Wood choice for hot tub.

techguy

Hi Guys,

I had originally planned on building a hot tub out of something like Larch or Cedar, but it has turned out to be super expensive.

I've read that those woods are required as they have a high and very hard resin content, which will aid water tightness and prevent rot.

As an alternative, i've been looking at building something out of a lesser wood but then fibreglassing and glazing it to make it water tight.

The idea is that you can then use a cheaper wood. What other kinds of wood do you think I could use.

I have two ideas.

1) Build the actual tub structure out of some kind of ply.. and glass that. Then dress it up on the outside with decorative wood.

2) Instead of the composite approach I could just build the tube structure with a single choice of wood.

Any thoughts on this one?

Thanks

kadman

Water pumps shafts were traditionally made from elm and alder. So might be an option possibly.

techguy

kadman wrote: »

Water pumps shafts were traditionally made from elm and alder. So might be an option possibly.

Interesting.. is that easily available?

tabby aspreme

Elm is scarce, lots of alder about, but getting it into planks could be difficult, what part of the country are you in OP, are there any sawmills near you, Douglas Fir and Larch would be two more options

recipio

techguy wrote: »

Interesting.. is that easily available?

Not really. Do you have a planer/thicknesser. ? You will easily find Iroko in the builders suppliers which is pretty waterproof but nasty to work. It gives off a dust - like pepper in the air.A project like this will consume wood and hard to see how it can be done 'on the cheap'

kadman

Building a hot tub/ fibreglassing all the fitments ect is going to be a serious ly labour intensive task.

I expect it will run to some expense as well. Is a bought hot tub a much more expensive option?

kadman

TheChizler

I've had the exact same thoughts so I suspect the point of this may be the challenge!

kadman

TheChizler wrote: »

I've had the exact same thoughts so I suspect the point of this may be the challenge!

I can think of less expensive challenges

kadman

As a project it involves some level of complexity.

First off you would need a fairly well equipped workshop. Some amount of
machinery. Saws, planers, thicknessers ect. Depending on your choices of materials of course.

Plenty of room. Hand and power tools, as well as consumables. And some understanding of wood characteristics.
For example some materials fair ok with water, some do not. Elm is ok, any wood containg tannins discolour when
in contact with water.

And fibreglassing is a whole other process. And you would need to be more than an average d'i'y'er.

Not meant to put the op off by any means, it would be a great thread for woodcraft.
But I want him to see any pitfalls, and not fall in to them.:)

kadman

Guru Maith Agut

Check

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY-Vt7f3tAI

this video out OP. Not sure how long it would last with bog standard pine but perhaps you could ask the video creator.