Wellness suites

The sauna

A sauna is dry heat in a closed wooden room. Untreated softwood lining on battens, a foil vapor barrier and insulation behind it, a heater on a dedicated circuit sized to it, and ventilation placed where the heater’s manufacturer specifies.

The lining stays unfinished, because a coating on a surface that hot is something you would then be breathing.

The red light room

The panels are equipment you choose, wall-mounted or freestanding. A wall-mounted panel needs blocking in the framing behind the finish, placed where its fixings land, and every panel needs a circuit sized to it.

Panels give off heat in a closed room, so the room gets an exhaust. A dark, matte finish around them keeps the light on you rather than bouncing off the walls.

The cold plunge

Water is heavy, and a filled plunge puts that weight on a small footprint. On a slab the questions are the drain and the chiller. On an upper floor the first question goes to an engineer.

The chiller needs air around it, a ground-fault protected circuit, and service access that does not mean emptying the tub. In a Las Vegas summer it works hardest when the space around it is hottest, so where it sits is a design decision.

Massage, steam and the rest

A massage room needs quiet more than anything, which is framing and insulation, plus an outlet for a heated table. A steam shower is a different animal: waterproofed on every surface, ceiling included, sloped overhead so condensate runs to the wall, with the generator outside the room where it can be serviced.

Air for the whole suite

A Las Vegas house spends the summer closed up against the heat, and rooms making heat and moisture next to each other inside it need one exhaust plan, so moisture does not end up in the sauna’s lining or in the plaster outside. Plaster is NeXGen’s own C‑17 trade; the plumbing, electrical and mechanical work goes to licensed trade partners.