A hot tub can be a great addition to the garden, but the area around it can quickly become wet, muddy and worn, particularly when people are regularly walking between the hot tub and the house. Your hot tub set-up can play an important role in how you safely enjoy your garden spaces.
Not only is a muddy floor unpleasant to walk on, especially in bare feet, but it can ruin the look of your garden.
How to Use Hot Tub Matting
The right hot tub matting can help create a cleaner, safer and more comfortable route around your hot tub while protecting grass and providing additional grip on suitable hard surfaces. Rather than covering your entire garden, strategically placing mats along the routes people actually use can help you get the most from them.
1. Create a Path From the House to the Hot Tub
One of the most useful places for grass protection mats is the route between your house and hot tub.
This is likely to become one of the busiest areas of your garden, with people repeatedly walking the same route. During wet weather, this can quickly turn a grass path into a muddy, churned-up area.
Our 16mm Rubber Grass Mats and 22mm Rubber Grass Mats can be used on suitable established grassed routes to help protect the lawn from repeated foot traffic. Their open structure allows water to drain away while helping to reduce wear and churn.
For a longer route, multiple mats can be joined together to create a continuous walkway.
2. Create a Surround for the Tub
If your hot tub sits on a paved area, anti-slip matting can be placed around the tub to help create a non-slip surface for people getting in and out.
When planning out where to place matting, consider the areas people walk through when approaching and leaving. Or even where they might go if they’re not going directly in the tub. For example, people may walk around the tub to pass someone a drink or to talk to them.
Think about how the surround connects to the walkways that people will use to approach. You could create a grass-matted path leading from the house to the hot tub, with a separate anti-slip mat positioned where people step onto a suitable hard surface beside the tub. Just be careful make the transition point as smooth as possible to avoid creating a trip hazard.
3. Create a Changing Area Nearby
If you have a sheltered area nearby, perhaps with a bench, you could turn this in to a designated changing area. Use anti-slip mats or the anti-slip roll to create a safer floor in the areas where people will be taking off their wet swimming outfits. Drainage holes in the mat help to prevent standing water, an extra convenience for anyone putting long trousers back on!
The anti-slip roll is useful for connecting changing areas to the hot tub or for covering larger areas. This makes it ideal for surrounding swimming pools or for use in longer walkways.
4. Protect the Grass Around the Hot Tub
You don’t have to limit your grass protection mats to the path leading from your house.
Think about where people naturally walk when approaching the hot tub, particularly if it is positioned within a lawn. If people repeatedly walk across the same area to reach the tub, this can quickly result in worn or muddy grass.
Do people typically approach the tub from other areas of the garden, such as a seating area? Is there another entrance to the house that gets used? These are worth considering when planning out where to put your grass mats.
Installing your mats
Installing the mats is simple and straightforward. For the grass mats, use plastic pegs to keep the mats in place and then cable ties to connect multiple mats together. The anti-slip mats and roll can be lay as they are on a flat surface where pinning down is not possible (such as patios), however, if laid on grass, these may also be pinned to the ground.
A Simple Hot Tub or Pool Matting Layout
You don’t need to cover every inch of your garden to make your pool area or hot tub set-up more practical. Instead, think about where will receive the most foot traffic. If it helps, do a practice walk through from your back door to your tub and to any changing or sitting areas that get used at the same time.
Then when it’s time to decide which matting you need where, just follow this quick guide.
For grassy areas: The 16mm Rubber Grass Mats will do a great job of protecting your lawn and prevent walkways from getting muddy.
For paved and changing areas: The anti-slip mats provide grip in damp environments. They’re great for hot tub and pool surrounds.
For long paved or tiled areas: The anti-slip roll has the benefits of the anti-slip mat but in a long, uninterrupted form factor.
With a little planning, you can create a practical route around your hot tub, help protect your lawn from repeated foot traffic and provide additional grip in areas that become wet.
Disclaimer: Grass mats and anti-slip mats should be used around the hot tub for access and foot traffic. They are not designed to be placed underneath the hot tub or used as a base to support it.
