To the roots: what is a black sauna and how to arrange it

Photos from the Do-It-Yourself Bathhouse website and bathhouse projects on the BaniZhar portal

If you ask ordinary passers-by on a city street what a black bath means, few will answer correctly. Although it is believed that the history of the Russian bathhouse begins with it. Modern people value coziness, comfort and convenience more, so if they go to the steam room, they do it in white, i.e. to bathing rooms, where everything is visually clean, without smoke and soot. However, recently there have been trends in the revival of native Russian traditions. Today you can take water procedures in a black bath in villages, especially in Siberia and the Far East. There, this type of steam room was always revered and never forgotten. This is exactly what we will talk about in this article.

Black sauna: what are the differences?

This heating method is considered the most ancient, and therefore primitive. But it has some advantages that modern baths lack.

Small huts like these are black baths

Russian baths in black style

In those days, there were no drawings or building codes. Construction features were passed down from generation to generation. We stood by memory, guided by our own ideas and the help of more experienced neighbors. For a black bath you needed good insulation. Therefore, half of the frame was buried in the ground, and the doors were made low. There is only one room in such a bathhouse - it is both a steam room and a washing room, but it is quick and inexpensive to build. Such a structure was heated simply: firewood was laid out in a special recess, and on top there was a grate on which stones were laid. That's the whole oven. The smoke was not vented anywhere, but came out through the doors and a hole in the ceiling.

Smoke comes out through a hole in the ceiling and out the window. Later they began to make a portage above the hearth - a small window through which smoke escapes

The entire ceiling and walls were smoked and black. This is where the name came from. Experts in bath procedures say that the steam in black baths is softer, but practice proves that this type of heating is more economical. Well, one more nuance: due to uniform heating, all smells and aromas are felt more clearly.

The smoke released during combustion served as an excellent disinfectant. The bathhouse was usually heated with birch logs (this tradition is still alive today), and when birch burns, formaldehyde is released, which is an excellent disinfectant. Soot deposited on the walls and ceiling is a good adsorbent that does not allow mold and fungi to develop. This is such a primitive thing.

One of the heater options with cast iron. Cast iron is used for greater heat capacity: the sauna holds the heat longer

The black bathhouse was the cleanest and most disinfected place in the settlement in those days. It was not for nothing that they went to the bathhouse to give birth. The sick were also carried there. And if a person did not begin to recover after that, they believed that nothing would help him.

Despite the simplicity of the hearth design, heating a bathhouse in a black way is akin to an art that few master. The logs must be placed in a strictly defined way, which only a few remember. It's a pity…

Bathhouse in white. "Then and now

Bathhouse in white
The most important and significant difference in a bathhouse in white is the presence of a chimney, with the help of which smoke was removed from the room. In addition, there are already two rooms: a dressing room and a steam room where the stove is located. For a white bath, special stoves are built in which stones are placed. That is why such a stove is also called a heater.

One of the heater options

In order to heat both rooms, the stove, most often, faces one side into the dressing room. Typically, a steam room has several shelves arranged in steps. They move to the “hottest” places - closer to the ceiling - gradually, and even then not all of them. The temperature there is really high and only a few can withstand it.

Modern baths are equipped not only with traditional heaters, but also with electric stoves. For greater comfort, if funds are available, toilets are added, and sometimes indoor or outdoor swimming pools are installed. One of the bathhouse traditions is to warm up in the steam room and cool off in a snowdrift or dive into a river. If there was such an opportunity, the baths were always located near a reservoir: there was no need to run far to cool off. Well, a modern replacement for a river is a swimming pool. Some even make several tanks with different water temperatures: from warm to cold. Sometimes hot water is supplied at one end of the pool, and cold water is left at the other. Not such a sharp contrast, but also less expensive.

First stage

Preparation for construction must be thorough. First you need to create a project for the future steam room. All details must be carefully planned:

1. The first step is to select the type of future foundation. This takes into account the depth of groundwater, soil type, and the total weight of the finished structure. It is quite easy to avoid the unpleasant consequences associated with the collapse of a building; you just need to build a columnar foundation.
2. At the preparatory stage, the water supply system for the bathhouse is also thought through. To do this, you can use a traditional well, powered by a pump, or install a water supply system.
3. Next, you should select the material that will be used in construction. Previously, a log house made of wood was used for these purposes: cedar, larch, pine.
4. The next stage is insulating the walls of the black steam room. Moss or jute-based tape is laid between the rows. Builders do not recommend finishing bath walls. This recommendation especially applies to internal vertical surfaces. The exception is baths built using frame technology, where mineral wool is used as insulation.
5. It is necessary to calculate the dimensions of the oven depending on the area of ​​the room. The firebox should be placed in front of the entrance to the room.
6. Since in such a bathhouse soot settles on the walls and furniture, you need to think through the process of cleaning the room in advance. For ease of cleaning, shelves should be made portable.

