A Guide to Building Your Own Hot Tub
Posted: Monday, February 08, 2010
by Jake Scully
You may want a hot tub desperately, but you can't quite afford one. Don't fret if you're a do-it-yourselfer, you can build your own hot tub. You might even just want to do this as a hobby. This article will discuss how you can make your own 2-person hot tub, perfect for those romantic evenings.
To construct a hot tub, you first need to make a base. To do this, dig a hole measuring 2200 mm long x 1700 mm wide by 500 mm deep. Then fill it with 150 mm of concrete. Following this, you have to build the walls of the hot tub. The outer walls will consist of four courses of thermalite blocks followed by one course of regular bricks. The inner walls are two courses of thermalite bricks high, and will act as the base for the seats.
You next have to deal with the pipe work. If you want to create 10 jets positioned around the edge, you will need to make approximately 70 welds and joints. Work out at what height you want your jets to be before you begin to drill through the thermalite walls. Get a bore cutter, or core drill, to cut into each wall because this is only larger by a fraction than the 2.25 inch pipes you'll have to buy to go through the wall and connect to the jets.
Once you cut the holes, you next can insert your pipes and grout them into position. The pipes must be long enough to add the jet head and body to each end, but you must watch out for rendering and tile thickness, too.
Next, add the skimmer to the outer wall and grout it into place. Use a strong mix of 3 parts sand to 1 part concrete to make your grout. Ensure you place the skimmer at the height you want because it determines the water level.
Once you have the tubes fitted into the walls and the grout has set, you can work on plumbing the pipes together. Two different sizes of pipes one for air and one for water must be purchased. Depending on how flexible the pipes are, you might want to weld the pipes together before you grout the tubes in the wall.
The last step is to tile your hot tub and you'll have the finished product. Make sure that, before you undergo these steps, you talk with your local hot tub manufacturer for further instruction. It's impossible to put all the nuances herein.
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Top-level comments on this article: (3 total)I think I'd need more information to try it, but it's a start. thanks
Thanks for the feedback. I know it's a difficult task,but it's one you can handle!!!
So I've read this article here and also on the buildatub uk site as well. I'm a tile setter and really want to build my own hot tub outside this year. The questions I have are:
1. How do you cover the thermalite blocks?
2. Are they really strong enough to hold the water weight etc?
3. In the pics I've seen, does the whole space between the outer wall and inner seat/wall get filled with concrete?
I just don't understand how the thermalite blocks can support the concrete weight as well as water and and people climbing in and out
I would love your advice on this. I'm really excited about doing it.
Thanks so much :)
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