When homeowner Todd Kreckman and his
family moved into their
first Portage, Wis.-based
home, knowing that even though his
family would only be in the house for
two years, his first thought was to build
a sauna. “I knew I was going to lose all
of my value on the sauna — because,
at that time, no one in this area really
wanted a sauna in their home — but we
built it anyway,” he says.
Then when his family moved into
their forever home two years later, the
same thought crossed his mind. “Where
am I going to put a sauna here?” He
pondered the question for over a year,
and could simply not find the right
location within the house, and adding
a sauna as an extension onto the home
was not an option, due to its historic
charm and brick exterior.
Kreckman — who grew up using
saunas, starting as early as six years old
— did not like the thought of not having
one. His solution? To build a mobile
sauna that would live outside of his
home, one that could simply be tucked
away when not in use, and taken out
whenever he had the urge for a steam.
But building a mobile sauna was,
of course, easier said than done, so he
began to do some research. That’s when
he found Rob Licht Custom Saunas,
nearly 900 miles away in Lansing, N.Y.,
who helped to bring Kreckman’s mobile
sauna — by way of construction plans
— to fruition.
Behind the Business
Rob Licht is first and foremost an artist.
“I was trained as a sculptor and taught
for many years at a local college,” he
says. “But like most artists, I was not
making a lot of money and was working
in the trades to get by.”
Sometimes, to his delight, he would
be brought in on building a sauna. “Like
Todd, I grew up enjoying saunas. I had
a lot of Finnish friends, and they had a
very old Finnish sauna on their property
that was built in the ’30s — one of the
oldest, still-standing Finnish saunas
in upstate New York, in fact. There, we dreamed of making our own saunas
some day.”
Between his passion, talents as a
sculptor and his experience in trades, he
really had a knack for the niche product.
And before he knew it, he left his work
as a sculptor to pursue building saunas
full time.
Now over 35 years later, business
is booming, and Licht finds himself
completely booked, receiving calls
from all around the world. “The sauna
business was on the back burner for a
while until the pandemic hit,” he says.
“But that’s when it came to the front
burner, started simmering — and now,
it’s at a full boil.”
DIYer Todd Kreckman and a friend built this beautiful mobile sauna, with the help of tried-and-true construction plans from Rob Licht Custom Saunas.Photos courtesy Abigail Carpenter
Going Mobile
Not only does Licht design and build
wood-fire, traditional Finnish-style
saunas that get as hot as 100 degrees
Celsius — and steamy, due to löyly
(when water is poured over the rocks for
an authentic sauna experience) — he
offers the option for electric, too.
But it wasn’t the wood-fire or
electric saunas that caught Kreckman’s
eye when he stumbled upon Licht’s
website. Instead, it was the fact that
Licht gives customers the opportunity
to build their own mobile sauna using
his well-established, tried-and-true
blueprints. The sauna plans are available
to ambitious customers for a one-time
build and non-commercial use only, by
way of PDF download.
“After purchasing the plans and
signing a nondisclosure agreement, a
buddy and I started building this mobile
sauna, and it was absolutely fantastic,”
says Kreckman.
Kreckman and his carpenter friend
did customize it to an extent — they
opted to install a propane heater
instead of wood, for example, because
Kreckman believes “while propane
heaters are expensive [his set him back
about $3,000 at the time], for these
portable saunas, it allows you freedom
to take it wherever you want to go and
to heat it up quickly” — but for the most
part, the model is as close to Licht’s
plans as they could get it.
“I kept telling my buddy, ‘It’s in
the plans, we have to do it,’ whenever
something seemed out of reach or he
would tell me that a detail would take
too much time. He’s very talented, and
it ultimately turned out fantastic.”
It helped that Licht makes himself
available to customers who take on
building their own saunas — and for
lucky locals, he also offers a sauna
building workshop, a three-day class
that covers aspects of building saunas
through hands-on demonstrations.
“People aren’t just buying the
construction plan, they’re buying
access,” says Licht. “I make myself
available to the DIYers, if any questions
arise or if they need clarification. I
certainly had a few conversations with
Todd throughout the process.”
Ready to Enjoy
After a long day’s work, Kreckman still
finds himself thinking, “I just can’t
wait to go home and get a sauna in
tonight,” he says, “especially during the
wintertime. There’s something about
going from hot to cold that just makes
you feel more alive.”
Over the years, he has had the
pleasure of sharing his mobile sauna
with his network of friends, and invites
them over to partake in a steam
whenever it makes sense. “My son Ryan,
who didn’t like a sauna at first and now
loves it, also invites his buddies over,
and the first thing they say is, ‘Let’s get
that sauna going,'” he says, “so there is
really a community to be made through
sauna.”
Licht couldn’t agree more. “I’ve
established some pretty good
relationships with my clients over the
years, because by them inquiring about
a sauna, we already have like-minded
interests. In fact, I credit a lot to my
profession. My first mobile sauna
customer is now my future wife.”
Ultimately, Kreckman is grateful to
have had the opportunity to work with
Licht. “He could have built this sauna
for me, but with me being in Wisconsin, it
would have cost thousands of dollars to
get here,” he says. “So I’m grateful that
he offers this kind of service to people
who don’t live in his area. I’m definitely
a satisfied customer.”
This article first appeared in the September 2023 issue of AQUA Magazine — the top resource for retailers, builders and service pros in the pool and spa industry. Subscriptions to the print magazine are free to all industry professionals. Click here to subscribe.