The Forestry Forum

Hello Forum, 

I'm looking at buying a nordic type sauna for the garden of a house at Lake Como which is 400m above the lake, so we get snow for some of the year and hot temperatures in summer. 

I've seen this https://www.bsvillage.com/sauna-finlandese-tradizionale-da-esterno-ares-2-5-posti-con-spogliatoio/24195/ and wondered if, being made of spruce, it will weather the weather!

Does anyone have any ideas? There is also one made of Ash, but the price difference is enormous. 20,000 euros compared to 8000 for spruce. 

Can any of you advise about the likely durability of the cheaper one? 

A sauna in Finland would most likely be spruce, and certainly not ash.
Most houses in Norway, Sweden and Finland are built with spruce siding, and when maintained they do fine.
A spruce sauna in Northern Italy should have an easy life (if maintained, of course).

It seems Lake Como is classified as a humid subtropical climate. However, you say you are 400m above the lake, so it may be a bit different at your height. 
Do you know what your overall elevation is where you wish to place the sauna? I'd guess maybe 600m? (about 2000 feet) 

I would have some reservations about the pictured sauna in an italian climate. There is a significant difference between the climates of Norway and Lombardy.