NSW
Thermo Treated Spruce UNION 160 outdoor sauna installed in Eden NSW with a HARVIA Cilindro heater. Explore this premium Shym Saunas project.
Eden is a coastal town on the far south coast of New South Wales, sitting at the edge of the Sapphire Coast just north of the Victorian border. It is a place of genuine natural beauty — big skies, old-growth forests, and one of the deepest natural harbours on the east coast of Australia. It is also exactly the kind of place where a quality outdoor sauna belongs.
This project centres on the UNION 160, a Euro-style outdoor cabin sauna built from sustainably harvested Thermotreated Nordic Spruce. Paired with the HARVIA Cilindro Black Steel 7kW floor-standing heater and loaded with 80kg of HARVIA Black Vulcanite sauna stones, this is a setup that delivers serious heat performance and authentic European sauna atmosphere in one striking package. The customer collected the sauna directly from our Wollongong warehouse, with the heater and accessories delivered separately to the Eden property via Alpha Trucking.
The UNION 160 is a different kind of outdoor sauna. Where barrel saunas are defined by their curved rooflines and rustic warmth, the UNION belongs to the European cabin tradition — angular, architectural and unmistakably intentional in its design. It is a sauna that looks as considered in a contemporary garden setting as it does in a Scandinavian forest clearing, and the photo from this installation proves exactly that point.
The cabinet is built from sustainably harvested Thermotreated Nordic Spruce, a material that brings meaningful performance advantages over untreated timber. The thermotreatment process — heating the timber to high temperatures without chemicals — drives out moisture content, increases dimensional stability and dramatically improves resistance to decay and biological growth. The result is a timber that handles outdoor conditions with exceptional resilience, remains stable through temperature cycling and requires very little maintenance over its working life. The 42mm stave board construction adds thermal efficiency and structural rigidity, keeping heat in and the elements out.
Inside, the split-level benches are made from Premium Thermo Knotless Aspen — a timber chosen specifically for its low thermal conductivity, which means the bench surface stays comfortable to sit on even at high cabin temperatures. The interior dimensions of 196 cm by 140 cm by approximately 190 cm tall give three to five people genuine room to stretch out and relax. The 8mm tinted glass door and windows are one of the UNION’s most visually distinctive features, giving the cabin a modern, considered aesthetic from the outside while flooding the interior with natural light during daytime sessions. At night, as this installation clearly demonstrates, the effect is reversed — the interior glow transforms the UNION into a visual centrepiece of any outdoor space.
The UNION 160 ships as a kit with preassembled parts, making on-site assembly straightforward and manageable without specialist trades.
The HARVIA Cilindro is one of HARVIA’s most recognisable heater designs — a tall, cylindrical floor-standing unit with a commanding physical presence and a well-earned reputation for performance. This installation uses the PC70 Black Steel model, running at 6.8kW on 230V with a 2260W heating element and a rock capacity of 80kg. That is an exceptionally generous rock capacity for a heater of this output, and it matters.
More rock mass means greater thermal storage. Once the Cilindro brings the cabin up to temperature, the rocks hold and radiate that heat with a stability and evenness that smaller-capacity heaters simply cannot match. When water is poured over 80kg of properly heated HARVIA Black Vulcanite stones, the löyly produced is dense, sustained and deeply satisfying — the kind of steam response that separates a great sauna from a merely warm room.
The Cilindro Black Steel finish gives this heater a visual boldness that complements the UNION 160’s angular Euro aesthetic perfectly. The built-in manual control keeps the interface simple and direct, without unnecessary complexity. The floor-standing installation means no wall mounting is required, and the heater’s 320 x 320 x 930mm footprint positions it efficiently within the UNION’s interior without compromising bench space.
HARVIA Black Vulcanite Sauna Stones (80kg)
Every accessory included with this project was selected to support genuine, high-performance sauna use from the first session. The 80kg of HARVIA Black Vulcanite stones were sourced to match the full rock capacity of the Cilindro PC70, ensuring the heater operates at its thermal best from day one.
The far south coast of New South Wales experiences a humid temperate climate with high annual rainfall, warm summers, mild winters and persistent coastal moisture — conditions that put outdoor timber structures under real and sustained pressure. Thermotreated Nordic Spruce is exceptionally well suited to this environment. The thermotreatment process fundamentally alters the cellular structure of the wood, reducing its ability to absorb and release moisture and dramatically lowering its susceptibility to the mould, rot and fungal growth that shortens the life of standard softwoods in humid coastal conditions.
Unlike chemically treated timbers, Thermotreated Spruce achieves its durability through heat alone, making it a genuinely clean and environmentally responsible choice. It is also more dimensionally stable than untreated timber, meaning less movement, less gapping and a tighter, better-sealed cabin over time. For a property in Eden exposed to the full range of south coast weather, this is exactly the right material for an outdoor sauna that is built to last.
This project shows what a well-specified European-style outdoor sauna looks like in a real Australian home setting. Whether you are on the NSW South Coast, in Sydney, in Canberra or anywhere across New South Wales or the ACT, we can help you find the right sauna, the right heater and the right accessories for your property and lifestyle.
We offer a wide range of Thermo Treated Spruce and Western Red Cedar saunas, including barrel, square barrel, cabin and Euro-style models, along with HARVIA heaters and accessories. Selected products are available for collection from our Wollongong warehouse, with delivery options across Australia and New Zealand. Please contact us to confirm product availability for warehouse collection.
If you are based in or around Merimbula, Bega, Bermagui, Narooma or Tathra and have been thinking about adding a sauna or hot tub to your property, we would love to hear from you. We have delivered installations across the South Coast and understand the climate, the logistics and what products perform best in this part of the world. Reach out to our team and we will walk you through everything from product selection to delivery and setup.
We are based in Perth, Tasmania, and we ship across Australia. If you are near Eden and are thinking about a sauna or hot tub, get in touch with our team. Our list of recommended sauna and hot tub installers can help with set-up.
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