There are various different types of woods available for use in the infrared saunas. Most commonly you will find cedar and hemlock with a few companies using pine and basswood. The industry standard tends to be 5-7mm while there is some companies that still use 3mm. Far North Wellness saunas are all built using only Grade A lumber at 8mm. Please see below to see the lumber process from start to finish. At Far North we build out of either Grade A Western Red Canadian Cedar or Grade A Canadian Hemlock. See which one is best for you in our FAQ section.

Safe and Non-toxic materials

Why is wood important?

• The highest quality Grade A Canadian Western Red Cedar or Grade A Canadian Hemlock
• We directly control the entire process from raw material and selection to the finished sauna in our own lumber mill.
• We only use the finest quality, hand picked center-cut wood .With these big differences in wood selection, even though our Far North Saunas and others' can look similar, over the years you can see dramatic differences.Far North Saunas' manufacturing process and high quality construction begins with selecting the proper raw materials.

Our Canadian office directly purchases the best quality raw Canadian Hemlock and Western red cedar wood from British Columbia, Canada.

• We then ship the raw lumber to our 200,000 square-foot factory.
• We choose only the finest center-cut parts are then fresh-air dried for 4 weeks to preserve the beauty and natural elements of the wood.
• Each piece of lumber is visually inspect and handpick to select clear & vertical grain (avoiding the flat grain) .
• Very few companies in the industry have the abilities to choose the finest lumber as we do..

Far North Saunas Drying Process

Initial Dry

• When the lumber arrives at the factory, the lumber is first sorted by length, size, grade, & grain.
• We then being the initial drying phase before milling begins.
• To prevent any collapsing of the wood, the lumber sits in the yard for a minimum three weeks.
• If collapsing occurs, it can cause defects in the surface of the lumber.

Air Drying Lumber

• The lumber is then ripped to various sizes for sauna panels.
• These various sizes are then Air Dried further.
• This usually takes upwards of three weeks to avoid shrinkage.
• Shrinkage causes changes to the lumber, and can result in poor fitting panels.
• We avoid any poorly dried lumber by only choosing the best air dried pieces to be used for production.

Kiln Dry Before Molding

• After air dry, the blanks are then placed in our high quality kilns.
• The most important step before production is the Kiln Drying to reach the best moisture content.
• Many companies have problems as they only air dry their lumber and it reaches a moisture content of only 20%. Too high for stability.
• Too high of moisture content results in mold, rot, and a shorter life span.
• Our lumber is dried to 6-8% to avoid any issues.