Log house

Black sauna stove

If we talk about the oldest ovens, they were made of flat cobblestones and had a vaulted shape. The photo below shows one of the variants of such a stove (18th century). It is quite small and was hardly used to produce steam, rather as a cooking and heating device. But the bathhouses were built according to the same principle.

Old black stove in the museum

If we talk about more modern stoves, which are still found in villages in the North, they are made of brick. One or two rows of bricks are laid on the floor, then the walls are put up. There are only three walls. The quadruple room is open, without doors. Fuel is loaded here. Metal strips are laid on top of the walls, and cobblestones are placed on them. That's the whole structure.

A fire is lit inside; the smoke, rising, heats the stones. You can steam only after the fire has gone out, the coals have been taken out and filled in, the room has been ventilated and stood for at least half an hour. During this time, all carbon monoxide disappears, and you can steam.

The bathhouse is heating up - smoke is coming out

Description and diagram of the operating furnace

The diagram of one of the furnaces (operating) is shown in the photo below. The walls were lined with one and a half bricks, they were laid on a block. The depth of the firebox is 4 bricks, the height is 4 rows. The total size is 1.7 * 1.7 m (when viewed from above).

Scheme of a stove for a black sauna

For greater strength, two rails are laid along the top of the walls. There is a metal channel across them, blocking the firebox from above. Stones are laid out on the channel. They take a rolled river stone that has no foreign inclusions. The color should be uniform, without streaks or spots. They are laid in several layers, covering the joints between the boulders. So that the smoke bends rather than goes straight.

This is a view of the heater from different sides

Everything is easy and simple. No difficulties. If necessary, everything can be easily repaired. And in such fires bricks can burn out and the channel can bend. Sometimes the temperature difference causes a stone to burst (when you pour water on a hot one). Anyone can build such a stove for a black sauna with their own hands. No restrictions or exceptions.

This stove has an interesting design for heating water. Local residents use the bathhouse as a quick way to wash and do laundry; they rarely take steam baths. Not far from the fireplace there is a large 100 liter barrel. It is filled with water before the oven is lit. Water is brought from a nearby river.

Water heating system

Three pipes are welded to the bottom of the barrel. The two outermost ones lead to the hearth, where they connect to one another. A fire is lit right on top of them. The middle pipe ends with a tap and is used to drain remaining water after the procedures are completed. It’s a simple device, and 100 liters of water boils in 40-60 minutes.

Black stove with a barrel instead of a back wall

There is another heating option: a barrel is placed in place of the back wall. Water is heated, probably no less efficiently.

Variant of a black-style stove with a barrel instead of a back wall

Modern version with door

There are more civilized options for black stoves. With a door. This does not change the essence: below there is an open hearth, on top there is an overlap of metal strips or pins on which stones are laid out.

In this option, the core can be laid out from fireclay bricks, but then you will need to use an appropriate mortar. Although, you can simply use ceramic bricks and clay mortar for masonry. It will be much cheaper, although the oven will have less heat capacity and will cool faster.

A modern version of a black sauna stove with a door

To make it easier to attach the door and to hold it better, you can weld (bolt) a steel strip to the frame. In order for it to fit well, you will need to cut the bricks a little in height, making a recess for it a little larger in size (for thermal expansion).

To make it easier to install the doors, strips of steel can be attached to the frame

Made from brick and natural stone

For those who are well acquainted with the stove business, the following photos will be useful. They make a black stove inside an old heater, mixing natural stone and brick. The firebox vault is made of brick. Cobblestones will then rest on the arches. An interesting and very difficult project.

This is an option for those who know how to work with brick. This oven combines brick and natural stone. Very interesting solution

This is how the arch of the hearth is formed

Then they continue to lay out the walls, expanding them outward

And this is what happened in the end

Design and principle of operation

You can still find squat, small bathhouses in which you can steam in the black. Why is this method called this way? This type of stove does not have a chimney. Essentially, this is a fireplace burning in a room, the smoke from which is released through slightly open doors and windows.

Principle of operation

Soot and soot cover the walls and ceiling of the bathhouse, which is why it is called that. Ovens are usually made of stones and refractory bricks. You can make a simple base made of brick and cover it with a powerful lattice that can withstand the weight of the stones, which are laid in a thick layer. In this case, the heat spreads evenly throughout the room, and the stones accumulate it. Now, in order to increase the temperature in the steam room, it is enough to pour water on the stones and the steam room will be filled with steam.

