Custom Built Spas has been helping the DIY (do it yourself) enthusiast and small contractors for over 18 years perfecting their skills on how to build spas, hot tubs, swimspas, plunge pools and more. DIY Hot Tub Construction may sound a little intimidating at first, and that’s understood. Once you become familiar with our construction methods and see how they differ from what the commercial pool and spa construction industry does you’ll realize that this is something you can do you will see how we can save you a ton of money! I’m talking thousands of dollars, not just a few hundred here and there as you’ll see below.
I’m only going cover spas and hot tubs in this blog even though pools can use our DIY Hot Tub Construction methods as well. All you’re doing is making a bigger water vessel without jets or an air blower. And years back pools were built the way we do hot tubs.
The DIY spa or hot tub is always going to have concrete base pad installed prior to the water vessel construction. The commercially built hot tub may not use the base we do because they may be using the “gunite” method of hot tub construction, not a DIY Hot Tub Construction process. The three types of water vessel construction are, “gunite”, “poured concrete walls” and “block construction”, the construction type we use for all our DIY spas, hot tubs, swim spas, plunge pools etc… Here are example pictures of each.
Above you see the Gunite construction process. Trust me you can’t do this yourself, you can’t do it without skills and you can’t do unless you’re able bodied, it’s ball busting work.
Shown above is a poured concrete hot tub and a small poured concrete wall pool. Again, you can’t do this without skills, you will need help and you need to be able bodied, I know, I’ve done this type of work myself.
Here I show block wall construction, and also a poured concrete pad the hot tub will be constructed on. You can do this!
Not only can you do it, you can build the entire hot tub yourself without anybody else’s help. Sure, it’s always better to have a helper, but it is not mandatory. I can, and I have built complete hot tubs start to finish by myself with no help at all and you can do it too. However, your advantage will be that you’ll have me helping you all through your project until it’s done, and my personal coaching help is FREE!
The biggest difference in DIY Hot Tub Construction methods and commercial built units is COST! Just this week I started working with a new customer in upstate NY. In our first conversation he stated that a short time ago he got a quote of $58,000 to complete a 10’ by 12’ rectangular gunite hot tub with 30 jets, gas heat, blower, LED lights and retractable cover. The finish would be a tile nothing fancy.
Although I was not a bit surprised to hear numbers like that, he said he almost fell off his chair. My customer is a contractor himself and just couldn’t believe a custom hot tub would cost that much. He searched the internet for more information on this and that’s when he found me. He quickly realized by following my plan he could easily save himself at least $40,000, maybe even more. Absolutely outrageous isn’t! I hear numbers like this all the time. My friends, DIY Hot Tub Construction is not all that difficult! Look at any of my customer testimonials and you see that. My customers come from all different skill levels, so I know you can do this type of project.
So now that I’ve eliminated the fears on the construct side of this project by making it simple enough for just about anyone to do, let’s go through the cost of a DIY Hot Tub Construction project. I’m going to group some of the steps and costs a little, so you will be able to see how you can save so much money on a DIY hot tub or spa.
First, site work and preparation. Unless your putting your hot tub inground with only about 6” showing, you should be able to do the digging yourself. Maybe it takes you a day, so what. Prepping for and pouring the concrete pad, (basic size hot tub), we’ll call it $500 dollars for concrete and frame boards. Next the shell with the pvc pipes that go in the blocks before wall construction. You’ll use about 200 blocks, around 25 bags of mortar mix and some PVC piping. The labor will be all you, materials cost should be around $750. How about that, you have the shell done on the pad and you’ve only spent around $1250 dollars. Now the equipment package I supply can run between $3000 to $5000 depending on the extras and upgrades. Low side you’re at about $4200. Expect to spend around $250 for PVC pipe and fittings and around another $450 for waterproof coatings finish and the epoxy wall finish paint. You at $4650 now, so what’s left? Electrical hook up. You can do this yourself or hire and electrician. We’ll give the electrician $350, (likely it would be a little less). So were at $5000 for a custom built hot tub, lightly outfitted and up and running. At some point you will likely still need a cover and let’s say we ran over on a few of the costs. I’m going to add another $1000.
If you have ever done any shopping for one of those portable hot tubs, you would have seen that a decent quality unit starts around $7500 on up to as much as $15000 for a top of line hot tub. And those units start losing value the day they are installed. Bet nobody told you that. A permanently installed masonry type custom built hot tub can add equity value to your home in most all areas of our country. Something you should know is that a custom built hot tub is way more comfortable then those portable spas. You can make them any size or depth you want so that you’re not sitting half out the water like what happens in most all portable spas unless you are a child.
Let’s go back to my new customer in NY. Can you see why he got pretty excited when I broke the costs down for him like I did here for you. He was putting this custom hot tub in fairly expensive home, he was going to have pay workers for their labor etc… and being a bigger unit with a few more bells and whistles let’s say his cost for what he wanted to build was $13,000. Can you imagine saving up to as much as $45,000 on a project like this? Just saying… I see this all the time my friends.
So, what are you waiting for? Let’s make 2018 the year of your hot tub project! Visit my website, www.custombuiltspas.com, look over what I offer in my books and a video. It’s a comprehensive info package showing you just how to build anyone of these projects yourself. Or call me if you have a question, I’m here to help. Go to https://www.custombuiltspas.com/get-instant-access/
Gene Trumbull
Custom Built Spas
