Most of the hot tubs we pull out haven't been heated in a couple of years. The cover is waterlogged and sagging into the middle, the water underneath has gone green, and the whole thing has quietly turned into the least useful part of the backyard.

Getting rid of it is one of those jobs that looks simple until you actually try it. A dry spa shell usually runs somewhere between 400 and 900 pounds, and that's before you count a soaked cover or a wet foam-packed cabinet.

We take the whole thing away. Drain, disconnect, demo, load, haul, sweep up. You get your patio back.

Why hot tubs are heavier than they look

A spa isn't one solid piece. It's an acrylic shell backed with fiberglass, then a thick layer of sprayed foam insulation, then a wood or composite frame, then the cabinet skirting on the outside. That sandwich soaks up water over the years.

Foam that's been sitting wet since the pump quit adds real weight, and there's no way to tell from the outside. We plan for it either way.

The cover is its own problem. A cover that started at 50 pounds can easily double once the vinyl skin splits and the foam cores take on water. If yours has a sag in the middle, it's wet.

Can it come out in one piece?

Sometimes, and that's always our first question. A standard six-person tub is roughly seven to eight feet square. A standard side gate is 36 inches wide. Tip the tub up on edge and you're asking a 36-inch gate to swallow something that's often 30 to 38 inches deep with the cabinet on.

It's tight but it happens, especially in newer neighborhoods in Meridian and Star where builders left a wider service gate on the side of the house. We'll pull the gate off the hinges if that buys us the inch we need.

What usually kills the whole-tub option:

A narrow gate with a concrete walkway and an AC unit on one side
Stairs between the patio and the driveway
A tub sunk into a deck or set down into a paver surround
Mature landscaping we'd have to trample to make the turn

Older Boise properties in the North End and the Bench are the classic case. Tall fences, skinny side yards, and a tub that got craned in before the fence went up.

Cutting it down instead

When it can't come out whole, we cut it apart in place. Reciprocating saws with demolition blades, straight through the acrylic, the foam, and the frame.

We usually take the cabinet panels off first, pull the pump and heater assembly out as one unit, then section the shell into four to six pieces that two people can carry. Corner cuts first, then across the middle.

Cutting foam makes a mess. It flakes into little white beads that blow around, so we cut with a tarp under the work and pick up the strays before we leave. That cleanup is part of the job, not an extra.

The 220V line and when you need an electrician

Almost every hard-wired spa runs on a 240-volt circuit with a GFCI disconnect box mounted on a post or the house wall within sight of the tub. We shut the breaker off at the panel, verify it's dead, and disconnect the whip at the spa pack so the tub can come apart safely.

What we don't do is rework your panel. If you want the abandoned circuit pulled back to the breaker box, the disconnect removed, and the conduit patched into the siding properly, that's a licensed electrician's work and it's a short, cheap visit.

Plug-in 110V tubs are simpler. We unplug it and we're done.

Draining the water first

A full six-person tub holds roughly 350 to 500 gallons. We'd rather you drain it before we arrive if you can, mostly because gravity draining through a garden hose takes a couple of hours and nobody wants to stand around waiting.

Let the chlorine or bromine burn off for a few days first, then send the water out over the lawn in stages rather than one spot. Don't run it into a storm drain.

If the tub is frozen, which happens plenty around here between December and February, tell us. A block of ice is a different job and we'll plan the day around it.

Where it ends up

The shell and foam go to the Ada County Landfill on Seaman's Gulch Road. The pump housing, heater, jets hardware, and any steel frame components get pulled out and sent to metal recycling instead, which keeps a decent chunk of the tub out of the ground.

We serve Boise, Meridian, Nampa, Caldwell, Eagle, Star, Kuna, and Garden City.

The easiest way to get a real number

Text us three photos: the tub itself, the gate or path we'd use, and the spot where our truck would park. Add the width of the narrowest gate. That's enough for us to tell you whether it comes out whole or gets cut, and to quote it without a site visit.

Hot Tub Removal Services