Opposite the stove at the bottom of the wall, several closing grooves are made, with the help of which you can regulate the access of air into the bathhouse; it is important for the combustion of fuel in the hearth.

Stove example

How to drown

The stove is heated with the doors, windows and portholes open - a small window above the fireplace through which smoke comes out. To take a steam bath, they heat it for several hours in a row, until the stones glow crimson. They use, as before, more birch, but in general, they heat it with whatever is necessary, placing birch logs only on the last stash.

Panorama of a functioning black bathhouse in one of the villages (described above)

After the last portion of firewood has burned, the corners are raked out and taken away. Those remaining in the hearth are poured. Open the doors and windows and ventilate, waiting until the smoke disappears and the fumes settle. Then they add water to the hot stones so that the steam squeezes out the remains of the burning, and wash the shelves from the settled soot (all with the doors open). Then close the doors/windows and wait for half an hour until the bathhouse heats up. You can take a steam bath.

Just be careful with the soot. It doesn't wash well. These are the impressions of someone who was used to taking a steam bath in a white bath, and then, having decided to try exotic things, went to take a steam bath in a black way. His review is below.

I heard enough about the delights of a black bath, so I went to a friend’s grandmother to take a steam bath. He heated it, when the stones got hot, he went in. Although this is said loudly. Almost crawled. With my height 190, the height of the door is 125. In general, I climbed. I couldn’t see anything in the smoke; I almost turned inside out from coughing. It turned out that we needed to remove the coals and wash the shelves. While I was doing all this, all my hands were covered in soot.

Further more. While I was sitting and warming up, everything was fine. It smelled like it was scorched, burnt, smoked. But you can consider it a highlight (smoked). OK. Then I decided to take a steam bath with a broom. As he waved, he scooped up a fair amount of soot from the ceiling. I became a tiger man, pink striped. I tried to wash myself on the spot. Can't be scrubbed off with soap or shampoo.

I decided to go to the garden in a barrel. Grandma worked there. When she saw me, she began to cross herself and mutter “holy, holy, holy,” and tried to poke me with a shovel. It didn’t hit well - it’s very old. Then she admitted it and asked for forgiveness.

I rubbed and rubbed, neither with sand nor with herbs, but it didn’t help. High quality carbon black. As a result, I washed myself with a simple powder from my grandmother’s supplies. The one who existed even before Asya or Dusya (whatever her name was). Then it itched mercilessly for a week, but at least it became uniformly pink, without black stripes. And one more thing: I smelled smoke for another three days. Despite the abundance of water procedures with all possible and impossible means, including laundry detergent.

Selection of materials for a stove in a black bath

In order for a black sauna stove to be functional, durable and safe, it is important to choose the right materials for its construction. It is customary to use stones for this purpose. They perform the main function of accumulating heat, so their surface must be smooth.

Best suited:

1. Jadeite
   . Semi-precious durable stone with low water absorption and high heat capacity.
2. Basalt or volcanic
   . The strongest volcanic rock. It has a low water absorption coefficient and high heat capacity.
3. Soapstone chlorite
   . Environmentally friendly, dense and durable stone. Accumulates heat 2.5 times more than brick. In addition, it heats up very quickly.
4. Gabbro-diabase
   . Stone of volcanic origin. Cheap, tolerates temperature changes well, but when overheated it can emit a specific unpleasant odor.

Limestone stones emit toxic fumes when heated and quickly break down.
It is also undesirable to use marble and flint for these purposes, which will crack and “shoot” when heated. Choose stones of different fractions for a denser installation. As for bricks for constructing a structure, give preference to the fire-resistant fireclay type. It is most suitable for these purposes.

Black sauna projects

For such a bathhouse no projects are needed. Traditionally there is only one room. For greater convenience, so as not to flash your naked body, you can make a dressing room/locker room. But you shouldn’t hope that there will be no smoke and soot in it. There will be enough smoke everywhere, and the walls will be smoky. Therefore, it is better not to go to the bathhouse in formal clothes.

How to make a bath plan (can be on a piece of paper)

The dimensions of the log house depend on how you plan the steam room. In addition to the stove, they dance from it (that’s where the expression comes from): one or two shelves should fit close to the stove, and a washing bench on the opposite side. You also need to find a place for a water barrel. The shelves should have a length of about 2-2.2 m and a width of at least 0.8 m; washing benches can be made narrower, approximately 0.6 m wide.

