The custom sauna cost for a Bedrock build in Orange County, electrical included, most often lands between $30,000 and $40,000 for a 6×6 and $40,000 and $50,000 for an 8×8, and larger saunas start at $50,000. Each one is framed on site with rock wool, a taped foil vapor barrier and western red cedar.
By Bedrock Sheds | CSLB #1087479 | October 22, 2026
Want the number for your yard? Call (949) 688-2674 and we’ll give you a real range the same day.
Most sauna prices you find online are for something that ships on a pallet. That’s a fair thing to price, and it’s a different purchase from a room framed in your yard. So here is our range, what sits inside it, and what moves it, along with what the kits and national guides say so you can compare like with like.
How much does a custom sauna cost in Orange County?
A Bedrock custom sauna costs $30,000 and up depending on size, with the electrical included, in Orange County and San Diego County alike, with no trip charge in either. Here is where most of them land.
| Size | Square feet | Most land between, electrical included |
|---|---|---|
| 6×6 | 36 | $30,000 and $40,000 |
| 8×8 | 64 | $40,000 and $50,000 |
| Larger | Over 64 | $50,000 and up |
That covers the building, the sauna room inside it, the circuit from your panel, and the permit. We confirm your number in writing after the site visit. Every build includes the following.
| What’s in the build | What it is |
|---|---|
| Foundation | Poured slab or concrete piers with a framed floor, your choice |
| Shell | 2×4 Doug fir framing at 16 inches on center, CDX Struct 1 plywood on every wall and the roof, Hardie lap siding, primed and painted |
| Insulation | Rock wool, walls and ceiling |
| Vapor barrier | Full aluminum foil, every seam taped |
| Interior | Furring for an air gap, then western red cedar tongue and groove |
| Benches | Custom cedar, built in place after the walls are closed |
| Heat | Harvia or Huum heater with stones, your choice of brand |
| Air | Dedicated ducted vent, cedar louver high, intake low |
| Floor and door | Tile, concrete or duckboards; black-framed glass door or solid cedar |
Every one of those lines is in every Bedrock sauna. None of them is an upgrade. The full wall assembly, layer by layer, is in our custom sauna build guide.
What moves a sauna price inside its range?
Size sets the range, and the bench plan, heater, door, floor and site decide where in it a Bedrock sauna lands. Here is what we look at when we set the number.
- Size. A 6×6 and an 8×8 are different buildings, with more cedar, more rock wool and a bigger heater in the larger one.
- The bench plan. A single bench is quicker than a two-tier L-shape. Benches are built in place, by hand, and they take the time they take.
- The heater. Harvia and Huum both make a range of sizes and styles, from a floor-standing cabinet to a basket of stones. The heater is sized to the room.
- The door and floor. The black-framed glass door and a solid cedar door price differently, and so do tile, concrete and duckboards.
- Freestanding or shared. A sauna on one end of a shed shares a foundation and a roof, which changes the math in both directions.
- The site. Slope, access for the concrete, and how far the trench runs to your panel.
We’d rather put a real number on your yard than walk you through a menu. Tell us roughly what you’re picturing and where it goes, and you’ll get a range on the first call.
How does that compare to a barrel kit or a prefab sauna?
A barrel kit costs a fraction of a site-built sauna. National cost guides put a prefab sauna at less than half the price of our smallest room, and custom-built saunas in a range that overlaps the low end of ours.
| Option | Price | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Almost Heaven Watoga barrel kit, 2 to 4 person | $6,183, plus $1,400 and up for installation and $459 for a floor kit | Almost Heaven product page |
| Prefab sauna, installed (national) | $5,500 to $14,500 | HomeGuide |
| Custom-built sauna, installed (national) | $12,000 to $34,000 | HomeGuide |
| Custom-built sauna (national) | $15,000 to $50,000 and up | Haven of Heat |
| Bedrock Sheds custom sauna, electrical included | $30,000 and up by size | Bedrock Sheds |
If a barrel on a pad is the budget, buy the barrel. It heats, it holds people, and plenty of them last. We would rather say that on the first call than after somebody has driven out to measure your yard. What you are paying for with us is a square room sized to your space, a wall built for the steam inside it, benches set to the people using them, and a building that sits next to your house like it belongs there.
Where does the money go in a site-built sauna?
Most of the money in a Bedrock sauna goes into parts you stop seeing once the cedar goes up: the foundation, the framing, the rock wool and the foil vapor barrier.
The shell is the same building we sell as a shed, on the same slab or piers, with the same framing and plywood and siding. Then the inside changes completely. Rock wool goes in because a room running at 196°F slumps fiberglass over time, and our shed insulation upgrade is fiberglass, so we don’t reuse it here. Foil goes over the rock wool with every seam taped, because steam that gets past the barrier condenses in the wall and stays there. Furring goes over the foil to hold the cedar off it and leave an air gap behind the boards.
We photograph the taped foil on every job before the cedar goes on, and we’ll show it to you. Ask any sauna builder you’re comparing for the same photo.
Does the price include electrical and the permit?
Yes. Every Bedrock sauna price includes the electrical, and we pull the permit under CSLB #1087479. A sauna heater runs on a dedicated 240-volt circuit, and that circuit is the reason nearly every backyard sauna needs a permit.
Irvine’s permits not required page exempts a one-story detached storage shed of up to 120 square feet from a building permit, and it says separate electrical permits are still required for those exempted structures. A sauna isn’t storage, and it has a heater wired into it, so plan on a permit. When you price a kit, add the circuit yourself: national guides put a dedicated sauna circuit at a few hundred dollars to about $2,000, and a long trench across a yard runs past that. In our price it’s already counted.
Our saunas page covers the rest of the build, and the quote page is the fastest way to get a number.
What to ask any sauna builder is in our Orange County sauna builder guide, and the line-by-line kit comparison is in sauna kit vs site-built sauna.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a custom sauna cost in Orange County?
Most of our saunas land between $30,000 and $40,000 for a 6×6 and $40,000 and $50,000 for an 8×8, and larger saunas start at $50,000, with electrical included. The benches, heater, floor, door and site decide where yours sits. We look at the spot and the panel and put the number in writing before you sign anything.
What’s the deposit?
The deposit is $1,000, and it comes off the price. You pay it when you sign, after the site visit and the written number.
Can you build a sauna into the same building as a shed?
Yes. We’ve built one in Tustin with a sauna on one end and storage on the other, with two doors and two rooms that are built completely differently behind a shared wall. One foundation, one roof, one permit conversation. The combined building is priced at the site visit, since it depends on how big each side is.
How long does a sauna take to build?
The shell goes up on the same schedule as our sheds, one to two weeks from the day we start the foundation. The sauna interior adds to that, because the foil, the cedar and the benches are slow work and not worth rushing. Door lead times can add more. You get dates in writing before we start.
The short version
A Bedrock custom sauna costs $30,000 and up depending on size, electrical included, built on site in Orange County or San Diego County with rock wool, taped foil, cedar, a Harvia or Huum heater and a room that runs at 196°F.
If you’re working out what this looks like in your own yard, call (949) 688-2674 or email info@bedrocksheds.com and we’ll give you a real range the same day. Build once.
About Bedrock Sheds
Bedrock Sheds builds custom sheds and saunas on site in Orange County and San Diego County, California. Every building is framed and finished in your yard, with the same framing as the room you’re sitting in right now. No kits, no prefab. Brandon Radley Construction DBA Bedrock Sheds, CSLB #1087479, Class B General Building. Call (949) 688-2674, email info@bedrocksheds.com, or visit bedrocksheds.com.