The Year of the Hot Tub Deck
The summer of 2021 was to be the year of the hot tub deck!! After the construction of my Magical Patio, I knew something was missing. Spending the summer of 2020 behind my detached garage in my inflatable hot tub was not ideal. There was nothing to look at and, quite frankly, extremely creepy when it was dark. I decided I needed to bring it out into the yard so I could stargaze and watch the sunset. And so it began….
My Drawing Skills are NOT Good
I tried to convey to my dad what I was looking for in a couple of really bad drawings. Oddly, it turned out pretty close. My plan was to also try and keep it out for the winter. That is an entirely different post and a giant block of ice. Anyway, after much conversation and calculations, we made the trip to Home Depot.
Digging and Putting in Posts
Unfortunately, I did not get any pictures of this process, but we rented the biggest post-hole digger in the history of the world. It was crazy heavy and super scary. Once again, my dad and I emerged victorious and dug 9 very large holes for the posts. To secure them in the ground, we used this super cool Sika Post Fix. If you are not into mixing up concrete, this is the stuff for you. It is lightweight, really fast, and my posts are not going anywhere. I would say that was the quickest part of the job.
Once that was all in, we began securing the decking to the posts. That didn’t take very long, and I was able to finish that up in the evening. From there, we began figuring out the upright 4 x 4’s and the roof trusses. I was really concerned about the roof being too high, as I did not want to obstruct my neighbor’s view of the sunset. We get really great sunsets here, which is also why I wanted the hot tub deck in that particular area. After we tacked up the trusses, I asked my neighbor to come out and check the height. We were good to go, so we nailed it together.
The Roof!
I’m not going to lie, the roof made us pause. But I had it in my head that I wanted to use corrugated roofing so that is what we went for. We ended up using this 26 in. x 12 ft. Foamed Polycarbonate Corrugated Roof Panel in Castle Grey from Home Depot with a matching ridge cap. Here is the interesting part…I ended up finishing the roof on a Friday night….with appendicitis. Of course, I didn’t know that at the time. Yep, I was laying up there screwing in roof panels and the ridge caps. When I was done, I celebrated with wine and hung lights in there. On Sunday, my dad came over and we got the hot tub in there, cleaned it, filled it, and everything. Monday night, I had an emergency appendectomy. Good times.
Hot Tub Deck Conclusion
After all that drama, I couldn’t even use my hot tub for 2 weeks. A serious bummer after all that work, but it turned out amazing. I decorated it with plants, a small table, and (naturally) tons of solar lights. It’s all about the solar lights friends. This summer I plan to add some perennials and a gravel walkway to really finish off the area. Stay tuned!
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