Approximate layout of a black bathhouse. At the top - the shelves will be occupied, below - to steam. Opposite is a bench for washing. She's shorter

Place all this and get the required internal dimensions of the steam room/washing room. If you want, add a locker room.

Preparatory work

Dimensions and location

This issue must be addressed when designing the bathhouse itself. To do this, let’s determine its dimensions and the location of the heater’s construction:

• Depending on the total area of ​​the steam room, the dimensions of the stove are calculated using black. For example, the steam room area is 10-12 m2. In this case, we make a heater with dimensions of 1500 mm by 1000 mm, the height is 400-500 mm;
• The shape of the oven may be different. At the request of the master, it can be made in the shape of a circle, rectangle, or even a polygonal shape can be laid out of brick;
• Having decided on the dimensions, it is important to choose the optimal place for the heater. It should heat a small room evenly, so it is better to install it close to the door. In this case, cold air entering through the open door will quickly distribute heat throughout the steam room;
• It is important to install the stove taking into account the manufacture of ventilation vents, with their help the air masses in the steam room are replaced.

Materials

It is impossible to indicate the exact quantity of materials. It all depends on the size of the stone and the structure itself. In addition, fireclay or refractory bricks are useful for building a permanent barbecue, and stones can be used as finishing for a gazebo or other buildings.

The main thing when preparing materials is to choose a good stone for the stove. Several breeds are used for these purposes:

• a stone with high ability to accumulate heat and water-repellent properties is semi-precious, but very resistant to high temperatures, Jadeite;
• you can lay volcanic rocks Vulcanite or Basalt. Such a stove will have a safety margin, will not be exposed to water and will save heat;
• When using Soapstone, the service life of the furnace increases, the heating time and the heat capacity of the material decrease.

It is not recommended to lay stone containing mica or limestone; they emit large amounts of carbon monoxide at high temperatures. If you line a sauna stove with black granite, marble or flint, such a stove can cause injury to its owners, and it will only serve for a short period of time. when heated, the material begins to crumble and shoot steaming stone chips into the room.

To line the furnace, use fireclay or refractory bricks. An ordinary building one will quickly collapse under the influence of high temperature and the load from a mountain of stones. Select Basalt or Soapstone fragments of different sizes for better placement, without large voids.

Tools

To work you will need to prepare:

• shovel and bayonet;
• trough for mixing the solution;
• trowel and hammer;
• plumb line or building level;
• welding machine and electrodes;
• a set of locksmith tools;
• rod for grating, diameter 14-16 mm.

Secrets of the Russian bath

This is what the entrance to the steam room of the black bath looks like.
Walls - changing rooms Regardless of whether the bathhouse is heated in black or white, there are a number of features on which the effect obtained from the steam room depends. And it's not so much about the layout, but about the little things. For example, different brooms have different effects: some relax, others, on the contrary, invigorate, and others have a bactericidal effect. Selecting and steaming them correctly is an art. The same is true with herbs that are scattered on the floor and with infusions that are poured onto the heater.

The choice of firewood is of great importance. Most often, the bathhouse is heated with dry birch firewood. They smell nice, emit a lot of heat, do not “shoot” or spark, and emit little soot and soot. The second most popular is aspen firewood. They provide a little less heat, but are also safe - they do not spark or produce soot.

It is advisable to decorate the interior of the bathhouse in white with linden. When heated, it smells amazing, plus it contains little resin and doesn't overheat. Even at high temperatures, the surface of linden products remains pleasantly warm and not scalding hot. Next in popularity are alder and aspen. But linden has a warmer and lighter color of wood, for which it is valued more.

There are still many nuances. They relate both to the arrangement of the steam room, and to the construction features or to the procedure itself, and the choice of stove.

Another option for a stove (working). A water tank is placed in the front part

And this is what the baths looked like in winter

Which type of steam room is better?

Advantages of a black steam room:

1. Low costs for building a steam room. The steam room is built quickly, the building is small, built from wooden logs, which are an affordable material.
2. Ecological cleanliness. Natural materials are used in construction.
3. Sterility of premises. No matter how strange it may sound, smoke and steam treatment helps to destroy harmful microorganisms.

Advantages of a white steam room:

1. Design freedom - the decoration of the building and interior is not tied only to solid wood; you can dream up not only the decoration, but also the materials used, which must meet safety requirements. For example, a chalet-style steam room is environmentally friendly and looks impressive.
2. Functionality - the equipment of the premises is based on the needs of a person when performing cleaning procedures.
3. Comfort - cleanliness and comfort remain the order of the day.