Hot-tub in a Sunroom ?

[DaddyMonkey]

My wife and I would like to have a sun- room as a place to relax and 'get away from the world' (no telephone, TV, ect.).

My concerns about having a hot-tub within the sunroom are;

1) How would moisture effect the walls, flooring and structure? How to overcome this 2) Do they make glass doors large enough to fit a 4-person (8x8') tub through? (in case we need to remove it) 3) Any other unforeseen problems that I need to think about?

We would like to have a sunroom instead of a deck to keep out bugs and outside noise. The room will face northeast and be 16x16 foot with about a 30 to 32 inch crawlspace. It will have aux. heat and AC with either casement or sliding windows.

All input appreciated! David

[wayne]

We had a sunroom built and the walls were double sided with a foam core the inside and outside walls were the same there was no wood in the structure to speak of. Just the panels and aluminum connectors. We put in a surface mount fan powered electric heater and it kept the room warm enough in the winter.

Since they had to run a subpanel for the electric heater having 240V for the heater was no big deal

I live in Colorado your climate will be different. We found in the winter we had to open windows as the hot tub got the room too warm. I would just use out door furniture in the room.

We had a sliding glass door put in for the hot tub I would look to see how large the hot tub you want is and then you can get a sliding glass door that would fit it.

Only thing to make sure of is that you put in GFI breaker for the hot tub. My tub had built in GFI but it was only for 1 leg so it did not meet code!

Wayne

[DaddyMonkey]

Thanks for the input, Wayne. I never gave the electrical much thought since I'd figured the electricians would be handling all of that... good advice though.

My apologies for not stating that I live in central Virginia and that the sunroom might be stick-built (wood frame) with the three walls having as much glass as possible.

Thanks, David

[WebsterSteve]

Put in a power ventilator to use while you're in the spa. When you're not using the spa, it will be covered and so shouldn't lose an appreciable ammount of moisture. But while it use, it will turn the room into a wet sauna if you don't ventilate it. The vent fan can be hooked up to a humidistat so it only comes on as needed.

If you drywall the room, use green board all around. 8'x8' is pretty big for a 4 person tub. There are smaller ones out there that are meant to fit through a door. Don't use any MDF, chipboard, etc. in the room. It will get wet and swell like a poisoned dog. Use only solid wood, tile, etc.

Don't forget to reinforce the floor. Figure that the spa will be ~1000 gallons plus the shell, skirt, equipment, people, etc. Another option would be to get just a shell and build it into the floor. That way you can have the equipment outside or under the floor in the crawlspace which will keep it quieter(but will make cleaning the filter a little more dificult unless you build a trap door right over the equipment).