Sauna concrete floor

Not sure if I'm in the appropriate part of the forum but here it goes.

I purchased a house with an stand-alone sauna structure on the property. The structure sits on a concrete slab, and the actual sauna chamber has a floor drain. A drain is necessary because it's a "wet" sauna (Finnish style, I believe). It appears the builder had poured some sort of concrete flooring material over the slab so as to slope the floor toward the drain. When I pulled up the duckboard to dry it after my first use, I discovered that that layer had cracked extensively, pieces were missing, and water had seeped underneath it. Quite a moldy mess. So I removed that layer of flooring and I'm down to the concrete slab.

I could seal the concrete and leave it, although water would pool during and after a sauna use. If I went that route, what type of sealant would work best?

Aside from mixing and pouring some sack concrete to get a slope, might there be other DIY options? I've never worked with a sauna before, nor have I worked much with flooring in general.

Thanks.
 
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Old 01-01-14, 03:32 PM
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Can you post some pics? Rubberized flooring may work after you get the slope corrected.
 
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Old 01-01-14, 06:44 PM
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The duckboard is upright and leaning against the wall. What you see on the floor is the dust and fragments of the moldy flooring I pulled up. Some of that flooring is still there, underneath the wood stove. That part isn't crumbly and won't come up easily, so it seems the water didn't get that far back (since the floor sloped the other way, toward the drain).

What sort of material could I use to rebuild the slope? (doing a better job than the previous builder so as to prevent water penetration)
 
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Old 01-01-14, 07:56 PM
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Nothing is really water proof. You might be able to do another pour on top of what's there but it would have to be about 2" thick. A bonding agent might be needed. I wouldn't try to mix it all by hand. Maybe Bridgeman45 has a better idea.
 
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Old 01-04-14, 09:28 AM
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In order to slope the floor toward the drain, it would be less than 2" thick. Significantly less as the floor gets closer to the drain.

One theory I have about what happened before was that water penetrated underneath the pour at the spot where the pour tapered down to nothing near the drain. If that's what happened, it did so over the course of many years. The house was built in 2000 but I'm not sure if the sauna was built at the same time. Nonetheless, it's been there and in use for several years.

If my theory is correct, I can't help but wonder if this will all happen again in a few years if I re-pour and slope.
 
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Old 01-04-14, 02:13 PM
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It's hard to get cement to bond when the next layer is less than 2". That's why I mentioned a boding agent. As far as the sinking theory goes, there probably aren't any footings, so you might be right.
 
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Old 05-18-14, 06:09 AM
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Hey man,
I always love to see sauna's and how they're being built or how people decorate them. I built mine a few years ago and I had some similar problem. I decided to finally put a new layer on top of my whole sauna floor that's water resistant. But since it didn't look good in the end I covered it with wood and now the floor is totally covered and the sauna really looks much better than before. I have no drain in my sauna and my opinion is that you don't necessarily need one as long as you just poor the water over the stones (on the stove).
Don't know if this makes any sense or if it is of any help. But good luck! And enjoy the sauna
 
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Old 06-22-14, 10:25 AM
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I've been told that mine is a "Finnish sauna," which means it was designed for water use beyond pouring on the rocks. I do enjoy dousing myself during my time in there, so if possible I would like to maintain the drain.

Now that our cold nights have passed for the season, I can turn my attention back to this project. You mentioned you put in a waterproof floor -- what material did you use?
 
 

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