A wood-burning bathhouse is a truly Russian bathhouse, which was popular back in Ancient Rus'. To prepare the steam room, logs were prepared and burned in the oven. But progress does not stand still, and gradually other options for stoves appeared: gas and electric. Of course, they are more modern, but most people still prefer a wood-fired sauna.
Construction of a Russian bath
Russian steam rooms were traditionally built of wood. Their main feature is the temperature up to + 90 Cᵒ indoors.
The Russian bathhouse consists of three rooms.
- The main part of the bathhouse is the steam room. A stove and shelves are placed in the room. On them, visitors enjoy hot steam.
- There is a tub of cold water in the washing room. Here they wash themselves after the steam room.
- At the entrance to the room there is a dressing room. It contains cabinets for things, a table with chairs, a firebox, and firewood.
In a modern Russian bathhouse, additional space is allocated for a swimming pool and shower.
Stages of lighting a stove
First, you should put things in order in the steam room: take out items unnecessary for the steaming process, remove all garbage, wash the flooring. It is recommended to carefully treat the shelves with an antiseptic composition using a brush. In addition, the ceilings and walls of the room require cleaning. At the end of cleaning, you need to open the windows and doors to ventilate the steam room well.
After preparing the steam room, you are allowed to start heating the furnace device. As a rule, the operating principle of each furnace has some peculiarities. But there are main points that are mostly the same for all types of such heating units.
Important! Ignoring the rules for lighting stoves often leads to unpleasant, sometimes tragic, consequences: carbon dioxide poisoning, heat stroke, and fire.
Before heating the sauna stove, the steam room must be in perfect order and the room well ventilated. Source termopaneli59.ru
Preparation
First of all, the remaining coals and accumulated ash should be removed from the stove. Then you can add firewood; for safety, place it at some distance from the firebox.
Stones require special preparatory work. When using a closed heater, you only need to rinse it lightly; in other cases, the stones need to be washed thoroughly.
When the bathhouse does not have a specially equipped shower, you need to check the tank for the presence of the required volume of water. It is important to remember: the water boiler connected to the stove must be filled. Otherwise, it may suddenly burst (due to the influence of extreme temperatures).
If the steam room is a separate lockable room, then the door should be closed tightly. Then open the doors or valves at the firebox, ash pan, or smoke vent. Next, the draft is checked: a candle is lit and brought closer to the stove channel. In this case, the flame should change its shape. In the absence of any reaction, there is a high probability of the chimney becoming clogged. Under such circumstances, it is recommended to climb onto the roof and remove blockages with a special cable.
For quick kindling, prepare the following materials:
- birch bark (chopped), shavings, wood chips;
- paper;
- four dry logs that easily fit into the oven chamber.
Next, the “seed” is prepared:
- Place 2 thin logs on top of the grate at a distance of the width of your palm (parallel to one another).
- Crumple the paper sheet and place it between the logs.
- Sprinkle in some wood chips.
- Place other logs on top (preferably diagonally), leaving a little free space between them.
As a result, the paper and chips will end up inside a stable structure.
Preparing the “seed” Source i.ytimg.com
Lighting up the sauna stove
After carrying out the above preparation, all that remains is to carefully bring the lit match to the paper. It is strictly forbidden to use any flammable liquids to ignite the stove. If you have slightly damp firewood, you can use a tablet of dry alcohol. It is important to follow the instructions included with it.
As soon as the paper burns well, close the firebox door. At first (due to the presence of air pockets inside the chimney) the combustion will be weak. But after just a few minutes, the draft will normalize and the flame will increase.
After closing the combustion door, it is advisable to listen to the sounds that come from the stove. A characteristic hum will notify you that the firewood has completely ignited. Otherwise, the kindling will have to be organized again.
Attention! The flood door must be opened slightly. Otherwise, the flame will go out due to lack of air.
Functioning sauna stove Source xn--80ab1bbeg6h.xn--p1ai
Loading firewood
After the wood chips burn out, the prepared logs should be loaded into the firebox. They should not fill the combustion chamber completely. It is important to leave up to 25% unoccupied space. Then well-circulated air masses will improve the combustion process.
