You gave the salesperson your down payment on a new spa and, hopefully sooner than later, a truck will be pulling up to your home to deliver it. (As of August 2021, customers in central Oregon are waiting over a year for a new tub.) You may already have a spot picked out and even prepared, but just in case I’m not too late, here are a few things to consider when choosing a location for your spa.
The biggest favor you can do yourself and your future repair person is to place the spa so that all 4 sides are exposed with a minimum of 2 feet of clearance on each side. That means not putting it right up against the house and certainly not pushed back into a corner. For one, they’re easier to push in than they are to pull back out.
The worst thing you can do is set the tub on a pad and then build the deck around it so that the spa is recessed into the deck upon completion. It looks nice, but it's very impractical. Smart designers typically put a removable hatch into the deck on the one side of the spa where the pumps and electronics are located. As helpful as this hatch is in most cases, it does not help you if your tub is losing water and everything on the accessible side is bone dry.
The sad truth is that your beautiful, brand-new tub may someday spring a leak, and it may be somewhere other than in that convenient access area. If the side closest to the leak is inaccessible, it will be you who needs to make it accessible before a repairman can do a thing. Getting a spa up and out of a hole in a deck is neither cheap nor easy. Even if you hire spa movers, you will need to make sure that they can gain good access to the tub, which means you or somebody is going to be removing a bunch of decking, most likely.
If you are replacing a spa that is presently recessed into a deck, I strongly recommend decking over that hole once the old tub is removed. Then you're not faced with the chore of finding a new spa with a matching footprint. You will instead be placing your new spa above-deck, so to speak. The new spa should come with some steps that are perfect for getting in and out of the tub.
Aside from giving the spa two feet of access on all sides, there are a couple of other things to consider. You really, really shouldn’t put the spa under a tree if at all possible. Some trees (like junipers) are worse than others, but all will drop debris onto your spa. Aside from leaves, needles, pine cones, and squirrel crap, I’ve also found many a fallen branch on top of a now punctured and/or cracked spa cover. Today, new spa covers start at around $375.
It’s also not a good idea to place the spa under the eaves of a roof. Roofs will channel debris into your spa, especially asphalt shingles which will provide you with a continuous rain of tiny cinders that will collect in the spa’s floor and seats. The real treat is discovering that there are iron filings in your shingles by the rust stains they leave on the otherwise pearly-white shell.
You really just want a level, or close-to-level pad for the spa to rest upon (no need to get crazy about it. Close is fine). It doesn’t have to be a wood or concrete base, but it can be. My tub is sitting semi-level on a bed of 2” landscape rocks, and I enjoy it just fine. I don’t recommend placing the tub too far away from the house. The further away, the less it calls to be used, especially when it’s cold outside.
Lastly, the cleaner the path to the spa, the cleaner the spa will stay. The cleanest tubs I maintain are ones where the owners walk a short way from the house, across a swept deck, and into the spa. If you have to walk through the yard to get to it, you’re going to bring in grass, dirt, and all kinds of crud, even if you are wearing flip-flops. Trust me.
Wherever you decide to put yours, having a tub is better than not having one. So, just enjoy it. And call me if you ever have a problem with yours. You can also let me know if you would like to learn more about regular maintenance in central Oregon. Cheers.
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