Hot Tub On Deck Support

You will always want to build a separate frame within your deck to support a hot tub.

Hot tub on deck support. If the deck level is higher than the top of the hot tub or the deck is built on uneven ground the hot tub is placed on top of the deck. Then fill the excavation with gravel and level. One alternative way to create support for a hot tub is to mount the deck to the house. Building your deck for a hot tub.

Let s add the dead load of 10 psf to our number and we get 111 psf in the area under the tub. The first is to take an 8 foot 2 4 meters by 8 foot 2 4 meters section of lawn out and dig down past the sod to undisturbed soil. A residential deck should be designed to hold 50 psf 40 psf live load and 10 psf dead load. Decks built ground level up to 2 feet off the ground can support up to 100 lbs per square foot.

Of course this isn t something you ll want to guesstimate. A very common size but he wanted to design his deck so that the top of the hot tub sat flush with the deck surface. The added support posts should be no more than 30 apart ideally placed in poured concrete. Sufficient for most hot tubs.

If we have just four footings of 1 sqft under the tube creating four rought equal tributary areas of 16 sqft each footing will have to carry 16x111 lbs or 1776 lbs over our 1 sqft footing and we have 1776 psf. Where it meets into the house run additional posts from the decking to the ground flush with the house on both corners of where the hot tub will sit. Greg s hot tub was 8 x8. Tall decks and hot tubs.

But decks 2 feet or higher will need added support. A standard 8 x 8 hot tub weighs about 5 000 lbs when fully loaded with water and people. Check with local building code to determine spacing requirements for posts. The second is to build a deck strong enough to support the weight of a hot tub filled with water and people enjoying themselves.

Figure 1 hot tub on raised deck most raised decks are constructed to hold a family maybe a few friends a barbecue and some outdoor furniture. Install decking up to from hot tub to leave room for expansion contraction and slight shifting of both the deck and the hot tub. Yes you can put a hot tub on a deck. The area under the hot tub should be framed as a separate system with its own footings.

Adding a hot tub to your deck however requires careful planning. But the surrounding deck was fairly high off the ground so the hot tub had to be supported by an elevated substructure. This added support will keep the deck from pulling away from the house with the added weight of a hot tub. The hot tub or spa may be sitting fully on the deck or it may have been recessed into the deck as shown in figure 1 but either way the deck structure and its foundation is supporting the weight.

Needless to say this is much more than a typical deck frame is designed to support.