The brief: a real cedar hot tub on a small back deck
The homeowners in Port Moody had a small back deck right off the kitchen and a clear idea of what they wanted on it — not a plastic plug-in spa, but an actual 6' round western red cedar hot tub (an Algonquin) with stainless steel bands and an insulated cedar cover. The challenge was that the round tub had to land cleanly on a deck that wasn't built for it, the equipment for the tub had to be completely hidden, and the whole installation had to feel like part of the house rather than a piece of patio equipment dropped in the corner.
Templating the curved deck extension
A round tub on a square deck always leaves an awkward gap. To solve it we built a curved deck extension that wraps the front of the tub — and the only way to get that curve clean is to template it on site. We laid sheets of plywood out on the lawn and on a stacked-stone block plinth at the deck edge, marked the exact arc the cedar tub would sit against, and cut full-size templates with a jigsaw. Those templates then drove the framing, the vinyl deck membrane cut, and the finish skirt board so everything follows the tub instead of fighting it.
Setting the tub and framing the equipment cabinet
With the deck side prepared, the cedar tub was set on its support pad and levelled, the heater and plumbing tied in underneath, and then we framed a site-built cedar equipment cabinet right alongside it. The cabinet does two jobs: it gives the heater, controls and pump a weather-protected home with full service access, and it doubles as the landing where the boxed cedar steps up to the tub rim attach. From outside the enclosure all you see is cedar siding and a stone-look top — no exposed mechanical anywhere.
Finish carpentry: cedar cabinet, stone tops and concealed hardware
Once framing was complete we clad the equipment cabinet in vertical western red cedar with a flush hinged service door front and back, fitted with black powder-coated strap hardware that matches the steel posts of the surrounding enclosure. The top of the cabinet got a textured stone-look composite slab as a wide setting surface for towels, drinks and the cedar cover when it's lifted off the tub. Inside the enclosure the same cedar runs up the privacy screen walls and across the ceiling so the whole space reads as one continuous cedar room.
The finished cedar enclosure
Done and handed over, the back deck reads as a proper outdoor room off the kitchen rather than 'the spot where the hot tub lives.' Cedar walls on three sides, black steel structure overhead, glass on the kitchen side so the room still feels connected to the house, and the round cedar tub sitting flush against its custom curved deck with the equipment cabinet and steps making one clean cedar line down the side. Lid on, cover lifter ready, hose neatly coiled out of sight — exactly the kind of installation the homeowners had been picturing.
