DIY HOT TUB COVER

Ten years ago my husband and I bought a cute little ranch style home that had great bones but needed some updates and TLC. We did so many DIY projects inside and out. I finally decided I needed to share one of them.

With that said, here is one of those projects.

We bought a used hot tub several summers ago and the cover that came with it was old, falling apart and incredibly heavy and awkward. I was searching the web for covers and was put off by how expensive they are. We didn’t have a lot of room in the gazebo we had built for the huge thing either. Then I came across a company in Canada that made a roll up cover with an insulated pad and some beautiful wood beams. I was so impressed I emailed for a quote. Well to say the least, the quote was way more than we wanted to spend too. But that wasn’t going to stop the idea. I searched some more and found a YouTube video posted by a gentleman that made his own cover with a tarp and some 1 x 4’s. That’s when the idea came to me to make my own! I sent the videos to my husband (because he is the build master) and began to plan. Here’s what we came up with:

Update: I have RECEIVED several comments on the supplies I used, to help I have linked the supply list with SIMILAR products so you can get an idea of what I used. Of COARSE they are AFFILIATE links. Thank you for reading our post! 

Step 1.

Gather the supply’s:

Tarp

Boards to sand and stain/paint. Should be long enough to lay over the entire top with an inch or two to hang over. So the boards don’t fall in. We used 1×2 boards.

Waterproof stain or paint

Glue (Like liquid nail)

Stainless steel staples and staple gun

Insulation, found with the house insulation but it is made for coolers. It is thin and flexible.

Duct Tape, (Not shown in the picture but we found it was way more useful than the glue!)

OK, There you have it. You are ready to get started!

Most of the supply’s, but because this was the first time, some other supply’s were used later.

Step 2.

Measure twice cut once! Cut your boards long enough to overlap each side of the hot tub by about an inch. The video I watched by the gentleman on U-Tube said he had trouble with his falling into the hot tub, he recommended they be a little longer.

Cut the wood to size.

Step 3.

Sand your boards smooth and wipe clean. Paint with a waterproof stain or paint. We used Thompson’s simi transparent waterproof stain to try and match our hot tub wood.

Paint with water proof paint/stain.

Step 4

While waiting on the boards to dry you can start working on the tarp. You want a tarp that is several inches bigger than your hot tub dimensions. I cut it twice as long plus 3 inches on each side so I could fold it over. The width was the width of the hot tub plus several inches on each side. The extra inches were to fold over and glue down at the end.

Cut the tarp to have at least 3 inches all the way around to fold over the top of the insulation. Glue down the insulation or use duct tape to hold it down to the tarp. We used glue but it didn’t hold well so you will see in the next few pictures how I had to salvage it with duct tape to hold the insulation to the tarp. I also taped the insulation together so it would be all one piece. Once the glue is dry you will turn it over so the top of the tarp is up.

Step 5

I don’t have a picture of this part but you can kind of see it here. You want to glue the boards down onto the top of the tarp. You want them to be held in place so you can turn it back over and staple through the insulation and the tarp into each board. You will also want to use stainless steal staples so they don’t rust. We placed the board’s one board width apart to give it room to roll up.

I forgot to take a picture of gluing the boards down to the top of the tarp. This is a picture after we turned it back over and stapled through the insulation and the tarp into each board.

Once you staple all the boards, staple at each end and about every 6 to 8 inches, you will fold the tarp over to cover the insulation. I folded all the edges over and glued them down. However, the glue we used did not hold well even after we weighted it down and left it overnight. We found it still needed to be stapled all the way around to hold it tight. I then covered all the staples with brown duct tape to give it a finished look.

Here is the finished Cover! Nice!

Here is the finished product!

Just roll it back…

And there you go! It doesn’t take up much space and it is working great!!!

The blue cover you see in the picture here is a pool blanket we found Here. We chose to take it off once we had the cover finished, just didn’t need it anymore.

Update 3/10/2016

We have been using our cover now for 6 months and it is holding up Great!

Update 5/18/16

The Cover is Great! Still love it!

DISCLOSURE: SOME OF THE LINKS IN THIS POST ARE AFFILIATE LINKS AND IF YOU GO THROUGH THEM TO MAKE A PURCHASE I WILL EARN A COMMISSION. WHETHER OR NOT YOU DECIDE TO BUY SOMETHING IS COMPLETELY UP TO YOU.