Nothing adds beauty and elegance to the backyard quite like a deck does. A nice big wooden deck hanging off the back of a house makes the whole backyard seem more peaceful, more tranquil, and more entertaining. A hot tub adds that extra touch of relaxation to the house. Many people like combining hot tubs on their decks. If you are building your own deck however, keep in mind that adding a hot tub to your deck adds a lot of complexity to your project..
Building a new wooden deck, is in and of itself not too difficult a task. You basically start out by building a wooden box with some cross members for support. You then add some decking or planks on top of that wooden box and you have the basic deck. Most decks are supported above ground by using 4x4 or 6 x 6 posts.
A hot tub adds an extra challenge. A typical empty spa weighs in the neighborhood of 600 to 800 pounds. You must be sure that your deck can support such a large amount of weight in one spot. And this is just for the empty spa. Once you add water to the hot tub the weight increases even more. A 5 person spa holds roughly 300 gallons of water. This adds over 2000 pounds or water weight on your deck. If your deck is not built strong enough or if the cross members are not thick enough to support this weight your deck is destined to collapse.
And this is just for the deck without people on it. If we look at our hot tub now full of water eight weighing 600 pounds plus the 2000 pounds for the water. This equals 2600 pounds for the spa with water. Then lets say you've invited three friends to join you in your hot tub. Let's use 200 pounds as an average weight for a person. If you put four or five people into your hot tub, you've just increased your weight load by 1000 pounds. So now, our meager little deck that may have been built to support a table and chairs, is now supporting 3600 pounds in one concentrated area. A small car weighs 3600 pounds! Would you trust driving your car up onto your deck?
The bottom line when building a deck to support a hot tub is to be sure to consult a structural engineer to go over your plans. An engineer will ensure that you're framing and decking will support the weight of a hot tub fully loaded with water and full of people. If you don't consult a structural engineer, you run the risk of building a deck that will not support the weight of your hot tub which could lead to a collapse of your wooden deck and potentially to injury.
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