Building a deck to hold a hot tub - any special concerns?
GopherHockey
placing a hot tub on this deck and have been told that it requires at
least a 90lb. per sq. ft capacity. Many deck people in my area claim
theirs will hold 100 - but deck plans I see in books often say 40-60.
What makes a deck hold more than others?
The reason I ask is that I can't locate a deck builder that is willing
to work on a deck until at least August. My brother in law works for
a construction company and has built many decks, but I fear he goes
more by idea than by plans.
I want to get some plans made up and be sure they can handle the hot
tub. Are there any online services I can use? Anyone have any tips
to be sure this deck is built with the necessary strength?
The deck would be about 8' high over our look-out basement. It would
be in two basic secionts - one 8' x 10' wide and the section holding
the hot-tub would be about 12' x 14' wide.
I've looked all over online and can't find good resources for decks.
Even the book I have says nothing about strength of the deck even
though it goes into great detail about just about everything else.
In serious need of help...
AJ
wrote:
I would layout the whole deck using the standard tables for span of
your choice of wood. Doubling( 2x8 or 2x10 )whatever the table calls
for is a good start under the tub side. Use double joist hangers for
side by side joists. Full size hangers a must not the 2x6 hangers a
lot of people get by with. 12" on center will gain even more strength.
A deck is not rated for snow load when it doesn't have a roof. Your
tub is somewhat of a snow load. The footings have to be enlarged.
In my area all roof footings must be 18" in diameter because of punch
through. That is where a round footing under load just pokes down into
the ground.
These are rough ideas to get you going. Good luck.
AJ
GLT
his first name. Good Luck. Greg
"GopherHockey" <hes...@zebra.net > wrote in message
news:sc31is4nua9fi2frt...@4ax.com...
Homebuildcoach
to house and make sure all bolts go well into the frame of existing house. Use
joist hangers with each joist. Double up frame of deck all around. To be extra
sure, place a triple beam(girder) under the floor joists through where the
center of the hot tub will be. Make sure concrete footings are 42" below grade
and not further than eight feet apart.YOU WILL HAVE " NO" problem!
Bruce Chrustie
GopherHockey wrote:
>
> I have a new home built that needs a nice new patio. I will be
> placing a hot tub on this deck and have been told that it requires at
> least a 90lb. per sq. ft capacity.
this would be a great opportunity ti hire an engineer to perform the
loading calc and guarantee it! I would be a bit nervous sitting in a
hottub 8' up wondering if will eventually callapse at the most
in-opportune moment!
good luck!
MV
additional live loading (people) you should not guess on the size and
spacing of the joists. I always get scared in this newsgroup when people
throw out structural advice without understanding the math.
Bruce Chrustie <ro...@root.com> wrote in message
news:3921722C...@root.com...
Eric Gunnerson
alone weighs about 2000 pounds. Add 5 adults at around 200 pounds each, and
you get up around 3000 pounds.
I was surprised how much extra beef got engineered to hold that load.
"MV" <mver...@csinet.net> wrote in message
news:3922ac76$1...@news.csinet.net...
Ron Oliver
have to be extremely beefy. If you have some flexibility in the design you can
make a deck that is both stronger and more efficient than a massive structure
with doubled and tripled beams. Conventional deck designs do not provide
efficient loading paths for hot tubs. To make up for this inefficiency with a
joist and beam design requires a *lot* of wood.
I recently designed a deck with a built-in hot tub. The platform that the tub
rests on is below the rest of the deck so that the top of the tub is even with
the deck. The platform is 8' square with five 6x6 posts, one at each corner
and one in the center. The top of all posts are even. On top of the posts are
2x8 beams, between each corner post, and from each corner post to the center.
Viewed from the top it forms an X in a box. On top of these beams I screwed
down 2x8 decking. It is very important to provide stability for the platform,
so all of the corner posts have diagonal bracing, fastened with 5/8" hot-dip
galvanized bolts.
For the loading calculations I used the published weight of the largest Jacuzzi
hot tub available from Home Depot, fully loaded with water and people (4600
lb.) Since the platform is 8'x8', I rounded the load to a nice, even 100psf.
I did a rigorous analysis and found that the beams were fairly lightly loaded.
I had lots of margin on all members and didn't have to cut down a forest to
build it. A friend saw it, liked it, and duplicated it with equal success.
I hope this helps. I will agree with the rest of the folks, though. If in
doubt, hire someone.
RonO
GopherHockey
tub lower into the deck (to save costs) but in this case you could
design the 8x8 section to hold the heavy load, the rest of the deck
could be planned out for normal loads (40-60ft/sq. ft?)
I'm tempted to put the tub on the ground on a cement pad and say screw
it, but it would be so much nicer up in the air and the view would be
much nicer as well.
AJ
wrote:
>This sounds very interesting - we weren't thinking of putting the hot
>tub lower into the deck (to save costs) but in this case you could
>design the 8x8 section to hold the heavy load, the rest of the deck
>could be planned out for normal loads (40-60ft/sq. ft?)
>
>I'm tempted to put the tub on the ground on a cement pad and say screw
>it, but it would be so much nicer up in the air and the view would be
>much nicer as well.
>
>
Small problems become big ones when their built in. Changing filters,
heating cores, trouble shooting GFCI's are just a few. A tub with nice
sides like redwood looks nicer than just an insulated cover at deck
level. I got one people had built in and was too hard to maintain. I
put it on my deck with the 15 year old sides and it looks better than
it did sunken in a cedar deck.
I urethaned the redwood sides and they look like teakwood.
It also may be less likely to find a child floating in one thats not
sunk in a deck.
AJ
GopherHockey
;-)
I guess I better just hire someone to do up the plans correctly
whichever way we decide.
Thanks everyone!
Bruce Chrustie
GopherHockey wrote:
>
> There are entirely too many people with good points in this newsgroup
> ;-)
I guess my final good point would be to save yourself the hassle and
headache of building the deck and just give me the hottub!
OK I tried....
bruce,