Sauna flooring

[gas]

Hi all.

I live on a really old farm in Switzerland (The house is over 200 years old). My girlfriend and I want to build a sauna/banya/sweat lodge type hting on the land. We thought this looked great:

- Does anyone have a guess what they used for the exterior of the structure? It rains a lot in switzerland, so it should really be water resistant.

- what about the floor? I'm guessing the thing they built has a dirt floor. I'd kinda like to be able to splash water around without worrying about mud. I guess wood on the ground would rot...

Do any of you have any links/ebooks/suggestions/ideas regarding building your own outdoor sauna?

[RicodJour]

It's ferrocement - wire mesh covered with a cement mortar, then finished with what appears to be stucco.

This video shows a pretty simple way to do it.

There are a number of videos on YouTube, and do a Google. You'll find lots of information.

R

[beecrofter]

Looks like they mixed cement and pigment into making the floor.

There are structures made by stacking rounds of wood and mortaring them together that may work for you, also look into cob construction. There is no good reason to build anything with wood in direct contact with the ground.

[gas]

Thanks for the useful information. I did start with a google search (that's how I came up with the link I posted), but came up with too many unrelated, unspecific, or commercial results. But now I have some other terms I can put in my search.

The ferrocement seems like a good idea, but I have to talk to the family about whether or not they mind doing something so permanent.

G.