First you need to put paper on the coals, and then place dry firewood on top: then they will burn faster. The fuel must be stored close to the door so that all the heat does not escape into the chimney.
The frequency of tossing wood depends on its humidity, dimensions, and draft in the heating device. If you close the ash pan almost completely and open the chimney halfway, you can speed up the combustion process. Then the pebbles will heat up even faster.
When the chimney pipe becomes as hot as possible, you need to open the chimney wider and temporarily do not add fuel.
Melting the bath takes about four hours. In winter, sometimes this process will take a little longer. On the eve of finishing the fire, it is important to check the presence of carbon monoxide: blue-green flames should not appear when turning the coals. When they still occur, the combustion process must be continued.
When loading firewood, a quarter of free space should remain in the fuel chamber Source pechiexpert.ru
Final stage
At the end of the kindling, the slide valve, firebox, and vent must be closed. Then ventilate the steam room for about a quarter of an hour, and pour boiling water over the surfaces of the walls to create steam. It is worth noting that you are allowed to steam in such a bathhouse immediately, but it would be better to let it steep for a while. At first, the steam is usually excessively hot, but after a while it becomes lighter.
After completing the bath procedures, the wet room should be thoroughly dried. Home baths are rarely equipped with an exhaust system. To dry the steam room, you need to open the door and throw a small amount of firewood into the firebox. Then the stove will become part of the ventilation. Under such circumstances, the moisture disappears within 2 hours.
The process of drying a bathhouse is considered complete if the flooring is completely dry Source zen.yandex.ru
Interior of a Russian bathhouse
The interior of the Russian bathhouse is kept in traditional folk style. The walls are built from solid, cylindrical timber or logs.
Waiting room
At the entrance to the Russian steam bath there is a dressing room. This is where people undress before procedures, get dressed after, and arrange gatherings. Here they set up a long table for a friendly company. There is a samovar and tea accessories on it. A refrigerator and TV are installed in the dressing room.
In winter, the premises are heated by stoves and electric heaters. They spend more time in a warm dressing room than in a steam room. Here they relax after procedures, talk, drink tea and other drinks.
Important! There are dressing rooms without heating; they are equipped with a locker room and storage for firewood.
Shower compartment
The shower room, or wash room, is equipped with plastic shower cabins. To ensure that the interior matches the Russian style, the showers are lined with wooden materials. 20-liter barrels of water are placed nearby, and oak brooms are hung on the walls. Huge tubs are attached to the ceiling and a cord or chain is attached to them. To wash yourself with water, you pull the device and the tub turns over.
The washroom floor is covered with ceramic tiles and equipped with a sewer drain.
Advice! The interior of a modern shower room uses ceramic finishing materials. The tiles do not allow moisture to pass through and are easier to care for.
Wood-heated steam room
The steam room is located behind the main rooms of the bathhouse. The area of the room is 5 -10 m2. Steam quickly fills and warms up the space in a small room. A mandatory attribute of the steam room is shelves and benches. They enjoy the steam.
A heater is placed nearby - a place where hot stones lie. Cold water is poured onto them until steam forms.
The walls of the steam room are covered with wood that does not contain resins: linden, aspen. These materials are safe and do not emit pungent odors or harmful substances when steamed.
The interior of the Russian bathhouse is shown in this photo.
Often the steam room and wash room are combined into one room. This is done to save space. This arrangement is not very convenient, but is acceptable if all temperature and sanitation standards are met.
Firewood harvesting
Often, wood for a bathhouse is harvested in February-March. After winter freezing, it pricks easily. In addition, during this period it is easier to recognize rotten trees. To do this, you should knock on each trunk: a ringing sound will indicate good quality wood, a dull sound will indicate poor quality.
It is also necessary to take into account the number of knots. If there are a lot of them, then drying the firewood will subsequently require a longer period of time. During use, they will not burn at the same time, since areas with knots burn a little longer.
