In Finland, saunas are for cleaning yourself up and dusting the day’s work off your shoulders. To feel clean, it is important that the whole sauna experience feels hygienic.
Sauna facilities offer favorable conditions for microbial growth. That’s why it’s important to keep everything clean – from dressing rooms to the steam room.
“Only a clean sauna will offer you the genuine experience. The whole sauna path starts with the fact that the dressing rooms are clean, the washrooms are hygienic, and the sauna smells fresh and clean,” says Minna Kyllinen, a hygiene expert at SSTL Puhtausala ry.
Minna Kyllinen’s tips for taking care of a clean sauna experience:
- When you survey the cleanliness of the sauna facilities, trust your senses. Do the surfaces look clean? Can you see hair in the floor drain? Do the walls feel viscous? How does the room smell like?
- Select correct equipment and materials. The home sauna can be cleaned with equipment found at home (e.g., microfiber floor mop, brush), but in public saunas, it is recommended to use mechanical methods, such as industrial spray guns, floor maintenance machines or combination machines.
- Pay special attention to the dirtiest spots in saunas. Those are the lower parts of walls and floor drains, the lowest bench in the steam room, the floor in front of it, wall surfaces that people lean to and foot rails.
- Take care of the cleaning equipment. At home sauna, it is sufficient to clean the sauna after use and clean thoroughly 1-2 times a year. The daily maintenance cleaning is made in public and hotel saunas daily, and a more thorough cleaning for example weekly.
- See that places will not even get that dirty in the first place. Guide sauna bathers for hygienic bathing. Offer customers towels and shower products.
“If you start the sauna experience by noticing that there are defects in the hygiene, nothing will save the experience.”
