How to Clean a Sauna: Care for Cedar, Hemlock & Infrared
To clean a sauna properly: sit on a towel every session, wipe the benches down afterward and leave the door open to dry, then once a week — with the sauna completely cool — spray the benches, backrests, walls, and floor with a fast-drying sauna wood cleaner and wipe with the grain. Once a month, deep clean and lightly sand any sweat stains off the bench tops. That is the whole program, and it takes minutes.
The reason it matters: sauna wood is bare, thirsty, and warm — the exact conditions that turn sweat, body oils, and lotion residue into dark stains, odors, and eventually mildew. The right sauna cleaner and a little rhythm keep cedar smelling like cedar for decades. Here is the complete routine for traditional and infrared saunas, plus an honest look at DIY options and the products that will ruin your wood.
Why saunas get dirty faster than they look
A sauna seems self-sanitizing — it is hot, dry, and smells antiseptic. But every session deposits sweat (salt, urea, proteins), skin oils, dead skin cells, and traces of lotion or deodorant onto unsealed softwood. Heat drives those oils into the grain; humidity from löyly (or your own perspiration in an infrared cabin) gives microbes their window; and the floor collects everything that drips. Left alone, you get gray-black bench stains where thighs rest, a sour note under the wood scent, and in poorly ventilated rooms, mildew in corners and under benches.
Because the wood is absorbent and uncoated, sauna cleaning products need to do their work fast and leave nothing behind — which is the core design brief behind a purpose-made sauna room cleaner and the reason all-purpose household sprays are wrong for the job.
After every session: the two-minute habit
- Sit on towels, always. One towel under you, one under your feet. This single etiquette rule prevents the majority of bench staining.
- Wipe benches and backrests with a damp cloth or squeegee while the room cools — fresh sweat wipes off; baked-in sweat has to be scrubbed or sanded.
- Rinse stones occasionally (traditional saunas) by ladling clean water over them at the end; replace cracked stones yearly.
- Ventilate until dry. Prop the door open, open the vent, and let residual heat dry the room completely. A sauna that dries fully after every use almost never develops mold.
Weekly clean: cool sauna only
Once a week — or every five to seven sessions — give the room a proper clean. Always with the sauna cool and the heater off. Spraying anything in a hot sauna flashes it into vapor you then breathe, and hot wood grabs cleaner residue deep into the grain.
- Sweep or vacuum the floor and under the benches — hair and skin flakes collect there first.
- Spray benches, backrests, headrests, and the splash zones of walls with a ready-to-use Sauna Wood Cleaner. A trigger spray with a fast-dry, streak-free formula means no bucket, no rinse step, and no soaked boards.
- Wipe with the grain using a clean cloth. Work top to bottom.
- Wipe the door glass and any interior windows — the same fast-dry formula handles glass without streaks.
- Clean the floor last, including duckboards (flip them to dry), then ventilate until everything is dry to the touch.
Monthly deep clean and stain removal
Once a month, add these to the weekly routine:
- Light sanding for stains. Sweat marks and gray patches on bench tops come off with fine sandpaper (120-180 grit), sanding gently with the grain. This refreshes the wood surface and is completely normal sauna maintenance — benches are sacrificial surfaces by design.
- Pull the benches if removable and clean their undersides and support rails, where condensation lingers.
- Check corners, the floor drain, and behind the heater for early mildew — dark speckling that wipes away easily when young.
- Wash towels, headrest covers, and backrest cushions on hot.
Wood by type: cedar, hemlock, and pine
| Wood | Behavior | Cleaning notes |
|---|---|---|
| Western red cedar | Naturally rot- and microbe-resistant, aromatic, darkens gracefully | Most forgiving. A cedar sauna cleaner routine is mostly about preserving the scent — avoid perfumed products that compete with it. Sand lightly to renew aroma. |
| Hemlock | Pale, low-aroma, common in infrared cabins | Shows stains sooner because it is light-colored; benefits most from after-session wipe-downs and prompt stain sanding. |
| Pine / spruce | Budget woods, can weep resin at high heat | Remove resin drips when cool with careful scraping; clean normally otherwise. Knots darken first — cosmetic, not a problem. |
All three stay unsealed inside the hot room. The only acceptable treatment is sauna-specific paraffin oil on bench tops, applied thin after a deep clean, if you want extra stain resistance.
