Paul’s DIY Hot Tub Journey

Paul decided to take the plunge (pun intended!) and build his own hot tub, and I’m excited to share his progress in this blog post.

We opted for one of our standard designs from the buildahottub.com store – these are a great way to save money and still get a fantastic hot tub, especially if you’re handy and want to customize it a bit. You can find links to all the standard designs here

Standard Design

Paul took a standard rectangular design and added some curves to it, making it a bit more unique. He also reduced  the number of jets for a more personal touch. This is a great example of how you can take a pre-made design and personalize it to fit your vision and budget. 

This saves you a whole bunch of money compared to having me do a custom design for you. Not that I want to talk myseld out of business of course!

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Groundwork

Once the design was finalized, Paul focused on the groundwork. He mapped everything out on a gravel base to ensure a perfect fit. There are two main approaches to building the hot tub seating: some folks excavate a large area and build the seating separately, while others like Paul and myself dig out the contours of the seats directly into the ground. This method saves on concrete and blocks because you can utilize the compacted dirt and gravel under the hot tub for additional support.

After digging out the seat contours, Paul added insulation to create an insulated box that will form the footwell of the hot tub.

The next steps will involve pouring the concrete base for the footwell and then building the interior structure of the hot tub walls, which will house all the plumbing.

June 2024

Major progress has been made! The walls of the hot tub are now fully poured, and Paul even managed to create a cool little lounger area – perfect for soaking and relaxing those muscles after a long day.

We also chatted a bit about the heating system, and Paul’s decided to go with a dual approach: a cozy log burner for a rustic touch, backed up by a reliable electrical Spa Pack for those times when convenience is key.

As any DIYer knows, leaks are a constant worry. To stay ahead of the curve, Paul did a smart move and performed a water test on his plumbing.

Pressure testing can be tricky for DIY hot tub builds, so filling it up and looking for leaks is the next best step. Thankfully, his efforts paid off and everything seems nice and watertight!

Now, here’s where things get a little interesting… Tiling the hot tub interior turned out to be a bit more time-consuming (and maybe a touch frustrating) than Paul anticipated. And let’s just say his daughters were getting pretty darn impatient for a test soak!

They managed to convince their dad to fill it up for a quick dip, even though the tiling wasn’t quite finished. Let’s just call it a well-deserved reward for all his hard work!

Fast forward to today, and the good news keeps rolling in! Paul’s finally finished tiling the hot tub and even got the grouting done. Now comes the hardest part (at least according to Paul): waiting for those tiles to cure before he can fill it up again. The anticipation is definitely building!

Can I Help You?

If I can help you in any way I would love to hear from you. You can get in touch using the form below.

Thanks - Andi

 

Hi, Andi here. I own Buildahottub.com and also write all of the articles and info pages on the site. Some years back now, I built my own hot tub but struggled to find the information I needed. So, once my tub was complete, I started this website to help others in their own pursuit of hot tub and plunge pools DIY building information.

Today, I've helped over 1000 DIY customers just like you all over the world build hot tubs and pools. Have a good look around the site, there are lots of resources here. Please do get in touch if I can help you. - Cheers, Andi