Tips on measuring for a spa cover

There are many unclear parts on measuring a cover. This page will help clear up some measuring questions like, "How in the world do I measure a radius corner?", or "What is the difference between the A and B measurement?" Knowing how to properly measure for a cover will save you the headache of receiving the order, only to discover that it is the wrong size. Below are a few of the common measuring concerns. Click on any of them to take you right to that topic.

• "A" and "B" measurement
• Radius (rounded) corner measuring
• Cut corner measuring
• Skirt measuring
• Fastener Measuring

The "A" and "B" measurement

For most covers (except rounds and octagons) we ask that you supply an "A" measurement and a "B" measurement. The "A" ALWAYS is the measurement that runs PARALLEL with the hinge. In other words:

This is important because it enables you to hinge it the best way for your situation. Sometimes people don’t like the fold going right through their controls, or others might have access to their tub on only one side.

The "B" measurement is simply the measurement perpendicular to the "A" measurement. It looks like this:

Radius corner measurement (rounded corners)

The most famous measurement question is, "How in the world do I measure the radius on a rounded corner tub?" Easy! Looking at the illustration below, all you need is a tape measure and some other straight edge (a yardstick, 2x4, broom handle, etc). To put this in perspective, all you are doing when measuring a rounded corner is imagining that you are squaring the corner off or turning it into a square.

1. 1. Pick a corner
2. 2. Place straight edge at either side of the corner of the cover (front or side-it doesn’t matter).
3. 3. On the OTHER side start the measuring tape at the point on the cover or tub where it starts to bend, then draw the measuring tape out to the other straight edge so that they cross perpendicularly.
4. 4. If you did it right you should have made an imaginary squared corner. The point where the measuring tape and the other straight edge cross is the radius.
5. *Note: We only use whole numbers when measuring radius corners (7", 8", 12"). Don’t worry about decimals or fractions. Also, if you are unsure about your measurement it is always a better idea to err on the smaller side. If it looks like it could be a 7" or 8" radius, choose a 7" otherwise you could risk the corners of the tub being exposed because believe it or not-a bigger radius equals a smaller cover (surface area becomes less). Just remember-bigger is smaller (and vice-versa)!

The "C" measurement

We went over the "A" and "B" measurement already but now we must discuss one more. The "C" measurement represents the cut corner measurement. It's a quick and simple one. You only need to worry about this one if you have a tub with cut corners on it. The illustration below will show you how to measure a cut corner.

*Note: Cut corners are a lot like radius corners in that the longer the cut corner length, the smaller the cover (surface area). So if you are unsure of a corner length when you measure, it is better to err on the smaller measurement because it will be more likely to cover your corners.

The skirt measurement

Measuring for the skirt is probably one of the easiest things to measure. If you are measuring off of your existing cover, simply measure how far it hangs down from the bottom of the main cover itself as seen below. There is the foam profile, then hanging underneath that is the skirt.

It's easy measuring from your old cover but can get a little trickier when getting your skirt measurements from the tub itself. First you have to go back to the "A" and "B" measurements and decide if you are making your cover dimensions to fit the acrylic or to fit the cabinet which sometimes includes a wooden lip around the edge, thereby changing the dimensions substantially. If you are making it to the acrylic, you can’t make your skirt any longer than the height of the acrylic coming off the wood lip as seen below.

As you can probably see, making your cover dimensions to the outmost dimensions of the wood lip can give you an option to make the skirt as long as you would like. We suggest not going too crazy though. Just long enough to cover up that lip will suffice.

Fastener measurement

All you do to measure for the fasteners from an existing cover is to measure the actual vinyl strap from the point where it comes out from the bottom of the cover to the end of the strap itself. You can make them as long as you want but we make them 8 inches as a standard.