Sauna, steam room and cold plunge questions from Rwanda

Indicatively, supplied and installed with duty and VAT included: 3.2 – 4.4 million RWF for a two-person cabin, 4.6 – 6.8 million for a four-person cabin with a glass wall, 6.9 – 9.5 million for six people with corner glazing, and 1.4 – 3.6 million for an infrared cabin. Civil works and the cable from your board are extra, and a steep plot adds a sub-frame line. The full price list and the configurator give a band for your own room.

Yes, across Rwanda: Rubavu and Karongi on Lake Kivu, Musanze and Kinigi for the volcano lodges, Nyungwe, Akagera and Huye. Upcountry installations and service visits are grouped by week so several sites share the travel, and the surcharge is 0.2 – 0.6 million RWF per visit. See where we build.

Six to ten weeks from approved drawing to commissioning for a single room, and 12–16 weeks for a complete villa spa, plus the sea and road leg to Kigali — the overland stretch from Mombasa or Dar es Salaam alone is 5–10 days (Sino Shipping). Your quote names the corridor and the programme.

Gladly, and the earlier the better. The three things we need in the build drawing are a drain with a fall, a mechanical extract route and a cable run to the board. Everything after that is finishes.

Yes, if parts can be obtained. For EOS and Sentiotec equipment we source parts directly as official sellers; for other makes, send a photograph of the model plate before we book the visit.

A heater draws full power only during the twenty-to-forty-minute heat-up, then cycles. A four-person cabin with a 12 kW heater uses around 12 kWh an evening — about RWF 4,350 at REG's top household rate of RWF 369 per kWh (tariff from 1 October 2025, before VAT). A chiller in Kigali runs less than it would in a hot lowland city because the nights are cool.

24 months on every room we build and install, plus the manufacturers' terms on heaters, generators and chillers, which we register for you. A maintenance contract keeps both valid.

Yes — we build a demountable specification with a bolted frame and a single service connection point. It is the usual choice in Kacyiru and Nyarutarama, where much of the housing is let on corporate leases.

Contracts and invoices are in USD or EUR, itemised position by position. The bands on this site are shown in Rwandan francs for orientation.

Six to ten weeks from approved drawing to commissioning for a single cabin, with the sea and road leg to Kigali added on top. Crates travel through Mombasa on the Northern Corridor or Dar es Salaam on the Central Corridor, and the overland stretch from the coast alone is 5–10 days (Sino Shipping). Your quote names the corridor and the Incoterms.

Up to roughly 8 kW, yes, on a dedicated circuit with the right cable and breaker. Bigger heaters need three-phase; REG charges the same RWF 56,000 meter fee either way, so the decision is really about your board and the length of the cable run.

Electric for any city house: precise control, no flue through a tiled roof, no firewood carried up a terrace. A wood-burning stove earns its place at a lodge in Musanze or on Lake Kivu, where the fire is part of the evening and a power cut does not end the session.

On a level terrace, a basalt or brick plinth is enough. On a slope we use galvanised steel posts fixed into the retaining wall and level the floor frame off them — no new concrete platform, no extra load on a wall that is already holding soil.

In panels, carried by hand where a lorry cannot turn. On the narrow red-earth lanes of Kiyovu and Rebero the flatbed stops at the nearest turning point and the crew walks the wall panels down. We check the route during the survey and price the carry as its own line.

Pale timber silvers on the sun side within two or three years unless it is re-oiled. Charred timber holds its colour far longer. Neither affects the structure — it is a look, and we tell you which one you are choosing.

It is a warm room that makes you sweat, but it is not a Finnish sauna: no stones, no bursts of steam, much lower air temperature. Plenty of people prefer it for exactly that reason; others miss the löyly within a week. Sit in both before you choose if you can.

There is no plumbing and no structural work, so it rarely touches the lease, but a dedicated circuit means an electrician at the board. Ask the landlord first; we supply the load and circuit details for that conversation.

An infrared cabin is a simpler product than a Finnish sauna, but it still reaches Kigali by sea and road. We put a delivery window in the quote once the shipment is booked, rather than a date we cannot control.

Often, if it has a drain, somewhere within about 10 m for the generator and a ceiling that can be pitched. It nearly always means stripping back to the slab: tiling over a floor with no fall only hides the problem for a season.

The membrane needs a day between coats and a day before tiling, followed by a flood test. We do not shorten that; it is the cheapest insurance in the whole project.

Less than people expect. The energy balance means a 9 kW generator at full output turns roughly 12 litres of water an hour into steam, and much less once the room is up to temperature. Most of the water you see is condensate on its way to the drain.