Infrared sauna specifics
An infrared sauna cleaner routine follows the same logic at lower temperatures — which actually means more diligence, not less. Infrared cabins run 110-150°F instead of 180°F+, so sweat residue is never heat-sterilized and the cabin gets more sessions per week in most homes.
- Wipe benches and floor after every session; the lower heat means slower self-drying, so towel-dry surfaces yourself.
- Weekly, spray and wipe the wood exactly as in a traditional sauna. Choose a cleaner that is explicitly safe to use around infrared panels — our Sauna Wood Cleaner is formulated for cedar, hemlock, and pine as well as infrared cabins and their glass.
- Never spray the panels or heater guards directly. Wipe carbon or ceramic panel surfaces with a barely damp (not wet) cloth only, with the unit unplugged, and keep liquid away from wiring and controls.
- Owners of brand-name cabins often search for a sunlighten sauna cleaner — Sunlighten and similar manufacturers simply call for a gentle, residue-free, non-abrasive cleaner safe for bare basswood or eucalyptus and for panel surrounds, which is exactly the spec a fast-dry natural sauna cleaner meets. Check your manual, but the chemistry requirements are the same.
DIY sauna cleaner vs. purpose-made: an honest comparison
The classic homemade sauna cleaner is diluted white vinegar (about 1 part vinegar to 4 parts water) or a mild castile soap solution. Fair assessment:
| DIY (vinegar or mild soap) | Purpose-made fast-dry spray | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Pennies | About $15 a bottle |
| On sweat & body oils | Vinegar: weak on oils. Soap: decent but needs rinsing | Formulated for exactly this soil |
| Residue | Soap film or vinegar smell that returns with heat | Streak-free, residue-free, odor neutralizing |
| Moisture load | High — bucket-and-rag methods soak the wood | Light mist, fast dry |
| Glass & panels | Soap streaks on glass | Same spray does wood and glass |
A diy sauna cleaner is genuinely fine for a quick bench wipe when you are out of product. For the weekly clean, the best sauna cleaner is one that dries in minutes and leaves nothing to smell or touch — bare wood in a heated room is uniquely unforgiving of residue.
What never to use in a sauna
- Bleach and ammonia. They bleach and degrade wood fibers, and their residues off-gas when the room heats. Chlorine vapor in a sealed hot box is a genuine hazard.
- Pressure washers and garden hoses. Flooding bare softwood drives water deep into joints and under benches; cabins can take weeks to dry and often mildew instead.
- Varnish, polyurethane, or paint on interior wood. Sealed wood cannot breathe, gets dangerously hot to skin, and can off-gas solvents at 180°F. Interior wood stays bare, forever.
- Abrasive pads and scouring powder. They tear softwood grain. Sand with fine paper instead.
- Perfumed all-purpose sprays. The fragrance bakes into the wood and the surfactants leave film.
Mold and mildew: catch it early
Dark speckling in corners, under benches, or around the floor drain means moisture is outlasting your ventilation. Act in this order: wipe the area with your sauna cleaner, which neutralizes odor at the source; sand any staining that remains; then fix the cause — run the vent longer after sessions, prop the door overnight, and check that the floor slopes to its drain. Established black mold that returns after sanding calls for replacing the affected board, which is routine carpentry in a sauna and far better than attacking the room with bleach.
The bottom line
How to clean a sauna comes down to towels every session, a wipe-down while the room is warm, a weekly cool-room spray-and-wipe with a fast-dry sauna wood cleaner, and a monthly sanding touch-up. Do that and the wood stays blonde, the air stays sweet, and the cabin outlasts the house.
Pair your sauna routine with our cold plunge water maintenance guide if you contrast bathe, browse the full Sauna & Cold Plunge collection, or see the full lineup on the product page.
