Some Questions on Placement

[Tomcattwo]

Hi all!
My wife and I have been working on our back yard since we bought our house in Northern Virginia near Quantico 5 years ago. When we bought it, the entire backyard was pea gravel! We've since put in a small bit of lawn, a beautiful little waterfall/pond with a mulched park bench area, terraced flagstone patio (which I laid myself) and put in a 6' privacy fence. We need to finish off the winding flagstone path. But yesterday, we finally had the pad poured for the lower patio which will hold our new hot tub (we plan to purchase next spring, after we finish the last part of the pathway this fall). The pad is about 9' x 17' and the place where the hot tub is to go has a 6' board fence on two sides. We are planning to get a 7' x 7' (approx) tub for fitting 4-5 adults. Think for instance a Jacuzzi J335, Hot Springs Aria, Sundance Camden or the like. The positioning of the tub was designed to overlook the pond/waterfall, and is just 10'-15'from the garage entrance and into the finished basement which has a big bathroom and two bedrooms to allow bathers to change.

First question:
Should I plan to leave space between the back and left side of the tub and the fence or can I place the tub right up against the fence?

Second question:
If the answer above is "yes, you need to leave space", how much? 18" of space would fit the plan for a 7' x 7' tub with
all of it on the pad. I'll post some pix and a scale drawing once I download 'em and scan in the drawing.

Here's the layout:



Pictures of the pad. Tub is going into the corner where the fence is.






 
Thanks in advance,
Tomcattwo (TC2)

[Cyber36]

Depending on how you position the tub, you may want to leave a gap(3' is plenty) to allow clearence for a cover lift. Even if you don't use a lift, I think you'd like to have room around the entire tub for maintenice, etc. I say 3' because a person should be able to get behind it, remove a panel if need be, & kneel down. Just my 2cents.....

[passmaster16]

Obviously you're limited with 9' width of the pad, but I'd try to leave as much room around the tub as possible, especially around the front where the control box is.  I have a similar situation to you where my patio isn't really big and I'm trying to limit how much space the tub takes up.  You might want to check your local codes for setback requirements as well.  In my area, the tub is supposed to be 5 feet away from the property line, but I really don't have much choice but to put it closer to my fence/property line than the 5' requirement.

Also when you poured your slab, did you run conduit underground first for your electrical?

[Tomcattwo]

@passmaster16: Thanks for the inputs! Front of the tub (with control panel) will be facing out and fully open. Roger space in back for cover-lifter. On conduit, plan is to run 240v out of garage in conduit behind the fence, so didn't need any conduit under the pad.

@cyber36 - thx. Would love to have 3' all the way around, but best I can do and still keep the tub on the pad is 18" on the side against the side fence, due to max width of the pad at 8' 9".

What do folks do who have in-ground tubs with respect to access for maintenance?
Thx, TC2