After installing a hot tub, a fence surround not only provides privacy from neighbors, but will also help with reducing winds and weather when using the tub. Our design is to mimic the deck components, with some 4x4 capped posts. We are also allowing wind to easily pass through the fencing my spacing our boards an inch apart. It will still provide plenty of privacy.
A hot tub will require maintenance from time to time where access to the electronics and pumps and heater will be needed. The privacy fence we are building will allow easy access to the panel as the fencing will be a few feet away from the sides and will not go to the ground level either. Here's a before picture:
The 4x4 posts are being painted black. The 1x3 and 1x5 boards are being painted a grey tone. We are doing several coats before installing them. It's much easier to paint them first, indoors.
We are going to have 3 posts and we dug 18" holes. This fencing is not structural, it's not overly heavy and we are going to try using a new product to hold the posts. Luckily, we live with very sandy conditions under our loam and almost no rocks to speak of. It was very easy digging.
We are building the first panel on the ground. Two posts with staggered boards sizes, just to give it some interest and break up the pattern. We are using exterior screws so we don't get any rust running down the boards later.
With some help, we stood up the panel and secured it in place with a scrap 2x4 making sure we got it as level and plumb as possible. We can now build the second side in place.
Getting the first board level and screwed into the two posts solidifies our structure a bit so that we can keep adding the other boards below it.
We decided to try a new product for setting the posts. It's a small bag consisting of two chemicals that get mixed together and poured into the hole. It then expands rapidly to fill the hole and dries to a hard plastic like texture. It worked great! Here's the product information:
So much better than mixing up bags and bags of cement, not to mention bringing them all home!
After setting the three posts with the anchor chemical packs, we basically done. We added some posts toppers to match our deck posts and painted them black. Now we get some privacy when using the hot tub and we get some relief from cold winds in the winter, which is the best time to use a hot tub. We also have room to walk around the tub and can access/remove the control panel if we ever have to.
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