Building a new patio for the Hot Tub: Some DIY Fun

Building a new patio for the Hot Tub: Some DIY Fun

Yesterday, I spent the day working on some backyard renovations. Recently, we bought a hot tub. We had always wanted a hot tub but had been holding off because they can be very expensive. We had even gone to a couple of hot tub shows and checked out the ones we liked best. Not long ago we had done some renovations to our house, so we weren’t necessarily looking for a hot tub at that time but friends of ours were getting rid of theirs and they offered it to us for a price that we couldn’t refuse. $500 and some help with painting a living room was an absolute steal for us. The hot tub is still in fantastic condition and they even offered to deliver it. So the hot tub was delivered. Unfortunately, we don’t have a place to put it so there was a need for a patio in our backyard. This meant it was time to jump into DIY mode.

Last week I jumped into action. After taking some measurements, I spent a day digging out the space hole for the patio. We needed an 8ft by 8ft hole dug out. Once the hole was dug and the base levelled I put down a layer of stone dust as a base and using a tamper I packed it down tight. The space was ready for pavers so off I went to pick them up. I decided on as basic a paver as you can get. This patio doesn’t need to be pretty. The reality is that we will never see this patio once the hot tub has been placed on it. I found some great 2X2 diamond cut pavers on sale for $6 each at Home Hardware. A lucky find.

The rest of the weekend got rained out so I had to wait until today to finish the job. The laying of the stones is a lot more tricky than you might think. Even though you have taken the time to level the base it does not mean that you can just start throwing dome the pavers and be done. In fact, each paver needs to be levelled individually and then levelled with the adjoining pavers. This requires a lot of tedious tinkering with the stone dust base for each stone. Once each stone is put in place you need to lift and re-adjust the stone dust.

As you get multiple stones down you can start to test that they are level with stones that are farther away. This can be done with a long level. Unfortunately, I don’t own a long level so I used a straight board with a level on top of it. As the distance from your first stone increases the more you need to check to ensure that the patio is level.

Here are some pictures that I took throughout the process:

The first stone



Branching out



Filing in the middle



Getting closer



Nearing the home stretch



One stone left

After a few hours of working in some pretty hot temperatures, I am down to the last stone. I must admit that this process has gone much more smoothly than I had expected. I have built a patio a few times before and this one came together quite well. It helped that it was a relatively small patio and the stones were all the same size and shape. Some stone patios can be very intricate and complicated. With this patio, there was very little tinkering which was great because the stones are about 80 lbs each and once they are in place it can be tricky to lift then while trying to add or remove more base in an area.

The finished product



All I need now is to move the hot tub (Anyone wanna help?)

Voila, the finished patio. Now it is time for a refreshing beverage while I sit back and admire my efforts. Now all I need to do is find a few willing people to help move the hot tub onto its new base and the electrician will get it hooked up for us. It won’t be long until we will be relaxing in our new hot tub with a beverage in our hand.


All images were taken by me.