October 5, 2026
Our partner Woodmaster Slovakia (woodmaster.sk) is a premium wood supplier and a company pioneering wellness experience design, as well as the official Thermory distributor in Slovakia.
Woodmaster supplies thermally modified wood (Thermowood) for indoor and outdoor cladding, decking and sauna building, and is building a Thermory Authorized Contractor Network in Slovakia. The company’s passion for this material has been recognized with multiple victories in the sauna category of the Thermory Design Awards:
Woodmaster began working with Thermory in 2016, when the company started purchasing materials from a Thermory partner in Hungary. The connection was strengthened when Haserv, an Estonian supplier Woodmaster already sourced wood from, merged with Thermory, creating a direct relationship between the two companies.
The partnership between Woodmaster and Thermory has been built on shared values of craftsmanship and sustainability. Thermory products have played a crucial role in Woodmaster’s consistent high quality standards as the company evolved over the years, enhancing its range with more innovative designs like mobile saunas.
We spoke with Peter Jančár about Slovakia’s evolving sauna culture, the role of quality materials in creating authentic wellness experiences, and the partnership that has grown alongside it.
When Woodmaster started out, there was little awareness in Slovakia of thermal modification and its benefits, like increased durability, weather resistance and sustainability. We persevered however, patiently educating potential customers on its environmental and practical benefits.
Part of our strategy involved engaging with architects, whose influence helped us increase understanding of the role of thermally modified wood in construction and design. Over time, we’ve helped to raise awareness of the material’s value, particularly for saunas, where its resistance to moisture and temperature changes is a major advantage. We continue to advocate for thermally modified wood, with a focus on sustainability and long-term performance.
Woodmaster’s collaboration with Thermory began through our relationship with Skandináv Fatelep, a Thermory partner based in Hungary that we already sourced materials from. Through this connection, we were introduced to Thermory’s high-quality products and we were immediately impressed by not only the product range, but also the company’s culture and treatment of its partners. The trust and professionalism they showed us has played a key role in the lasting partnership we’ve built since then.
Woodmaster has been the official Thermory distributor in Slovakia since 2016.
Alongside the exceptional quality of their products, the thing we value most about our collaboration with Thermory is the strong personal connections we’ve built with the people there. The company’s commitment to sustainability and their respectful, professional approach to working with partners aligns perfectly with our own values.
This partnership has allowed us to deliver saunas and many other exceptionally high-quality materials to the Slovak market by combining Thermory’s outstanding products with our exquisite custom designs. We also appreciate Thermory’s support in promoting the sustainability and durability benefits of thermal modification to architects and customers.
I’d also like to highlight the sense of community we experience through our collaboration with Thermory. Being part of a larger network of partners sharing similar values and goals fosters a supportive environment where we can all thrive – this camaraderie, fostered by Thermory, contributes to our overall success, and we appreciate it greatly.
One of Woodmaster’s favorite Thermory products is natural alder, an attractive wood celebrated for its warm, rich color and fine grain that adds a touch of elegance and a calming, inviting atmosphere to our sauna interiors and wellness spaces. Natural alder is also known for its durability and performance, with its ability to withstand heat and moisture making it reliable for long-lasting sauna and other installations.
First and foremost, Thermory products enable Woodmaster to meet our customers’ diverse needs effectively – whenever they’re seeking something truly outstanding, Thermory is always our first choice as the company’s unique offerings enable us to create distinctive sauna experiences that stand out in the market. Thermory’s extensive portfolio also offers a range of alternatives to natural spruce thanks to the variety of quality wood options that cater to different aesthetic preferences and design requirements.
And for those desiring luxurious materials, Thermory’s products exemplify elegance and quality; in particular, their thermo-ash and thermo-radiata pine enable us to enhance the aesthetics of sauna exteriors and interiors, delivering high-end designs that resonate with our clients.
What makes Thermory truly unique is its commitment to quality, sustainability and innovation. This partnership empowers us to offer exceptional products that don’t just simply fulfill our clients’ needs, but really elevate their sauna experiences. With Thermory, we can provide a comprehensive range of solutions that ensure both visual appeal and long-lasting performance.
