Hello all,

I just bought a spa shell without a cabinet. I am going to build one this weekend but I'm not sure which materials to use. I am not looking to spend a lot and I do not mind doing it all over in a few years. Right nows I am looking into using plastics or architectural foam. Does anyone have any ideas?

P.S.

This spa will be in an indoor screen porch.

What I have used in the past with good success is tongue and groove pine carsiding. As long as it is properly sealed, stained, and urethaned, it will last for several years, and looks very nice. I have a picture of one I did in pine carsiding here in the forum, so please feel free to get an idea of what it would look like. The picture I have is before it was stained.

the house i just bought had an old leisure bay industries hot tub in the back, which the previous owner had used plywood for the cabinet...interior grade at that...needles to say it looked like crap....Being that the tub had been neglected for years, i didnt think it was worth dropping alot of money on a cedar or redwood cabinet...so i began looking around and found an excellent material, that was cheap, lasted long, and looked great.....I used 1/2 inch x 4 pressure treated fence pickets!..they come in 6 foot lengths so i got 2 runs per picket...the tub had an existing 2x4 frame, which was quite shoddy craftsmanship, but i was able to salvage it....so i first installed a ledge where the lip of the tub rested on, then proceeded to install the pickets to butt up against the lip, spacing the pickets i believe it was 2 1/2 inches, and then nailing another picket on top, covering the space, to get a nice alternating pattern (dont know if that makes sense but thats as best as i can explain it, start looking at wood fences and you can get an idea of what the pattern looks like) (also, i nailed the pickets you might want to screw for easy removal) i think this is the best looking cabinet you can build for the money...your gonna have to build a frame, but it doesnt have to be antying crazy, basically just nailers for the pickets and to hold the tub from tipping over.....best of all, each picket only cost 99 cents, and i needed about 50 of them....50 bucks..its looks good, extremely durable pressure treated lumber, and very sturdy cabinet....just an idea.....oh, the lip i made from 5/4 by 6 decking, mitered at the corners....i then solid stained everything a cedar color...for a total of 75 bucks, it looks great....(actually it cost me a bit more cuz i bought a 12'' dewalt miter saw at a pawn shop for $130, but it was well worht, and i now have a saw) Hope it helps..

Yes, I understand exactly what you mean by the alternation of the pickets, and it sounds like a great idea to me! Congrats on your success!

For those of ya that may be confused about the alternation, maybe this might help (sorry for the crudeness)

_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_

OOPS! forgot to log in on my post regarding the picket sequence.... so here I am!

Charger1..thanks for the reply on the other forum regarding my inoperational jets...i pretty good with the carpentry, but i'm at a loss when it comes to troubleshoting hot tubs......

oh i replied to the cabinet construction using the fence pickets before i registered.

Hello Everyone,

I inherited a tub recently, but the skirt was trashed. It just didn't survive the trip. So, I went to Home Depot (I'm sure any major lumber store would have it too.) and piked up some T1-11 plywood. It's just plywood with grooves cut into it to make it look like tounge and groove. I found it much more stable than the original tounge and groove construction this tub had.

Best of all, its cheap and available presure treated.

Good Luck!

Pep

Great ideas guys on the pickets and the T111.

How did you handle the corners? Did you make it square or did you follow the curve (if yours is curved at the corners). I thought about using fence pickets horizontally for the straights and then turning vertical for the curved corners and slicing a picket in thin strips that are angled just enough to make the curves smooth and somewhat sealable. The horizontal straight sides would be a crude, overlapping tongue and groove, you know, like this ///// with the left end of that crude illustration being the top of the tub. Of course, I'd have to put some trim between the horizontal and vertical pieces. The pickets could also be stained or if T111 is used, it could be painted, I suppose.

Jeff