You've Probably Never Heard of A Japanese Bath Tiny House

The Essence of Japanese Bathing Tradition

This Brian Schulze Hand Crafted Japanese Wood-Fired Bath is a beautiful wood cabin that was built for the Japanese bath tradition. A Japanese Bath is a ritual of slowly washing and soaking in a calm and beautiful setting, with the intention of cleansing the mind and the heart. A Japanese bath tradition isn't just about washing the body, but coming out refreshed in both mind and body. This wood cabin bathhouse is heated with a Chofu wood-fired hot tub heater. The building materials for the Japanese wood-fired wood cabins bathhouse were collected materials along the way. This Japanese bathhouse project took some time and was a cabin building project that has a story to tell. From the cedars that blew down in a windstorm on a friends' property, and the logs that were pulled out of the woods. To the three by 3's that washed up on the beach, and the weeks spent carrying them out one by one, for their future in the bath cabin building that was destined to become rafters for the bath wood cabin roof.

Recycling and Resourcefulness in Construction

Along with three twenty-year-old solar hot water panels that were found at the dump, and bought for the price of scrap. A plain fiberglass soaking tub was bought at the recycling center for a mere fifty dollars. Then while the builder was fishing for salmon, a new cedar log was found and then tied up to be floated in the next winters flood. The winter after that the cedar log was milled into boards for the cabin building bathhouse, and the next winter it was made into shiplap siding and nailed up inside the bathhouse sauna. Part of the beauty of building a cabin building is in the story of each piece that goes into the project.

Structural Insights of the Bathhouse

The frame of the Japanese bathhouse wood cabin is notched and bolted cedar poles that sit on top of an 11 foot by 11 foot stained concrete pad. The rafters in the wood cabin are three by three with cedar shakes that are nailed directly onto spaced sheathing boards. The front half of the pole-frame used in the wood cabin bathhouse is infilled by two by sixes that are covered with the plywood and cedar shakes. This enclosed area in the cabin building helps to create a room that houses the wood-fired hot tub heater, the plumbing for the solar loop while also providing a small warm sitting area. The interior of the beautifully crafted Japanese bathhouse is filled with plain fiberglass that was recycled from another building project and then covered with a heavy foil vapor barrier, over which some home milled shiplap cedar were nailed. The rectangle that is located at the bottom of the front wall of the Japanese bathhouse wood cabin is a horizontal door that opens to reveal a small window that brings sunlight in to warm the room in the summer months and also to let in the natural sunlight. The two panels that are on the roof are old solar hot water panels, and the photovoltaic panel powers in the tiny Japanese bathhouse is a small pump that helps pump the water up through the panels when the sun is shining. The tub for the bathtub sits in the open air at the back of the structure.

Embracing the Japanese Bathhouse Lifestyle

The Japanese bathhouse has so much character you can't help but want to have one of your own. This bath cabin building can be found at the R-evolution Gardens Bath House. It tells the whole process of how you too can build a Japanese style bathhouse.