Satu went to sauna | part two
Plumbing works
Our sauna
building project is progressing. The decaying front wall of the shed is now
under construction.
We took all the measures we needed and headed to the local hardware store, Húsasmiðja to do some shopping. There are hardly any forests in Iceland, which means that all wood materials must be imported from other countries. We’re now waiting for our order to arrive, and we’re not taking down the old wall until the new one is finished. I have to say I am mildly disappointed as I was really looking forward to start swinging the sledgehammer straight away and bash the old wall into pieces.
Whatever the project is, I always try to do the most boring parts of it first. When it comes to sauna building, I guess this means doing the plumbing works.
At the end of the day, there has to be a pipe somewhere to get water into the sauna. There has to be another pipe somewhere else to get water out of the sauna. It’s good to start with the basics.
I must put a disclaimer here and say that if someone starts doing their own plumbing in their homes based on the experiences I’m about to share, I relinquish any responsibility for any possible damages.
Outgoing water flow
1. My husband and I went to find out where our house’s sewage pipes are located. We found a huge stack of pipes in the laundry room in the basement.
2. We followed the biggest pipe to see where it exits the house. Apparently here, near the floorboards in the laundry room.
3. A-ha! My husband said he’d guessed it right. Following his plumber brother’s advice, last winter during the more snowy days he had checked around our yard for places where the snow had melted. Apparently the spot where snow melts first is warm probably because there’s a warm water flow going under it, which means that there are some sorts of pipes running underground.
In Iceland a melted spot on the ground could also mean formation of a hot spring or even a risk of a volcano, but this possibility was ruled out. That’s all we’d need now – a volcanic eruption ruining our entire garden.
This means that already last winter my husband had marked down all the potential locations of the water pipes, and he hadn’t told me anything!
4. So we (I mean, my husband) started digging a hole where a potential water pipe might be running, and indeed that was where we came across the missing sewage pipe. The hole had already been covered up before I managed to rush to the scene with my camera, but here’s where we found the treasure:
5. The distance from this pipe to the sauna is about two metres. Thus, we do not need to turn our yard into a potato field. Now that is a relief, as growing potatoes is no easy task. I tried it last year, and the crop was, well, rather minimal. As you can guess by looking at the picture here, I only tried potato growing once. This year I planted tulips.
6. The next step is to dig a about a two-metre hole for the sauna sewage pipe. Apparently it’s best to dig the hole so that the pipes coming out from the sauna can be positioned to slant downhill towards the sewage system. Otherwise you might end up with turd on your doorstep.
When the digging is done, we’ll go and buy some pipe from Húsasmiðjan and call a plumber to do the installation and fittings.
Incoming water flow
Behind one of the walls of our future sauna is a laundry room from where we can with a little drilling and adjusting get pipes sorted to bring water into the sauna. I haven’t looked into the matter that well yet, but after some preliminary investigation I would estimate it will be no biggie.
Greetings from our Icelandic sauna-construction site
Satu Rämö
Comments
Comments: 3
Commented 15.06.2011 klo 00:50:00
Comments: 3
Commented 02.06.2011 klo 10:00:16
Comments: 3
Commented 23.06.2011 klo 21:53:46