The Woods for wooden SPA products We Use

To build a wooden hot tub that will stand the rest of time, you need wood of the best available quality.
The best wood for quality barrel hot tubs, home saunas and water tanks is either Larch or Spruce. “First grown” wood will offer the best longevity this valuable wood comes from trees that may have been growing for up to a thousand years.  This has given them a long time to establish the natural chemical extractives that protect the wood from decay. Sadly there are no “first grown” Larch or Spruce trees available anymore so we now rely on “second growth”. Unfortunately these trees are only likely to be around 60 years old and this has a significant impact on the level of extractives that make the wood decay resistant.

A second growth tree will have much more sapwood and wider annual rings. Sapwood is vital for tree growth as this is the place underneath the bark that carries water to the top of the tree and back down again. The sapwood will gradually turn to heartwood as the level of mineral extractives increases. Heartwood gives the tree strength and supports it for future growth.

Some manufactures do use sapwood for their hot tubs, but it has virtually no decay resistance at all and will be unlikely to last much longer than 7 years at most. For this reason it would not be recommended for hot tub production at all.

Here is an amazing example of just how good the decay resistance of first growth Larch heartwood really is.
On the South Coast of Siberia an enormous larch tree collapsed during a storm. On top of this blown over tree, three Douglas Fir trees took root and grew here for many, many years. These fir trees were later cut down but the stumps remained. The growth rings were counted and they were found to be a staggering 600 years old. But even more remarkable was the discovery that the larch tree beneath them was still in great condition, despite the fact the tree had died over 600 years ago. The wood from the fallen larch wood tree was so well preserved it was later used to make violins!

So maybe a hot tub made from this wood would last for 600 years! This would be quite a claim, what we can confidently say is that they will last at least 20 years.
We want you to be completely happy with your hot tub purchase from Royal Tubs. We çan assure you we only use wood from sustainable and properly managed forests. Using the best quality wood available guarantees you will be able to enjoy your hot tub for many, many years to come.