Choosing the Right Hot Tub Base

Installing a hot tub at your property is always an exciting endeavour. It promises relaxation, recuperation, and fun with friends, family and loved ones. However, before you can enjoy the warmth and bubbles, it’s important to lay the groundwork for a successful hot tub installation. One of the most important parts of preparing your site is choosing the right hot tub base.

If you have chosen your garden as the place to situate your hot tub, then you may have an ideal base ready, or some landscaping work may be required. To help you choose the right hot tub base, we will talk through the ideal foundations and the work you will need to do to make sure your site is ready for this luxurious investment.

Whether you have owned a hot tub before or you are a first-time hot tub buyer, here are the key considerations to make for a successful hot tub installation.

Choosing a hot tub base

There are a number of key factors to consider for where you will install your hot tub. Firstly, it’s important that the surface is level in order to ensure water stays level, bathers are safe when they climb in and out and that the weight of the hot tub is evenly distributed to ensure its longevity.

Further to making sure the surface for a hot tub installation is level, it’s important to consider the weight of a hot tub. When filled with water, hot tubs can weigh as much as 3,000kg, so the base they are installed on must be able to withstand the weight. If the chosen surface cannot support this kind of weight, a risen surface will collapse over time, or the hot tub will simply sink into the ground.

Now that you understand these essential rules for installing a hot tub, it’s important to consider the different bases that are well suited for supporting a hot tub.

Concrete base

One of the most common and most effective approaches for installing a hot tub is to choose a concrete base. There are a number of reasons why concrete is a great solution:

• It is solid and provides strong support for the weight of a filled hot tub
• It’s easy to create a level surface with concrete
• Concrete is relatively inexpensive and is easy to lay.
• It’s easy to keep clean.

If you are concerned about the way concrete will look, you can always lay a block of concrete that is only slightly larger than the footprint of your hot tub, and you can always surround the concrete with decking or a block paving trim to help ensure it fits aesthetically with your garden. 

To ensure a sturdy and safe base, it’s important that the concrete is at least 10cm thick.

Decking

Timber decking has grown to be extremely popular in gardens in recent years and has a number of benefits when used as a base for a hot tub. For example:

• Decking provides a safe, sturdy and level platform for your hot tub.
• Composite or pressure treated timber decking not only looks fantastic, enhancing the aesthetics of your hot tub, it’s also designed to withstand the elements, providing long-lasting performance.
• Decking can also incorporate additional special features, like built-in seating, storage and lighting surrounding the hot tub area, helping to entertain guests in and out of the water and bubbles.
• Decking for hot tubs uses anti-slip materials to ensure people are safe when climbing in or out of the hot tub.
• Decking is well designed to provide good drainage for when you empty or fill your hot tub, as well as any water that splashes over when people enter or exit the hot tub.

Block paving or stone

In most cases, block paved or stone patios are reinforced enough to support the weight of a hot tub, so if you are happy with your existing patio for housing a hot tub, then it’s likely that not a lot of preparation will be needed. As a result, choosing an existing patio surface can help you save money.

When choosing block paving or stone patio as a hot tub base, you should however check that it is suitably level for a hot tub and that there is suitable drainage. In order to ensure the longevity of your hot tub, you do not want water to stand around the base, as needless to say, rain is very likely in the UK.

Other hot tub surfaces

Whilst the above surfaces are the bases we would most frequently recommend, as long as the surface is level and able to support the weight of a hot tub, it is usually suitable. One surface that is absolutely not suitable for hot tub installation is grass. Regardless of how level the surface is, the weight of a hot tub will cause it to sink into the grass. It’s likely that the area surrounding the hot tub would also be wet and muddy, leading to damage to the hot tub’s body, providing slip hazards and making it harder to keep hot tub water clean.

Hot Tubs Staffordshire Specialists

If you are in search of a hot tub for your garden, specialist installation services, or advice on choosing the best surface on which to place your hot tub, then you can go to allweatherleisure.com or visit their Cannock or Shrewsbury showrooms.