Placement of hot tub

[spahopeful]

I'm planning on placing my new hot tub adjacent to a deck that's 26" high so I can step directly from my deck into the hot tub.  The front access panel will face the house and be about 42" from the house.  One of the side panels will rest next to the deck where I step in.  The other two panels will be completely barrier free.  Does any see any significant access problems with this setup?

[Tatooed_Lady]

I was told just to be sure to plan for about 3' clearance by the main panel, for easy access in an emergency (reset heater, service, etc)...I guess if you NEED to get into a secondary panel, it'd be to find a leak, wouldn't it? So....those wouldn't be so important to keep clearance for, other than for the cover lifter arms and cover clearance, if needed....
Just my uneducated mind at work, grasping for logical answers....... (see also: IMHO)

[tony]

My tub is set into a deck and is right up next to the house on one side.  I have two feet of access on three sides and the fourth side is up tight against the deck.  My concrete pad that the spa sits on is large enough that if I need to get to that side, I can move the spa (empty of course) to get at it.  The front panel which needs constant access has removable trap door floor deck pieces.  If you have a plan to be able to get at the side in question, you should be fine as long as it is not the front panel.

[PaulMc]

  I'd recommend extending the deck. A while back I think you asked osmething kind of similar and here was my comments at that point.

[PaulMc]

  Well that worked well .....    

  I placed ours right beside our existing deck. If you look at the homepage or whatever that icon is by our names you can see in the last 4 pictures or so show where I dug out a lilac bush and sandbox and then where I placed the tub before I extended the deck. Tub is 21  inches from deck and 36 inches from wall.  

 Existing deck is about 18 inches high I believe, so top of tub to deck addition is about the same 18-19 inches. Had a choice of building the extension up six inches or so, or even lower it, but opted to leave it flush, as I think it's better in the snow. It's easy to get in and out, particularily using the handle by the controls.

 Access - make sure there's room for access. Knock on wood we haven't needed to service the tub yet but I built the extension so that it is removeable by taking a few deck boards off and then taking out the lag screws that hold the new part to the existing and to the wall and the privacy fence/lattice is removable, so all four sides are easily accessed if need be.  

 Like everyone else I wanted to get into using it as quickly as possible so I just put what resembles a fence with privacy lattice on the two outside sides and it will do for now. I managed to have a little shelf between the posts so beverages have a nice place to be. Maybe this summer we'll finish some landscaping if I can get the other todo's on the list whittled down, and I'll do something different with the lattice/fence.

[Tatooed_Lady]

Paul, that might've been me asking about putting the tub by the deck.....ours is raised 15" from the ground, and I'd considered butting it against the deck as close as possible, maybe cutting a corner out of the deck, etc...turns out the first idea will probably be the end result....concrete pad NEXT to the deck, but with enough room to step off the deck onto the concrete....then run something like a 6' privacy fence around the slab...lots of issues big and small have made things just seem like this would be the simplest in terms of "what if the tub HAD to be moved or accessed?"

spahopeful, Best of luck!

[drewstar]

I don't think you'd have any problem with that. You've got plent of room in the front for equipment access, the side panels only come off if you have significant problem with a leak in that area. If this was the case, the tub would be drained anyhow and could be moved away from the deck to get access.


Are you putting on a cover lifter?  Where will that fit into the picture? and  in what direction will it lift off? With my hot tub the dealer told me I absolutely had to mout the lifter so that the cover lifted from the front, toward the back.

[spahopeful]

I will be have the cover lifting away from the deck.  The J385 is about 38" high and my deck is about 27" high, so there will be about 11" of the hot tub above the deck.