If you have your own chainsaw, it is more profitable to purchase whole logs. If such a unit is not available, and there is no particular desire to chop wood, it is possible to buy it in a ready-to-use form. When purchasing, it is important to control the following wood characteristics:
- Humidity. The indicator should not be more than 25%. When it is below 20%, then firewood is considered even better.
- Uniformity. It is necessary to ensure that it is only one variety of the selected tree (not different species).
Important! Firewood prepared independently in winter will need to be dried for at least six months.
Firewood for a bath can be prepared independently or purchased in a form ready for use Source zapusti.biz
Russian bathhouse project
When planning the construction of an entertainment complex with a swimming pool, billiards and karaoke, it is taken into account that such a project has little in common with a Russian bathhouse.
Important! Unlike a sauna, a Russian wood-burning bathhouse is a place for water treatments and gatherings with friends over healthy herbal tea.
A real Russian wood-fired sauna
When developing a construction project, they take into account the convenience of the layout, the availability of necessary things, and safety.
Arranging a steam room is the main point in the Russian bathhouse project. The stove is placed in it so that its heat heats all the rooms in the building. Benches are placed near the walls, and deck chairs in several tiers are placed above.
The doors in the steam room are made 1.5 m, the threshold is 30 cm. This limits the access of cold air, the temperature in the room remains high.
Modern steam rooms use electric stoves and other heating means. For a Russian wood-burning bath, a stove with a chimney is installed. Maintaining the air temperature at the same level is more difficult, but a wood stove heats a large room. Traditionally, the Russian bathhouse is identified with a wood-burning stove.
Sauna with Russian steam room
In the Russian bath-sauna project, other rooms are planned, in addition to the dressing room and steam room. A popular option is a separate room with a swimming pool. In modern saunas, 2-level ponds are installed. The temperature in them is contrasting, due to which the body is hardened.
Large health-improving bath complexes house a gym, solarium, and relaxation room. Billiard rooms are popular.
Common Questions
We dismantled several sets of old MDF furniture. Is it possible to heat a bathhouse with them?
Technically this is possible and the MDF will burn. Such fuel will provide a minimum of heat and a maximum of ash. Please also note that when MDF burns, it will release phenol-formaldehyde resin. This is a very hazardous substance to health. Plus, the resin settles on the walls of the chimney and it will be very difficult to clean it later.
How to determine if the firewood is dry enough?
To understand whether the logs are suitable for burning, just knock them against each other. When dry firewood collides, the sound will be loud and clear (like from a wooden mallet). The suitability of a material can also be determined by its weight. Wet firewood is at least twice as heavy.
Is it possible to use coal in a bathhouse instead of firewood?
It is not recommended to heat a stove in a bathhouse with coal. This is explained by the peculiarities of its combustion: first it gives off the resulting heat, as a result the system quickly warms up, and then slowly smolders, maintaining the elevated temperature. This heating method is optimal for a residential building, but not acceptable for a bathhouse. In addition, coal does not give that specific aroma that is obtained when burning wood. The charm of the firebox is lost and turns into a simple procedure for warming up the room.
When is the best time to harvest firewood?
Our grandparents, who have lived their whole lives in the village, know that in order for the firewood to be dry in winter, it must be ordered in the spring or at the end of winter. Then they will bring winter forest. And the firewood will lie all summer and autumn and dry out by next winter. Such logs will light very well and burn without smoke.
Russian bath: photo
The traditional Russian bathhouse, heated with wood, has 2 varieties. They differ in the method of combustion: white and black.
There is no chimney in the black baths. All the steam escapes through the open front door and through cracks in the walls. The steam room and washing room are combined. The principle of operation is as follows: as soon as the oven heats up to the limit, close the doors and wait 1.5 hours for the steam to escape. The walls in such baths are heavily smoked, and the air is filled with the smell of wood. The advantage of such a steam room is the sterility of the room and great benefits for the body. Such a bath arrangement is almost never seen nowadays. A classic Russian bathhouse with a traditional black-style steam room has been preserved in remote, remote villages.
The white sauna is a classic steam room heated with wood. The stove is equipped with a chimney through which soot escapes. The classic steam room is found in big cities and small towns. You can enjoy the steam and improve your health at any time.
