August 31, 2026

Meet New Member: Värma Sauna Co.

It’s easy for anyone in Truckee or Tahoe to understand the appeal of a sauna. After a powder day, an afternoon shoveling snow, a long hike, a singletrack session, or a day on the lake, a warm sauna feels perfectly suited to our active mountain lifestyle. It’s also a great place to slow down and spend time with family and friends.That connection to mountain living is exactly what inspired new Truckee Chamber member Värma Sauna Co., a local Truckee business that designs, builds, and delivers custom outdoor saunas made specifically for our climate and lifestyle.

Founded by Truckee locals Jeff Lennan, Max Collinson, and Brandon Brooks, Värma brings together expertise in construction, structural engineering, design, and business. More importantly, the founders understand firsthand what it means to build something that can stand up to life in the Sierra.

Not Your Typical Kit Sauna

If you’ve looked into adding a sauna to your property, you’ve probably come across mass-produced, imported sauna kits online. Värma takes a very different approach.

Every Värma sauna is a custom built structure designed for its specific setting and engineered for mountain conditions. That means accounting for heavy snow loads, intense Sierra sun, strong winds, temperature swings, and other demands that come with living at elevation.

At the heart of each sauna are thick mass-timber panels, which provide strength, durability, insulation, and natural fire resistance. Värma uses cross-laminated timber, or CLT, sourced from the Western United States. The solid timber construction gives each sauna a distinctive mountain-modern look while creating a structure designed for long-term use and performance.

Inside, Värma stays true to the experience of an authentic Nordic sauna - beautiful wood, gentle heat, and real steam created by pouring water over heated rocks. It’s an inviting space designed to become part of a regular routine, whether that means warming up after skiing, recovering after a ride, or simply unwinding at the end of the day.

Designed Around You and Your Property

Värma’s saunas are custom, so clients can choose a layout based on how they intend to use the space. Finishes and fixtures can be selected to complement the architecture of the home and surrounding outdoor living area.

The company’s mountain-modern designs are meant to look at home in the landscape, whether the sauna is tucked among the pines, positioned beside a patio, or incorporated into a larger backyard wellness space.

Värma works with homeowners as well as architects, builders, real estate professionals, property managers, and commercial clients. The team can help with the full process, including design, engineering, site preparation, electrical and water requirements, delivery, placement, setup, and final testing. They can also help with surrounding elements such as cold plunges, patios, fire pits, boulders, landscaping, and tree work.

And there’s one particularly important difference: Värma delivers the sauna fully built.

There’s no flat-packed kit arriving at your house, no complicated DIY assembly, and no need to find contractors to put all the pieces together. Each new build is constructed in Värma’s Reno workshop and then transported directly to the property. The Värma team handles precise placement, setup, finishing, systems testing, and a final quality check so the sauna is ready to enjoy.

Local Expertise Behind Every Build

Värma’s three founders bring complementary skills to the company.

Managing partner Jeff Lennan grew up helping his father build commercial fishing boats, giving him an early appreciation for craftsmanship and building things meant to last. After 25 years running an advertising agency, he returned to hands-on building through Värma. Like his partners, he’s firmly rooted in the Truckee lifestyle and community.

Cofounder and lead builder Max Collinson is a licensed contractor specializing in precision timber work and fine finish carpentry. A Truckee native now raising a family here, he has extensive personal and professional experience with the demands of building in the mountains.

Cofounder and lead engineer Brandon Brooks is a licensed professional structural engineer and owner of Shear Force Engineering. His expertise helps ensure Värma saunas are engineered not just to look good, but to perform in the extreme conditions of the Sierra.

Together, the three have created a company that combines local knowledge with serious attention to engineering, craftsmanship, and design.

For homeowners thinking about adding a sauna to an outdoor living space and businesses considering adding a professional-grade sauna experience, Värma offers something made specifically for this place: a sauna built to last, engineered by experts, designed for our mountain climate, and delivered fully built and ready to enjoy.

We are happy to welcome Värma Sauna Co to our business community. Learn more at varmasauna.com.