Installing an Older Hot Tub

RE: Installing an Older Hot Tub Post By Estella (Guest Post) (09/16/2005) First be sure that everything works. Companies are only required to support most equipment for 3 years, so if something goes wrong it might not be possible to fix it. I would check out the company website and talk to more than one person who works with your brand. More than one because some will try to sell you a new one when it isn't necessary. Hot tubs are sometimes one of those things that people use a lot in the beginning and then not at all. Until you know you will use it consistently, just build a simple frame for it, with pea gravel under it, and steps up. I would use 2x4s to frame it, then exterior plywood for the sides. You can paint it to look nice. You'll probably have to put in a new circuit breaker for it. RE: Installing an Older Hot Tub Post By valleyrimgirl (Guest Post) (09/15/2005) We also had a hard time trying to find information on building a deck (or in our case a sunroom) around the hot tub. We wanted to also place it on the ground as you are wanting to do. We levelled the spot where we wanted to place the hot tub and then placed pea gravel down on the spot, making a raised bed. We figured that if someone in the tub splashes water out of the tub then the water going under the tub will drain away from the tub thereby extending the life of the outside of the tub. We then had the shell and the floor of our sunroom built where the hot tub was to go into. We ended up having to bring the hot tub in through the opening where one of the large window units went in the wall and lowered the hot tub into the hole in the floor and onto the pea gravel raised base. When you are inside the sunroom, all you can see of the hot tub surround is about 4 inches. We wanted to be able to step down into the hot tub not have to step up into the tub. We are in the process now of placing tile on the floor in the sunroom around the tub. Great for you to get a hot tub!!! We love ours!!! We wanted the hot tub in the sunroom because of the weather...mosquitos in the summer and the cold and the wind chill we get here in the winter. My sister has a hot tub outside and finds the mosquitos in the summer unbearable and when there is a wind in the wintertime, they cannot go into the hot tub because of the lid being in the air and moving and possibly damaging it and the minus 30 to minus 40 C temperatures we get here in Manitoba mean that it is too cold to use their tub at that time. Whereas...we are able to use ours year round because it is in the sunroom.