Alder or cedar: which wood is best for your Wildhut outdoor sauna?

There’s nothing like opening the door of your very own Wildhut sauna and being greeted not only by an enveloping warmth, but the rich, inviting beauty of the most exquisite wood.

We offer two options for the interior finish of your sauna: fragrant cedar or elegant alder. It can be hard to choose, so here’s a quick summary of what they each offer to help you decide. (Further on, you can find out more about the premium wood used on the exterior of every Wildhut sauna too.)

The allure of alder

The simple elegance of alder wood

Comfort in the heat   Alder behaves well in the high heat of a sauna. It has low thermal conductivity, meaning it doesn’t overheat so it remains comfortable against your skin.

Simple beauty  Alder wood has a light, warm honey tone with a fine, even grain, which lends itself to a calm, clean Scandinavian aesthetic. Over time, it ages evenly, darkening slightly to a warm amber tone.

A gentle fragrance  Its mild, clean scent means alder blends unobtrusively with essential oils and is perfect for people who prefer a more subtle aromatic experience.

A smooth finish  Alder has a fine, even texture that sands beautifully smooth, making it super comfortable against bare skin. Its uniform grain also allows it to expand and contract evenly in the heat and humidity, making it very stable.

Quietly affordable  Compared to cedar, alder wood offers a more cost-effective option without sacrificing quality or performance.

Easy to maintain  Alder’s fine-grained texture and overall resilience make it easy keep clean.

The luxury of cedar

The beautiful hues of cedar wood

A rich, aromatic aroma   It's a real delight to relax back on your sauna bench while the warm, woody notes of cedar’s signature fragrance envelope you. The calming scent of cedar has been associated with the authentic sauna experience for centuries for a reason – it adds another dimension to your sauna session, deepening your relaxation and helping you feel more connected with nature.

Built-in defences    Even better, cedar’s scent repels insects and mould, helping to keep your sauna interior in premium condition. Its natural oils make it extra resistant to moisture, rot and decay too, helping your sauna interior last for decades in a humid environment with minimal maintenance.

Gorgeous to look at    Cedar is highly prized for the beauty of its grain and the varied tones of its honey and reddish-brown hues, which give a beautiful variation in colour between boards. This warm, natural colouring deepens over time and makes your sauna feel welcoming and luxurious.

Exceptional heat performance  Cedar has low thermal conductivity making it cooler to the touch, even at very high temperatures.

Naturally antibacterial  The natural oils in cedar have antibacterial and antifungal properties which helps to keep the interior of your sauna hygienic without the need for chemicals.

The premium choice  In the sauna world, cedar is considered to be the last word in longevity and luxury, providing you with the ultimate in quality and tradition.

The qualities our cedar and alder woods share

Whichever wood you choose for your Wildhut outdoor sauna, you can rest assured that both are premium grade-A woods sourced from sustainable forests. This means they are smooth to the touch, and pleasing to the eye, with very few knots.

These slow-grown, cold-climate woods are also highly valued for their performance in the extreme heat and humidity of a traditional outdoor sauna and can withstand dramatic changes in temperature without warping or cracking.

The exterior of your Wildhut sauna

Tough, weather-ready radiata wood exterior

While most of your time will be spent appreciating the beauty, comfort and performance of the wood interior of your luxury sauna, the outside has an important job to do too.

The exterior of each Wildhut sauna is finished with premium radiata pine. If you’re surprised to see ‘premium’ and ‘pine’ appearing in the same sentence, don’t be! Radiata wood is a very different beast to the pine associated with flatpack furniture. To make it tough enough to withstand even a Baltic winter, radiata wood is thermally treated (without chemicals) to make it highly resistant to absorbing moisture so it doesn’t warp, cup or crack in wet conditions – or long hot summers.

Thermowood radiata is also highly resistant to rot, funghi and insects, to help the exterior of your sauna stand the test of time. For good measure, we finish the outside of your Wildhut sauna with a highly durable black exterior paint for an extra layer of weather protection and greater peace of mind.

Like to know more?

If discovering the exceptional workmanship and materials at the heart of every Wildhut sauna has inspired you to explore the idea of owning your own, why not take a closer look? You’ll find the full Wildhut rangehere and we’ll be very happy to have a chat with you about your sauna plans and the long-term investment you’ll be making in your health, wellbeing and home.

Top tip: If you’ve enjoyed this article, you might also find our CLT: the hidden strength at the heart of your Wildhut sauna piece informative and useful too.