Southside Sauna Builder

Shared buildings and landmark houses on the Southside

Southside is the busiest part of Berkeley, the blocks between campus and Dwight Way on either side of Telegraph Avenue. It holds apartment buildings, student co-ops, Greek houses and churches, along with some fine First Bay Tradition architecture, including landmark buildings by Bernard Maybeck and Julia Morgan. Single-family backyards are rare, and most of our work here happens inside shared buildings.

That makes commercial saunas the most common request. Gyms, yoga studios and residential buildings want a room for members or tenants, and those rooms must meet commercial code: heaters rated for long daily use, controls out of reach of users, emergency lighting, an accessible layout where required, and ventilation sized for heavy traffic. The City of Berkeley reviews those plans more closely than a house project, and fire officials will want to see the heater clearances.

Wet rooms are the other frequent job. A steam room in a fitness studio or an upscale apartment remodel needs a waterproof shell, a sloped ceiling and a generator sized for both the room volume and the tile, since stone and tile soak up far more heat than wood. Our steam saunas get a continuous waterproof membrane and a sealed glass door. EBMUD water is soft, which is kind to a generator, but we still fit an auto-drain so sediment does not build up in the tank.

Landmark buildings raise their own questions. Exterior changes on designated properties go to the Landmarks Preservation Commission, and even interior work in a Maybeck or Morgan house deserves a light touch. In those rooms we build the sauna as a freestanding box fastened in only a few places, so it can come out later without harming original redwood paneling or plaster.

Access takes planning. Parking is metered or permit-only, loading zones are busy, and many buildings have one small elevator or none. We book deliveries early, cut wall sections to fit the stairwells, and agree on work hours with property managers so tenants and members are not disturbed during study weeks. For co-ops and small buildings on a tight budget, a pair of infrared cabinets in a common room can be a sensible first step. They need far less electrical work than a stone-heated room, they can be moved if the space is reassigned, and they cope well with a long line of different users through the day.