In-Ground Hot Tub: Cost Analysis and Consumer Guide

Factory-made, prefabricated hot tubs are typically made of stainless steel or acrylic shells. They do come in a few generic shapes, such as square, kidney, round, and oval. These shapes, however, are much more limited than what you can achieve with custom builds.

Furthermore, these shells usually only sit ten people maximum. The main advantage of these prefabricated in-ground hot tubs is that they usually have many hydrotherapy jets and are pre-plumbed.

This is the kind of hot tub that we will focus on in this article is the customized concrete-based in-ground hot tub. This type of hot tub is usually made of gunite, a type of concrete. Although you can customize many more aspects of the designs on these tubs, they do tend to have simpler seating arrangements. You're more likely to see a simple bench layout with fewer jets.

On the bright side, these hot tubs are usually much larger than their prefabricated counterparts and have a huge amount of design options such as decorative tile, colors, and more.

Although very rare to see these days, there is a third kind of in-ground hot tub. In the 1960s and 1970s, wooden hot tubs were popular.

Wooden hot tubs can be either prefabricated or custom-built, depending on the style you are looking for and the designer you use. These wooden in-ground tubs have become mostly a thing of the past, however, and are very rarely seen as an option for today's homeowners.

For our purposes, we are going to focus on the first two types of in-ground hot tubs; factory-made acrylic and concrete.

If you choose to install a factory-made acrylic or stainless-steel hot tub shell, you should typically set aside an additional $3,000 to $5,000 for installation.

Most homeowners will install an in-ground tub as part of the process when they are building an in-ground swimming pool; however, you can also build it separately if perhaps you don’t have the room for both on your property or you live somewhere where a pool may not be as practical as a hot tub.

As we mentioned above, the cost to install an in-ground hot tub can add around 20% to the cost of the swimming pool you are already building and depends on the layout and design of the hot tub.

Are you planning on adding the spa to the interior of the pool so that it shares two walls with the pool walls already being built? Or will it be more of an exterior design, as in your hot tub is designed to be built on the outer perimeter of your pool and shares, maybe only a small portion of its wall with your swimming pool?

All of these are important considerations to assess when thinking about the overall costs of your hot tub installation.

An in-ground hot tub's installation process is almost identical to that of a swimming pool.

First, a hole must be dug. You (or your contractor, we hope!) will need to excavate the desired area to accommodate your new hot tub, which has been designed specifically for you. Second, rebar will be installed to reinforce the area. The third step is plumbing and electrical. You will need plumbing lines installed as well as electricity to run your in-ground hot tub, as well as specific fittings designed to coincide with the hydrotherapy jets depending on your custom design.

Once you have all that in place, a professional will come and spray the concrete material (usually gunite or shotcrete) using high-pressure hoses, they will spray this material to cover the excavated hole you have created as well as cover the rebar that is reinforcing it. Lastly comes the interior finish. Once your shotcrete or gunite has hardened, the interior will be covered with plaster, quartz aggregate, or pebble stones.

The beauty of an in-ground design is that the aesthetic will be exactly how you decide with your designer.

Hiring a professional to handle the electrical of your hot tub is highly recommended. The cost to wire any hot tub other is approximately $600 to $2,200 and mostly depends on your current electrical setup, the location of your tub, and which type you choose.

Hot tubs can cost anywhere between $20 and $40 in electricity costs each month to run.

Although water maintenance on a hot tub is much simpler than on a pool due to the smaller volume of water, you can still expect to pay up to $20 per month to treat your water.

No matter which types of in-ground hot tub you install, you need to be aware of the maintenance and cleaning costs that will also be incurred.

These costs seem small but can add up over time if you don’t stay on top of a strict maintenance schedule. You will most likely spend anywhere between $200 and $300 a year on chemicals and other related cleaning and maintenance costs.

Some standard lighting will be built in automatically for your in-ground hot tub, but you may want to talk to your designer about adding fun extras such as additional colors, make them dimmable, and more.

When talking about costs, you'll also want to take into consideration any safety fences you may need to install.

Make safety a priority; keep your pets, children, or just your local wildlife safe from falling in the water with a safety fence and a child-proof gate. You'll also want to add a lockable hot tub cover.

Your contractor should be able to outline and comply with your local building codes. You will also need to obtain the following: