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Hollin Lake, since 1971

The löyly Eino brought from Ostrobothnia.

Three generations of Koskinens have built 612 wood-fired saunas on the northern lakes, all from one shop in an old creamery. Spruce walls, aspen benches, a stove that takes a split log, and stones heavy enough to hold their heat until the last round.

Four house models from $14,500. Delivered, raised and first fire lit within 120 miles of Hollin Lake.

A moss-roofed sauna on the lake shore, loungers on the deck, early summer
A Järvi with a sod roof, eleven steps from the water. Built 2021.
  • 612 saunas since 1971Three generations, one shop, and a ledger with every build in Eino’s handwriting until 1998.
  • Milled and fitted in our shopEvery wall is cut, dry-fitted and numbered on Hollin Lake before it goes on the trailer.
  • Wood-fired firstWe build electric when it makes sense, and we will tell you plainly when it does not.
Eino Koskinen, 85, at his bench in the Hollin Lake shop
Eino, 85, still in on Saturdays to check the benches are planed the way he likes them.

Eino, his two sons, and a grandson at the same bench.

Eino Koskinen grew up in Kauhava, on the flat fields of Ostrobothnia, where every farm had a smoke sauna before it had a telephone. He came over in 1963, cut timber for eight winters, and in 1971 built a sauna for a neighbour who missed home. That neighbour’s grandchildren still fire it every Saturday.

His sons Matti and Juha grew up sweeping shavings. Matti runs the builds and does every site visit himself. Juha builds the stoves and chimneys and lights every first fire. Matti’s son Eli has been at the bench since 2016, and planes the benches by hand because his grandfather is watching.

  1. 1963Eino leaves Kauhava in Ostrobothnia with a toolbox and his father’s drawknife.
  2. 1971A homesick Finnish neighbour on Hollin Lake asks for a sauna like the ones back home.
  3. 1988Matti and Juha join full time. The shop moves into the old creamery on Mill Road.
  4. 2016Eli, Matti’s son, takes his place at the bench after four summers of sweeping it.
  5. 2026Sauna number 612 goes up on Pike Narrows in April, a Järvi with a porch to the water.

Find your löyly

Three questions Matti asks before he gets in the truck.

Löyly is the wave of steam off the stones, and the whole reason to build a sauna. Tell us who is sitting in it, how you want to heat it and where it will stand, and we will show you the house model we would build you.

1.How many will sit together?
2.How do you want to heat it?
3.Where will it stand?

Three answers, one sauna.

These are the same three questions Matti asks on the phone before he drives out. You will see the model we would build you, its heater and woods, and what it costs to start.

Four saunas we have built enough times to price before we visit.

Prices include the shop build, delivery and raising within 120 miles, the stove, chimney and stones, and Juha’s first fire. Foundations on rock or steep ground are priced after the site visit.

Pikku

“little”

from $14,500

Seats
2 people
Size
Hot room 5 × 6 ft, 7 ft ceiling, no changing room
Heater
9 kW wood stove, 110 lb of stones
Woods
Spruce walls, aspen benches, white cedar outside
In the shop
10 weeks

The one Eino built for himself when his knees stopped liking the walk to the lake.

Perhe

“family”

from $22,000

Seats
4 people
Size
Hot room 7 × 8 ft plus a 4 ft changing room
Heater
14 kW wood stove, fed from the changing room, 200 lb of stones
Woods
Spruce walls, aspen benches, cedar shingle roof
In the shop
12 weeks

Our most built model. Two adults on the top bench, two children below, nobody’s knees in the stove.

Our most built model, 231 of them

Järvi

“lake”

from $34,000

Seats
6 people
Size
Hot room 8 × 10 ft, changing room, covered porch facing the water
Heater
20 kW wood stove with a 10 gallon hot water tank, 300 lb of stones
Woods
Spruce walls, heat-treated aspen benches, cedar on stone piers
In the shop
14 weeks

Built for the walk from the top bench to the end of the dock and back, as many times as it takes.

Custom

drawn for your site

from $45,000

Seats
7 people or more
Size
Drawn at your kitchen table, then on paper in the shop
Heater
Sized to the room, often two stoves or a smoke sauna
Woods
Your choice, with our advice on what lasts
In the shop
16 to 22 weeks

Smoke saunas, saunas with a bunk room, one with a boat landing underneath. Tell us the idea.

Some of the 612, from the shore of Pike Narrows to a snowed-in yard in February.

A red lakeside sauna reflected in still water on a summer evening
Järvi on Pike NarrowsSix seats, 20 kW wood stove, cedar on stone piers, 2023
Smoke rising from a wood-fired sauna on a snowy night
Perhe in a February yard, TamarackFour seats, 14 kW wood stove fed from the changing room, 2019
Inside a Järvi sauna: split birch stacked by the stove and aspen benches
Inside a Järvi, Loon BayAspen benches at 42 inches, birch stacked where the stove can reach it
The crew framing a lakeside sauna among the pines
Raising a Custom at Birch PointEight seats and a bunk loft. Two days on site, seven weeks in the shop

“Every sauna goes in the ledger with the family’s name, the stove and the bench height. We can tell you the height of a bench we built in 1974.”

Matti Koskinen

Löyly is the steam, and most saunas get it wrong.

Sharp, stinging steam means small stones and a hot ceiling. Soft steam that rolls down over your shoulders is built in, long before anyone ladles water. Four things decide it.

Water on hot stones and the first cloud of löyly
  1. 1.Mass, not wattage

    Good steam comes off heavy stones that stay hot for the third and fourth ladle. Our Perhe stove carries 200 pounds of Finnish olivine diabase, not a tray of decorative pebbles.

  2. 2.Your feet above the stones

    The top bench sits 42 inches up, so your whole body is in the hot air instead of your head alone. Most kit saunas put it too low, and people wonder why their feet stay cold.

  3. 3.Air in low, out high

    Fresh air comes in behind the stove and leaves on the far wall under the lower bench. The room breathes, the steam stays soft, and nobody gets a headache.

  4. 4.Wood that stays cool

    Spruce walls, because they breathe and smell right. Aspen benches, because they do not splinter, bleed resin or burn the backs of your legs at 185°F.

From the site visit to your first fire, about fourteen weeks.

Planing a bench board by hand, shavings on the workbench
  1. 1Matti walks your site

    Week 1

    Free within 120 miles of the shop. He checks the ground, the wind, the walk to the water and where the smoke will go.

  2. 2Drawing and a fixed price

    Weeks 2 to 3

    A drawing to scale and one price that does not move. A 30 percent deposit holds your place in the shop.

  3. 3Built in our shop

    Weeks 4 to 11

    Walls milled, benches planed by hand, everything dry-fitted and numbered. You are welcome to come and sit in it.

  4. 4Set on your land

    Weeks 12 to 13

    Piers or a gravel pad, then two or three days to raise it, roof it and set the stove and chimney.

  5. 5First fire, with Juha

    Week 14

    He lights it with you, cures the stove, stacks the stones and shows you how much water makes good löyly.

Letters from families who fire our saunas every Saturday.

Sample letters, written to show how customer words would appear on the finished site.

“Eino built our first sauna in 1979. Matti and Eli built the second one last spring, twenty feet from where the old one stood. Same bench height to the inch. My father would have cried.”
Karen LindqvistPike Narrows, sample letter
“I asked for electric. Matti walked down to our shore, looked at the distance to the house, and talked me out of $6,000 of trenching. We have burned wood for three winters and I would not go back.”
Dan OkaforLoon Bay, sample letter
“Juha stayed for the first fire and three rounds of löyly. Then he made us do it ourselves while he watched. That hour was worth more than the manual.”
Heidi and Paul SorensenTamarack, sample letter

Come to the old creamery and sit in one.

There is always a sauna half built in the shop and a finished Perhe out back with the stove lit on Saturdays. Or tell us about your site and Matti will call to set up a visit.

  • The shop40 Mill Road, Hollin Lake, in the old creamery by the dam
  • OpenMonday to Saturday, 7am to 4pm. Stove lit Saturdays from 10.
  • Where we buildDelivery and raising included within 120 miles. Farther than that, $4 a mile for the trailer and crew.
  • Call the shop(555) 014-1971

Matti calls back within two working days. Site visits are free within 120 miles.