Most owners who message us from Medan Baru start the same way: a photo of a spare room in a big old house and the question, ‘is this enough space?’ It almost always is. The old centre of Medan was parcelled generously — plots laid out in the colonial era around Jl. Sudirman and Jl. S. Parman left houses with the kind of floor area that newer districts can only envy. A disused maid’s room, a deep garage, a corner of a back terrace: any of these will take a two-metre sauna without the house noticing.
This district is also home ground. Our workshop and team are based in Medan Baru, which is why surveys here happen faster than anywhere else in the city, and why so much of what we know about building saunas in old Sumatran houses was learned on these exact streets. From here we reach any district of Medan in 15–30 minutes, but the projects around the corner will always feel personal.
Below is the honest local picture: why these houses take to saunas so well, the one problem that decides most projects here (it is the wiring, not the space), what things cost, and how a build runs from the first WhatsApp message to the test firing.
Why Medan Baru houses take to saunas
The first reason is space, and it deserves repeating. A proper dry sauna for four people needs roughly a 2×2 m footprint plus a place to cool down. In most of Medan that means careful planning; in Medan Baru it usually means choosing which of two or three candidate rooms deserves it. High ceilings — common in older construction — also help, giving us room for correct bench tiers and ventilation without squeezing.
The second reason is the renovation wave. A large share of the old centre’s housing stock is being modernised by the second or third generation of the same family, and a sauna slots naturally into a renovation scope: the electricians are already there, the floors are already open, and the marginal disruption of adding a wellness room is close to zero. Some of our favourite projects here paired a full house renovation with a cedar sauna where a storage room used to be.
The third reason is comfort logic. Medan sits at 24–33°C with humidity around 80% all year, and the pleasant way to take a sauna in this climate is from inside an air-conditioned home, in the evening, stepping from cool dry air into 70–90°C heat and back. The old centre’s spacious, air-conditioned interiors are exactly the right setting — a contrast most people only understand after their first proper session.
What we build most as a sauna builder in Medan Baru
Six formats cover nearly everything the old centre asks for:
- Home dry saunas. The classic request: home sauna construction running at 70–90°C and 10–20% humidity, panelled in western red cedar or Scandinavian spruce, with benches in aspen or abachi — low-conductivity woods that never scorch skin.
- Steam rooms. A steam room at 40–45°C and near-100% humidity suits owners who prefer soft, wet heat. It demands full waterproofing, a floor sloped to a drain and a pitched ceiling so condensate never drips — detail work that old houses reward.
- Infrared cabins. Where the wiring cannot be upgraded, an infrared sauna is the honest answer: 45–60°C, heating the body directly rather than the air, and running on just 1.7–2.4 kW.
- Renovations. The old centre’s speciality. We take on sauna repair and renovation of cabins built decades ago — replacing tired panelling, dead heaters and mouldy insulation with materials that survive the tropics.
- Outdoor saunas. Some Medan Baru plots still keep deep back gardens, and a garden sauna cabin under a proper rain canopy puts them to work.
- Commercial rooms. Clinics, gyms and guesthouses around the centre order commercial sauna construction — engineered for hours of daily use rather than weekend sessions.
The electrical question in the old centre
If a Medan Baru project stalls, it stalls here, so we put it plainly. Many older homes in this district still run on 2,200–5,500 VA connections — perfectly adequate for a household, nowhere near enough for a 6–9 kW sauna heater, which realistically wants 7,700–11,000 VA. That gap is not a detail; it is the first thing we check at the survey, before any talk of wood samples.
There are two honest routes. The first is a PLN power upgrade: the owner pays PLN’s official tariffs, and we help with the paperwork and coordinate timing so the upgrade lands before installation week. The second is choosing an infrared cabin instead, which runs happily within an existing 2,200–5,500 VA connection. What we will not do is wire a full-size heater into a marginal supply and hope.
Whatever the route, the sauna circuit itself is built to one standard: heat-resistant SiHF cabling, a dedicated breaker and an ELCB residual-current device. Old houses often carry old wiring, and a sauna is precisely the wrong place to discover its limits.
Humidity, old walls and ventilation
Medan’s year-round ~80% humidity is the quiet enemy of every sauna in this city, and older masonry holds moisture longer than new construction. Our answer is the same discipline on every build: an aluminium-foil vapour barrier behind the panelling, a ventilated air gap so the wall behind the cabin can breathe, and dedicated intake and exhaust airflow. Skip any of these and a beautiful cedar interior turns to mould and rot within 2–3 years — we have renovated enough failed saunas in this district to say so with confidence.
Safety details get the same attention: a guard rail around the heater, 8 mm tempered glass in doors, and a contractual handover that includes a full test firing with you present.
What sauna construction in Medan Baru costs
Benchmarks we quote from, all indicative until we have seen your room and your meter:
| Project | Indicative price (IDR) |
|---|---|
| Custom home dry sauna 2×2 m (up to 4 people) | 60–120 juta |
| Economy build, combined materials | from 40 juta |
| Mini / prefab sauna, supplied and installed | 15–35 juta |
| Infrared cabin (1–2 people) | 30–70 juta |
| Steam room 2×2 m, turnkey | 50–100 juta |
| Sauna renovation (typical scope) | 15–50 juta |
| Harvia heater replacement 6–9 kW, installed | 15–35 juta |
The survey is free, and the final RAB comes only after it — old houses hide surprises, and we would rather price yours than an average one. A PLN upgrade, if needed, is paid at PLN tariffs by the owner. Running costs are modest: an indicative 200–500 thousand IDR per month for a dry sauna used 2–3 times a week. Imported cedar and Harvia, Sawo or Tylo heaters arrive via Belawan port from Jakarta or Surabaya warehouses in 1–2 weeks, with 1–2 year manufacturer warranties and spare parts we keep in stock.
Our base, your neighbourhood
Working from Medan Baru puts the whole city within easy reach. Five minutes east, the modern estates of Medan Polonia order saunas at the construction stage, often with the electrical capacity already in place. To the south, the garden clusters of Medan Johor are the city’s natural home for outdoor sauna cabins. Along the ring road, the compact newer homes of Medan Selayang lean towards infrared cabins and mini saunas. Same team, same materials, different houses — which is exactly why every project starts with a survey rather than a template.
How ordering works
- Message us on WhatsApp with your address in Medan Baru, a few photos of the candidate room and a note on how many people will use the sauna.
- Free survey. We come to you — usually within days, since this is our home district — measure the space and check your electrical panel and VA capacity.
- 3D design + RAB. You receive a visual of your actual sauna and an itemised budget, with the electrical route (PLN upgrade or infrared) settled honestly on paper.
- 50% down payment confirms the project and triggers the material order — imported wood and heater typically land within 1–2 weeks.
- Installation, 2–4 weeks for a typical home sauna, kept tidy — we work inside occupied family homes here every month.
- Test firing and handover, then a 2-year warranty on the construction and the manufacturer’s factory warranty on the heater.
An honest word to finish
Medan Baru rewards patience. The houses are worth the care, the rooms are big enough to do things properly, and the only real obstacle — old wiring — is solvable with paperwork or the right choice of format. If you are already renovating, this is the cheapest moment you will ever have to add a sauna; if you are not, the build is still a contained, four-week affair.
If this sounds like your project — message us on WhatsApp and we’ll work it out together.