Building a steam room at home


Building a Steam Room At Home
Smaller steam rooms are usually best because they heat faster and use less energy. Keeping the ceiling to 7 feet high, instead of 8 feet or higher, helps to conserve heat, too. For steam showers, 86 inches is a standard length.
Building a Steam Room At Home
Lee has over two decades of hands-on experience remodeling, fixing, and improving homes, and has been providing home improvement advice for over 13 years.

Bianca Asare is an Updates Editor at The Spruce. She has a strong creative writing background and hopes to continue growing in the lifestyle editorial space.
Updated on 12/04/23
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If you've ever enjoyed lingering a bit too long in a hot shower, you already have a sense of the pleasures and benefits of home steam rooms. Steam rooms extend the idea of a long, hot shower into a dedicated space that's engineered just for steam bathing. Steam rooms produce consistent and dependable steam while giving you a safe, comfortable place to sit and relax.
While there are many benefits of having a personal steam room at home, the rewards come with a price: installation can be expensive and regular cleaning is necessary.
Before you make your final decision, read on about the pros and cons, costs, sizes, and different types of at-home steam rooms.
What Is a Steam Room?
A steam room is a small enclosure with a unit that produces steam for steam-bathing as its primary purpose. The room is surfaced in waterproof materials like tile or stone, though it may include some wood elements.
Steam is produced by a generator located outside of the enclosure. Due to the vast amount of condensed water, steam enclosures have sloped floors and drains, much like showers do.
Steam rooms ease sore muscles, hydrate the skin, and relieve stress. When combined with some oils, a steam room's moist heat can alleviate the symptoms of colds and flus.
Steam Rooms vs. Saunas
Steam rooms and saunas both generate steamy heat in a small space. Otherwise, they are different rooms that address different needs.
Steam rooms give the user a moist and hot experience, with as much steam as the user wants. Saunas are more of a dry, hot experience with the occasional blast of steam when the user desires.
Steam rooms are not as hot as saunas, often between 40° F and 75° F cooler than saunas. The high heat factor is why saunas are built of wood. Wood is cooler to the touch than tile or stone. A sauna hard-surfaced in tile or stone would be unusable.
 
 
Steam Room
 
Sauna
 
 
Experience
 
Wet heat
 
Dry heat
 
 
Temperature
 
110° F to 115° F
 
150° F to 175° F
 
 
Humidity
 
Up to 100-percent
 
10- to 20-percent
 
 
Materials
 
Tile, stone, and some wood
 
Wood
 
 
 
Average Cost to Install a Home Steam Room
The typical range to install a steam room is $2,650-$6,050. With materials and labor, expect to pay between $22 per square foot at the low end and $65 per square foot at the high end, with $44 being the average. 

Pros and Cons of Home Steam Rooms
Pros

  
Low utility costs
  
Increases home value
  
Inexpensive to run
  
Saves on a membership to somewhere to use a steam room


Cons

  
High installation cost
  
Must be cleaned frequently
  
Requires regular maintenance

Types of Steam Rooms
For residential use, there are two main types of steam rooms: steam rooms and steam showers. Steam rooms are dedicated spaces that produce steam and will be more expensive to install, while steam showers are repurposed showers, typically in place of your regular shower, that can make steam and can produce water for showers.
Steam Rooms
Dedicated steam rooms produce steam but not running water. They are either rooms designed to the specifications of the homeowner or they are pre-built steam room units that are assembled on-site. Steam rooms have plenty of seating, shelving, and accessories.
A professionally installed steam room can cost between $22 and $65 per square foot. The steam generator unit itself can cost between $500 and $2,000.
Steam is a great sterilizer, too. Steam sterilization is nontoxic and inexpensive.
Steam Showers
A steam shower is a shower with working controls that also has a steam function. Because the size of the steam shower is fairly limited, the steam generator usually remains in the 4 to 8 kW range. Even so, the steam shower should fill with a soft steam within a minute or two.
Steam showers will have the usual ledges and shelves expected in a regular shower, plus one or two small seats. Prefab steam shower units cost between $2,800 and $7,100. If you're looking to install a custom steam shower, expect to pay between $4,000 and $14,200.
Where to Build a Steam Room

  
Shower Stall: An existing shower stall can be converted into a steam shower since water and drainage are already present at that spot.
  
Extra Bathroom: An entire extra bathroom can be converted into a steam room. As with the shower stall conversion, this project is aided by the water lines that run to the room.
  
Converted Room: For an even larger steam room, you may want to consider transforming an extra bedroom. While bedrooms do not have water supply and drainage, it helps if there is a bathroom on the other side of the bedroom's shared wall. The water supply can be accessed through the wall.
  
Add-On: The priciest option is to create a small room addition that is dedicated as a steam room. While this is expensive, it does allow you to design the steam room in any way you wish. Plus, this type of steam room will add value to your home since space is added.
  
Outdoors: For the feeling of a vacation on your own property, build your steam room as an outbuilding separate from the main house. If you've thought of building an accessory dwelling unit (ADU), such as a tiny house, bungalow, yoga studio, or gym, the ADU might be the perfect space for a small steam room.

Sizing and Spacing the Steam Room
Steam rooms need to be located close to their steam generators, usually up to 25 feet away but preferably closer. A dedicated 240V electrical connection is required for most steam room units. Many steam shower units require a dedicated cable with a 20 amp GFCI breaker.
Smaller steam rooms are usually best because they heat faster and use less energy. Keeping the ceiling to 7 feet high, instead of 8 feet or higher, helps to conserve heat, too. For steam showers, 86 inches is a standard length.
Steam room size also affects the type of steam generator you will need to buy. Reducing the size of the steam room can reduce the cost of the steam room by half or even more. For example, a 550 to 675 cubic foot steam room's generator costs between $2,500 and $3,000. Halving the steam room to a 250 to 450 cubic foot space brings the cost of the steam room to around $1,700 to $2,000.
 
 
Generator Size
 
Room Size (Adjusted Cubic Feet)
 
Estimated Cost
 
 
 
7kW
 
100-250
 
$1,500 to $1,700
 
 
 
10kW
 
250-450
 
$1,700 to $2,000
 
 
 
12kW
 
450-550
 
$2,000 to $2,500
 
 
 
15kW
 
550-675
 
$2,500 to $3,000
 
 
 
Is a Home Steam Room Worth It?
The answer is that it depends on your budget, space, and time to commit to maintenance and cleaning.
While the upfront costs might be daunting, the addition of a steam room will increase your house's value in the long run and provide access to spa-like amenities within the comfort of your own home.
Which is better, a sauna or steam room?
A steam room is not better than a sauna, or vice versa. Instead, they're different. A steam room is not as hot as a sauna and creates moisture in the air, while saunas create a dry heat.
How much does it cost to put a steam room in your house?
It costs an average of $4,300 to put a steam room in your house. Factors such as the type you choose and size will impact the cost.
Where can I put my steam room?
We suggest putting your steam room in an extra bathroom, shower stall, spare room, or outdoors. Alternatively, you can build an add-on.
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Источник - https://www.thespruce.com/diy-a-steam-room-5092163