Guide

Garden sauna base, delivery and access: what to plan

The level base a garden sauna needs, what it costs, and how kits arrive: flat-pack, pallet or crane.

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Every outdoor sauna needs a firm, level, well-drained base, which we cost at £550 unless you already have one. Before ordering, measure the narrowest point on the route from the road to the spot: a side gate decides whether a kit can get in.

The base

Summerhouse24's cost guide puts a base at £300 to £800; we use the midpoint. Concrete, paving slabs or a timber frame on screw-in ground anchors all work if the base is level. Barrel saunas sit on curved wooden supports (cradles), and some sellers include them. Leave room around the sauna to treat the timber each year.

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How saunas arrive

kit: panels on one pallet. Steam & Oak's Solo 205 comes on one pallet of about 200 × 120 × 90 cm and about 500 kg, and fits through a standard side gate.
Barrel kit: long curved planks (staves) and two end walls. Usually two people for one or two days.
Assembled pod or cube: needs a clear path or a crane. Ask the seller before ordering.

Every sauna page shows what the seller says about delivery and installation, and the installation price where one is published.

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Before you order

Measure the route: gate width, steps, tight corners.
Decide where the cable will run, if electric.
Check the height against the planning rules.
Book the base and the electrician so they finish before delivery.

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Common worries

"I'm not a DIY person."

kits take two people one to two days. 3 saunas we list come with a published installation price, shown on each page, and some arrive built. Base, delivery and building →

"My garden's too small."

The smallest garden saunas we list take 1.20 × 1.20 m, about the size of a garden shed. No garden at all? Infrared cabins fit in a spare room, and a cold plunge needs less than a metre square. Saunas for small spaces →

All ten sauna worries

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