Hot Tub Tips

Hot TubLessons Learned

By Stephanie Ornelas

Winter is here and that means one thing: it’s hot tub season. No matter where your next project is, whether it’s in Southern California or North Chicago, it’s a known fact that most homeowners appreciate a hot soak.

But not all decks and their hot tubs are built the same. Three outdoor living pros share a few lessons they’ve learned when installing hot tubs in their projects.

Leave some room.

One thing the carpentry team at Webfoot, Bend, OR., specializes in is building decks around sunken hot tubs, says owner Gavin Hepp.

“We recently finished a deck with a sunken hot tub in it and if you look at it, you’ll see we’ve got the radius on the hot tub, and we also have our deck boards perfectly scribed all the way around with a nice gap on them,” Hepp explained. “The reason for the gap is that way when your hot tub needs work or if it ever needs to be replaced, there’s plenty of room for it to be craned out.”

To carry out this necessary feature, Hepp and his team installed hatches for easy access to the hot tub panel.

“Just lift her right up and start working on your hot tub. And it’s the same for all sides. In this certain situation, and most decks that we deal with that have hot tubs, the concrete slab and foundation for the hot tub is already there.”

Hepp continued, “Any time you have short pieces of decking, oftentimes they’ll look a little jagged or they won’t line up. But if you look at our decks, you’ll notice that we have perfectly

straight lines going all the way across through the hatch. You don’t even know it’s there. With the hot tub sitting down in your deck, it’s a lot easier to get in and out, and your deck feels a lot more roomy.”

Proper planning is essential.

“A lot of folks ask me if dropping a hot tub in a deck is a good idea,” said Dave Faust, also know as Spa Guy Dave. “The big question that most people have to ask is: ‘Is it serviceable? Is there access to it?’ So, if you can achieve the access, then it’s not a bad idea, but in almost all cases builders and homeowners will find that accessing the equipment is one major challenge.”

In one project Faust responded to, the customer initially decided to go with a large access panel on the side, which he explained was fine at the time, but it grew into a big challenge.

“It became a huge issue because it only provided access to one particular pump and this master spa has three pumps,” he said. “Further down the line there’s another pump tucked all the way to the side and there are posts blocking the way. And unfortunately, there was another pump buried deep on the right, so this spa was decked in.”

According to Faust, a situation like this meant the entire deck had to be torn out to get to the third pump. “Proper planning is key in order to achieve the right kind of access,” he said.

“Better out than in” is not always the case.

Build Updates is a regular video series by Jason “Dr. Decks” Russell. Throughout the series, Russell refers to what he calls “advanced hot tub maneuvers,” where he documents the installations of his projects that involve installing (or replacing) hot tubs in his decks. And the lessons he’s learned are invaluable.

In one video where Russell frames up a hot tub landing, he explained what he had to do when a customer wanted their hot tub higher up.

“We had to raise the hot tub 12” off its existing foundation because the clients wanted the hot

EASY ACCESS: Builders Faust and Hepp both agree that leaving proper space between the tub and the deck for access and service is key.

tub a little higher up so it’s easier to get into,” Russell said.

The first thing he did was get a set of 2x12s into the large hole that would soon hold the hot tub. “Then we decked it out with some plywood to give it a nice, flat, load bearing capacity for the hot tub before dropping it right in the hole.”

But a big task, according to Russell, was actually getting the hot tub out in the first place. “That was a huge challenge. We started out with a duck-bill jack and we stuffed it under the side of the tub and just raised it up an inch,” he explained. “Then we stuffed some blocks in there and we just kept raising it up with this duck-bill until we got about a foot-and-a-half off one side. Next we shoved some 6x6s under and dropped the duck-bill so the tub kind of had a seesaw effect.”

That wasn’t all. Russell explained how certain sides of the tub were easier to reach than others due to an access hole that was on just one side. “My associate Andy then took some 4x6s and used them as big cantilevers. He stuck them under the tub and pushed them down, then clamped it to the deck so they got one side up out of the hole. After he went over on the other side and did the same thing.”

By putting 4x6s under the hot tub, the tub was eventually up and out of the deck, Russell explained. “And by using long pipes, we rolled the tub off the 4x6s and onto a large piece of plywood where it sat until it was ready to go back in.”

Keep it clean.

A common question when installing a hot tub in a deck is how to manage rot and decay. After framing the 2x12 platform and placing it in the hole, Russell had to deal with this next task.

“We G-taped the side of the platform so any dirt that sluffs on in the future against the wood doesn’t rot it. Then we G-taped the top of the plywood and lapped it over the side of the 2x12s so it protects the deck from future rot and decay,” added Russell.

THE PERFECT FIT: According to Dr. Decks, one of the biggest challenges was placing the heavy tub back into its hole.

PROPER MEASUREMENT is crucial when it comes to removing and placing the tub in its intended spot.

Save the heaviest for last.

Once Russell had the hot tub nearly installed, there was one final (and very heavy) challenge to get through.

“We had the daunting task of lowering a corner of the hot tub. It was so heavy and there was only two of us, so what we had to do was take a jack and extend it all the way... pop it a little bit... pull out some blocks... lower it down... put the blocks back in... then reset the jack... pull it up and pull out another block... then lower it down. And we kept doing that until we got it safely down onto the hot tub platform,” he explained.

Daunting indeed. But what could have happened had he not been so meticulous?

“We could just drop the thing but then you’re risking damaging it or causing a leak and no one wants that.”