A sauna market cannot grow faster than the sauna culture underneath it. People have to experience good löyly before they can recognize what a well-built sauna actually is, and long before they are ready to invest in one of their own. Supplying excellent material is only half the job; the other half is creating the occasions where people meet that material properly.
That is why I co-founded the Slovak Sauna Community, a Slovak civic association dedicated to promoting sauna culture and educating the public about the lifestyle around it. Its first initiative was SaunaLab, a community sauna space in Bratislava with five mobile saunas on the shore of Zlaté piesky lake, where visitors cool down directly in the water rather than under a shower. Woodmaster supports the association as a founding partner.
Woodmaster also co-organizes Parný Rozkvet, “Steam Bloom”, a sauna festival in Bratislava combining saunas, sauna rituals, breathwork, sound healing and a cultural program in a single day. We run it together with Pixxla, a sauna operator and one of our own clients.
Beyond our own events, we take saunas to festivals across Slovakia and the Czech Republic. These have included Festival Atmosféra in Slovakia, a music festival that also promotes wellness and healthy living; Hacker Camp in the Czech Republic, a gathering blending technology and outdoor living, including recreational activities like saunas; and Hiki Joki in Hradec Králové, another Czech festival that celebrates outdoor pursuits. We have also delivered saunas as part of brand experiences, including Zimný Grape, the winter edition of the Grape festival in Slovakia, where we brought a mobile sauna for Kofola and operated it throughout the event as part of a wellness zone with sauna rituals, run under the Slovak Sauna Community.
Events like these reach people who would never walk into a showroom, and often, it’s that first experience of a properly designed sauna that turns curiosity into genuine interest. Thermory materials are central to that work. The saunas we bring are the same ones we build for clients, so every visitor who sits in them is experiencing thermally modified wood firsthand: how it feels against the skin at temperature, how it holds up to constant heat and moisture, and how it ages. That is a far more convincing argument for thermal modification than any specification sheet we could hand someone.
Sauna Bobor. Woodmaster was the implementation partner on Komunitná sauna Bobor, a public community sauna cantilevered over the water from the stern of a boat moored on the Danube in Bratislava, designed by architects Martin Šichman and Matej Kurajda. The project was nominated for CE ZA AR 2025, the annual architecture award of the Slovak Chamber of Architects, in the Phenomena of Architecture category.
Community saunas and developers. Woodmaster is currently working on wellness experience design on several community saunas and social wellness clubs, and with real estate developers across the region. Developers increasingly understand that a well-designed shared wellness space is not just a decorative amenity, but an integral part of a residential project’s value proposition.
A new e-shop. We recently launched eshop.woodmaster.sk, giving Slovak customers direct access to Thermory materials, from cladding and decking to sauna wood, without the delays that used to come with sourcing smaller quantities.
Because a market that cannot tell a good sauna from a bad one will always buy on price, and will be disappointed by what it gets. Most of the decisions that determine whether a sauna works are made long before anyone orders the wood: ventilation, heat gradients, insulation, bench ergonomics, stove sizing and the choice of material. Get those wrong and no amount of beautiful cladding will rescue the result. Several of those mistakes are irreversible once the sauna is built.
We would rather spend our time explaining how it works than persuading anyone to buy. That takes a different form for each audience.
Architects. Later this year we are running an accredited education event for architects in Bratislava together with the Slovak Chamber of Architects, “Sauna, wellness a termodrevo v architektúre”: sauna, wellness and thermally modified wood in architecture. It carries five professional development credits and covers the technical standards architects need when a sauna or a wellness space enters their project, while the drawings are still open.
Operators and builders. We spoke at the GAMB conference in the Czech Republic, dedicated to glamping and small-scale living, and brought a mobile sauna along so delegates could experience one rather than only hear about it. That audience faces the same question our sauna clients do: which materials will still be performing in year fifteen, and which only look good in year one.
Anyone planning a sauna. We publish a free planning guide, Ako postaviť saunu, covering ten strategic decisions to make before building and the eight most common mistakes, from insulation and ventilation to bench ergonomics and choosing the right wood. It is written for private and commercial projects alike, and it does not assume the reader will buy from us. Its subtitle is our position in a single line: build it right the first time.
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