There is a large Finnish community living at Costa del Sol, Spain. And of course, for this reason there is a high demand for Finnish saunas at Costa del Sol! We interviewed a sauna builder, Pekka Rosholm, from PR-Woodworks Costa about his building business in the area.
“We moved to Costa del Sol in Spain on the last days of year 2008. Spain had just been hit by recession on the same year and the future didn’t seem very bright. Costa del Sol, however, has had a big and strong Finnish community for a long time. After a year of struggling, I started my own company here which has been active now for 14 years straight.
At first, I mostly did renovations, complete apartments, kitchens, or bathrooms. I am a woodworker and all woodworks have always intrigued me. The first saunas I’ve built already under the age of twenty, in 1980s.
In Spain, I built a couple of saunas in the beginning but only in 2017 we started organized marketing of saunas in our area. In 2019, I participated in Feria los Pueblos event that gathers up to a million visitors in five days. I built a custom-made sauna in Finland’s caseta (village house) because I wanted to be profiled as a builder of custom-made saunas, even though I do build other types of saunas as well. After Feria los Pueblos, the amount of sauna orders started clearly rising and even the Covid years didn’t slow down the growth. Vice versa, suddenly people had more time to spend at home.”
The Finnish sauna has reached a good reputation
“In the beginning, only Finnish people would order saunas but now almost 50% of my clients are from other countries: Spanish, British, and Scandinavians. Covid also changed the non-Finnish people’s ideas about the sauna. Nowadays, they think that home is just as delightful place as any other, when you have something to do there. The Finnish sauna has reached a good reputation from what it used to be.
People at Costa del Sol, especially non-Finns, want to invest in high-quality timber, glass surfaces, and they want saunas to look good. A Finnish person is normally satisfied with a more modest sauna that is made with lower costs. Of course, there are exceptions as well.
I can be trusted to build an authentic Finnish sauna. My goal is to use as high-quality materials as possible, from Finland and from Spain. A great sauna speaks for itself.”
Mr. Rosholm builds saunas outside of Costa del Sol as well
“Most of the saunas I build are made into private homes, for example, in the balconies, the roof terraces, and the gardens next to the pool. Usually, the projects include other type of renovation in the apartment as well. Now, this direction has begun to change a bit. New, various kinds of sauna projects are on the way. For example, one sauna located in a Spanish housing cooperative’s gym got burnt so I’m rebuilding it. Also, now, I have been working on a big project delivered into the Málaga Mountains, which includes a sauna and a dressing room.
My working area has expanded during the years, and I’ve had the chance to build saunas even in Portugal. My most interesting project so far was located 900km away, in Porto area in Portugal, in one diplomat’s home at a farm. The surrounding area was unique and completely different from what I had ever experienced. The sauna’s style was made very traditional, however.
It looks like I will focus only on building saunas in the future. A big part of why this is possible is because of my excellent cooperation partners. The speed of deliveries and the ease of purchasing through Finnish companies ensure the delivery of saunas to the customers. Because I’m getting recognized increasingly, I will be building more saunas for non-Finnish clients as well.”
PR-Woodworks Costa’s cooperation partners:
