Our friends are buying a new hot tub and they are giving the old one to us. However, the wood skirting is in terrible shape. What do I use to replace it?

You can use just about anything you want. Some people use pine carsiding or groved panel siding (but will likely have to replace in 5-10 years due to decay), redwood, western red cedar, and some people use the new composite decking. The choice is yours, and a perfect time to design something to set it off and reflect the "you".

I've used sealed pine carsiding (very nice rustic appearance) and a combination of red and white cedars to make some cabinets.

I too am looking to replace the skirt on mine. I've had to dig in the HotSprings foam insulation and tear some of the pieces of paneling off in the process. What I'd like to do, is find some vinyl sheeting that comes on a roll about 2 feet wide or however tall the current panels are that maybe has a wood grain to it or something. Then, I could just wrap the spa and trim the bottom and the pump access door and be done with it. A very quick job that's more weather resistant than most woods. Anyone know where I can find something like that?

Thanks in advance,
Jeff

check with http://www.usplastic.com if it's made, and made of plastic, they will probably have it.

I have a cal spa that had the redwood skirt. was in bad shape and required staining constant maintence.

I removed the old skirt by prying off each board very carefully with a mini prybar. the planks were fitted under the shell lip at the top and stapled arond the sides to the frame. I removed all staples around the frame with needle nose pliars. This took about two hours start to finish from initially removing the planks.

I purchased a non vented vinyal soffit that has a pattern for the older fashioned beaded soffit. Starting at the point where the electrical connection enters the tub, I used tin snips to cut a section of soffit to length giving 1/2" to fit under the top of the spa shell and going to the bottom of the frame. On the first edge i cut out 1/2 of the hole needed for the electrical line. just put this in place and it was held by the overlap at the top The next section I cut to the same length and cut out the other 1/2 of the hole needed for the electrical line. put this section in place and connecter the two sections with the interlooking channels that the vinyal soffit has built into the design.

I cut more sections to length and worked my way around the tub. when i got back to the starting point, one section had to be cut longways to make it a little skinnier to fit. i then took this skinny section and mover it to the back. slid the sections around so that the "J" channel trim piece to finish the sections was placed in the back. After i had every thing cut and fitting properly i used small stainless screws to attach the soffot to the frame in the same order they were cut.

In front of the control pack and service access i skipped the attaching screws in about four sections of soffit. the other attached pieces made this snug enough to hold in place without screws. to access for service i use a small prybar to bend out a section of soffit an then remove it and the other 3 sections that are not screwed. as the vinyal soffit is very flexable this is quite easy. replacement is also easy, just bend and guide edge into the soffit connecting channel.

End result was a really good looking cabinet that is maintence free and has easy service access.

We had a customer use vinyl siding on his HotSpring Grandee, he put it on horizontally and it really looked good. Pete http://www.makesmeshutter.com