Steam in a trampoline! Tuija made a curved backyard sauna from an old trampoline and scrap wood
While recovering from cancer treatments, Tuija built a sauna in her backyard from an old trampoline. She had long dreamed of having her own backyard sauna, and since she couldn’t find any instructions for building one, she designed it herself. She carried out the construction mostly on her own as well.
A Tampere resident, Tuija Rapatti had long dreamed of having a backyard sauna. When it came time to discard the frame of an old trampoline, she decided to transform it into a sauna. Since she couldn’t find any ready-made instructions, she designed and built the sauna herself, following her own plans.
To begin, Tuija split the trampoline, which was over four meters in diameter, into two halves. The base of the sauna was made of thick planks resting on pillars, and the ends were made from panel boards.
“I didn’t put any insulation between the exterior and interior walls, although I could have. For the roof, I chose sheet metal on the outside and black-oiled birch plywood on the inside. The door is an old window,” Tuija explains.
“There’s plenty of headroom; even my two-meter-tall friend was able to stand inside.”
If Tuija were to carry out the project again, she would attach the sheet metal to the roof before installing it and oil the roof beforehand. The most challenging part was that she completed most of the project by herself.
“Thankfully, my teenage boys helped me at times. I built the sauna bit by bit; it took at least a month, as I was still recovering from intense cancer treatments.”
Tuija says that her friends have been amazed by the brilliant idea and how skillfully the sauna was built.
“The project was a success; this is the best sauna I’ve ever experienced! We used the backyard sauna in both summer and winter,” says Tuija.
