Decks, Patios, Porches and Docks - Existing deck needs support for hot tub

We have an existing deck that needs some reinforcing to put a hot tub on it. It has support beams at the four corners but not in the middle. It is about 12X12 in size. Any suggestions on how to do this without having to take the whole thing apart?

Welcome to the forums! You could continue to add post and beams under the area where the hot tub will be located to dug and poured footings with Simpson Strontie post bases installed to keep the uprights off the moisture and secured. We can't see what you see, so it would certainly help us to give you precise advice if you could take some digital pictures and upload them to a site such as photobucket.com and copy/paste the HTML code to your reply post. Then we can shift gears.

Hi jenny and welcome to the forum. There are many different ways to reinforce your deck, but we will need to know more about what is already there.
Four corner posts, what size and what do they rest on?
What size are the joists that run front to back and side to side?
Is the deck attached to the house?
How high off the ground is the deck?
Where do you want to place the new toy?
Pictures would help, here is a link to a previous post that describes the best ways to post pictures, Thanks Ray http://forum.doityourself.com/electrical-c-d-c/400914-how-put-pictures-your-post.html

enjoy
Bud

Chandler, I guess I'm going to have to learn how to type faster:).

Hello, first post here.

Just to give you an idea, I'm in the middle of completely demolishing our main deck which had a 12x18 pool in it.
As you can see from the photos, the pool had its own support beams, much heavier than the deck's, and independent from the rest of the decking.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c362/jojisan/P1040149.jpg

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c362/jojisan/P1040143.jpg

Fxpose, welcome to the forums! Looks like nothing a few ounces of C-4 couldn't handle. Good luck!

fxpose,

Welcome to the forums as well.

Now, a pool is a pool, and a spa is a spa. HUGE weight difference. Polls are measured in the 1,000's of gallons, spas in the 100's.

jennyrn,

Photos would help. Post them here or put them on a free site and post the URL.

A 12' X 12' deck is LARGE enough for a spa -- it's just a question of support. Assuming that the existing deck is up to the job, I would add a couple of beams below the joists to support the added weight of the spa. The spa supplier can give you diagrams showing the best place for that additional support to be.

Footings are a must. Like Chandler said, pour the footings and set a post base or column base in the concrete, then attach the posts to those bases. What you DO NOT want to do is embed wood in the concrete.

fxpose,

Welcome to the forums as well.

Now, a pool is a pool, and a spa is a spa. HUGE weight difference. Polls are measured in the 1,000's of gallons, spas in the 100's.


Thanks for the welcome!

Oops, I misread Jenny's post. I thought her spa was 12x12.

:)

fxpose,

You MISREAD the post?? Come on -- how could you??

OK -- I've had my fun with you!! I probably don't misread more than about 4 or 5 posts a week!! (ROTF,LMAO!!) But then too, some weeks are worse than others.

Now, Larry and Bud are USUALLY a little nicer than I am. They probably won't post anything about misreading a post.

But hey, if they do, it's all in fun. (I'm still laughin'!!!) You're fine!