In such a wood-burning bathhouse, modern technologies are combined with Russian traditions and interior design.
A bathhouse on wheels is a new, exotic type of Russian bathhouse. The room is designed for 3 people, no more. The idea is new and original. A trailed sauna on wheels is mobile and does not take up much space.
Those who like to visit unusual places will enjoy this leisure activity.
Bathhouse with attic or balcony. Such a Russian wood-burning steam room is placed on a personal plot. The building does not take up much space, and its design will fit into any landscape.
Built-in or attached Russian wood-burning sauna. The building is combined with residential premises or outbuildings. Modern waterproofing materials prevent moisture from entering the house. However, the fire inspector will have questions about such an extension.
What kind of wood should you not burn?
The following cannot be used for a sauna stove:
- Lumber impregnated with chemical compounds.
- Boards covered with paint, as well as with traces of rubber and plastic.
- Rotten, rotten sticks and stumps. They burn poorly, emit a lot of smoke, and little heat.
Expert opinion
Lovkachev Boris Petrovich
Bath master who knows everything about steaming
It is strictly forbidden to use wood that was previously used on the railway in the bathhouse. To protect against rotting, sleepers and posts are impregnated with creosote, which is extremely harmful to human health.
How to build a Russian bathhouse
First, they draw up a project, think through the layout of the rooms, calculate the size of the building and capacity. Determine the choice of materials for the construction of a Russian bath. A convenient room layout is an important condition for creating a wood-burning bathhouse. Classic steam room arrangement: dressing room, steam room and shower. It is important to position the wood-burning Russian stove correctly. As a result, they get a rustic Russian bathhouse.
In modern buildings, compact metal stoves are used. Healing steam is obtained from hot stones. Under the influence of ice water, hot steam is formed due to temperature changes.
Important! The doors in the wood-burning sauna only open outwards. This is a mandatory requirement of fire safety regulations.
Place the bathhouse building away from living quarters and other buildings. A distance of 15 m is maintained. This way, the risk of a fire while firing the stove is minimized.
A Russian wood-fired bathhouse is located on the shore of a natural reservoir, with a convenient descent to the river. The path is decorated with decorative stone and concreted. In steppe areas, an artificial reservoir or swimming pool is built on the territory.
The quality of the soil on the site is the main condition for construction. Their composition, moisture content, and the depth of soil freezing are taken into account. Concrete blocks are installed on a solid foundation - this is the future foundation.
To build a Russian bathhouse with your own hands, choose strong, moisture- and heat-resistant varieties of wood:
- ash;
- Linden;
- aspen;
- oak.
The walls of the steam room are lined with pine and spruce. When heated, conifers release substances beneficial to the human lungs. This has a beneficial effect on health. Coniferous essential oils and the aroma of the forest give additional pleasure from vaping. These tree species do not absorb moisture due to their high resin content and prevent the development of mold and mildew.
The timber is chosen to be solid and straight. Lay it tightly, do not allow the formation of cracks, because because of them the temperature in the room decreases. Seal gaps with natural materials. It is unacceptable to use chemical putty.
Important! It is prohibited to coat the facing material with paint and varnish products. When heated, these products release toxic substances.
A frame log base for a wood-burning sauna is an option for those who want to save money and build a steam room in the shortest possible time. The wooden building looks presentable and is inexpensive. They make a frame bath from environmentally friendly wood and assemble it quickly, without the involvement of outside forces or the use of special knowledge.
Main characteristics of different types of wood
To figure out what kind of wood is best to heat a bathhouse, it’s worth studying the characteristics of different tree species.
They are divided into the following types:
- Deciduous . These rocks, in turn, are divided into 2 groups - hard and soft. The first group includes cheap rocks that quickly burn out. Representatives of the second produce uniform heat and burn for a long time.
- Fruity . This group includes cherry, apple, plum and pear. When burning, such firewood emits a pleasant fruity aroma.
- Conifers . To prepare firewood, two types of coniferous trees are used - spruce and pine. They have a low cost and yet have high heat transfer. The disadvantages of this wood are rapid combustion and the generation of sparks during the process.
