Medan Polonia is the rare district where the houses are newer than the trees. Built on the lands of the old Polonia airport, five minutes from the city centre, it has filled with modern homes designed by people who thought about how they wanted to live before they poured concrete — and increasingly, that thinking includes a wellness room. Half the messages we get from Polonia are not ‘can we fit a sauna?’ but ‘here is the architect’s drawing, where should the sauna go?’
That changes our job in the best way. Elsewhere in Medan we spend our energy solving constraints: old wiring, tight rooms, moisture-soaked walls. In Polonia we spend it on getting details right — bench ergonomics, lighting that flatters cedar, ventilation you never hear. The constraint-solving still matters (this is still the tropics, and physics does not care about your postcode), but the starting position is the strongest in the city.
Here is how we approach the district as a sauna builder: what Medan Polonia homes make possible, which formats owners choose, what the build stage changes, and what the numbers look like.
Why Medan Polonia is the easiest district to build in
Electricity decides sauna projects in Medan, and Polonia mostly decided it years ago. Where the old centre’s houses sit on 2,200–5,500 VA connections that cannot feed a real heater, many Polonia homes were connected at 7,700 VA or above from the start — enough for a 6–9 kW Harvia with margin left for the rest of the house. When we survey here, the electrical chapter of the conversation is often over in five minutes. No PLN application, no waiting, no compromise.
The building fabric helps too. New construction means dry, dimensionally stable walls, proper damp-proofing underfoot and ceiling heights chosen on purpose. And because so many owners are still at the design or fit-out stage, we can route heat-resistant SiHF cabling, a dedicated breaker and an ELCB properly through the plan instead of retrofitting around finished surfaces.
None of this makes the climate optional. Medan’s air holds ~80% humidity every month of the year, so even in a brand-new house every sauna we build gets the full tropical defence: aluminium-foil vapour barrier, a ventilated air gap behind the panelling, and balanced intake and exhaust airflow. New walls deserve not to rot just as much as old ones.
What owners commission from a sauna builder in Medan Polonia
The Polonia palette, roughly in order of popularity:
- Home dry saunas. The core of it: custom home saunas at 70–90°C, panelled in western red cedar, Scandinavian spruce or thermowood, with aspen or abachi benches that stay comfortable against skin.
- Steam rooms. Polonia builds more of them than anywhere else in Medan, because a proper steam room — waterproofed, mosaic-tiled, ceiling pitched so condensate never drips — is far easier to execute when planned into the build.
- Infrared cabins. For second bedrooms turned gyms, an infrared sauna at 45–60°C and 1.7–2.4 kW is the low-commitment option that still delivers a real sweat.
- Combined wellness suites. Sauna plus steam plus a cold shower in one sequence — the format the district’s larger floor plans were made for.
- Outdoor saunas. Plots here are more manicured than sprawling, but where a garden allows it, a garden sauna cabin under a rain canopy makes a striking centrepiece.
- Commercial rooms. Polonia’s boutique hotels and clinics order commercial sauna construction built for daily rotation of guests.
Building at the design stage: what it changes
When we join a project before handover, three things get meaningfully better. First, services: ventilation intake and exhaust are ducted invisibly, the floor drain for a steam room goes exactly where the fall of the tiles wants it, and cabling runs inside walls rather than along them. Second, proportions: we can nudge a wellness room to the 2×2 m footprint that seats four people properly, instead of inheriting a space that seats three awkwardly. Third, cost: the marginal price of doing these things during construction is a fraction of doing them after.
Our working rhythm with architects and main contractors is well practised — we supply the technical requirements early (power, ventilation, drainage, door swing for 8 mm tempered glass), then arrive for installation when the site is ready for finishes. Owners get one coherent build instead of a renovation inside a new house.
If the house is already finished — no drama. A freestanding cabin needs no structural work, and installation takes 2–4 weeks with the mess contained to one room.
What a sauna costs in Medan Polonia
Benchmarks we quote from, all indicative until we survey your actual space:
| 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 |
| Outdoor sauna (classic cabin) | 80–150 juta |
| Commercial sauna (gym / spa / hotel) | from 150 juta |
The site survey is free, and the final RAB follows it. In the unusual case that a Polonia home does need more power, the PLN upgrade is paid at official PLN tariffs by the owner and we handle the paperwork. Heaters are imported Harvia, Sawo or Tylo with 1–2 year factory warranties; materials arrive via Belawan port within 1–2 weeks of the down payment. Running costs stay modest — indicatively 200–500 thousand IDR a month for a dry sauna used 2–3 times a week, 100–250 thousand for infrared.
Polonia and its neighbours
Distance is barely a topic here: our base in Medan Baru sits five minutes away, which makes Polonia surveys the easiest appointments in our calendar. Owners with larger garden ambitions sometimes compare notes with the cluster homes of Medan Johor, the city’s true outdoor-sauna territory; families in the newer, more compact estates towards the ring road in Medan Selayang usually land on infrared or mini formats instead. Reading a district honestly is half of recommending the right sauna.
How ordering works
- Message us on WhatsApp — with an architect’s plan if the house is still on paper, or photos of the intended room if it is built.
- Free survey. We measure, check your electrical capacity and panel, and talk through dry sauna versus steam versus both.
- 3D design + RAB. You see your sauna rendered in your room, with an itemised budget and the technical requirements your contractor needs.
- 50% down payment locks the schedule and starts the material order — typically 1–2 weeks to arrive.
- Installation: 2–4 weeks for a dry sauna, 3–5 for a steam room, 1–2 days for infrared.
- Test firing and handover with you present, then a 2-year construction warranty plus the heater’s factory warranty.
An honest word to finish
Polonia owners rarely need convincing that a sauna belongs in a well-designed home — they need the engineering to match the architecture. That is the standard we hold ourselves to here: hidden services, honest materials, heat that works the same in year five as on handover day.
If this sounds like your project — message us on WhatsApp and we’ll work it out together.