Anyone ever built a spa?

[Modthyrth]

Now that I'm putting the finishing touches on my outdoor kitchen, I am, of course, casting about for the next project. I stumbled upon a website selling plans for building your own spa/hot tub.

I much prefer James' open-source plans and forum model, but the plans aren't very expensive and it sounds like a fun project (and end result!). Now that I've done some basic masonry, the spa doesn't look all that hard based on what I can glean from the construction pictures on the site. Has anyone here done it?

[david s]

Re: Anyone ever built a spa?

I have been thinking about building a spa over an oven dome. The idea would be to use a very thin layer of vermiculite insulation over the inner dome to act as an expansion joint and build a ferrocement shell on top of this to contain the water. The wood fired oven dome simply acts like a heat generator to heat the water in the ferrocement shell on top. Maybe I'm just dreaming but it seems feasible and my three piece cast dome would be an easy start.

[Frances]

Re: Anyone ever built a spa?

Nope, never built my own spa. It sounds like a great idea though! I say go for it, and then tell us all about it afterwards...

Hmm, we once saw a hot tub at a holiday place that was all covered with mosaics on the inside, looked really cool.
But I really need to finish the grill before I start anything new

[cynon767]

Re: Anyone ever built a spa?

No, not me... although at this point, if I were going to do one, I'd be tempted to try my hand at adapting a pompeii-style roman caldarium...

[dmun]

Re: Anyone ever built a spa?

There are some cool wood fired hot tub ideas out there: Here's a submersible wood fired heater that claims great efficiency:

The Snorkel? and Scuba? Stoves

Here's a freestanding dedicated hot tub stove, I've seen these attached to cattle troughs:

Chofu wood burning hot tub water heater

Here's one that might appeal to the WFO crowd:

my wood fired stone hot tub on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[christo]

Re: Anyone ever built a spa?

I found a "free spa" on the local newspaper and bought a spa pack and revivied it. www. spadepot.com has spa packs and replacement pumps. (spa pack is the controller for the pumps and heater)

It worked well for several years and is the sole reason why I cannot run for public office....

Christo

[Frances]

Re: Anyone ever built a spa?

It worked well for several years and is the sole reason why I cannot run for public office....

Hmmm, I'm not quite sure I understand. Would you care to post any clarifying picures...?

[Modthyrth]

Re: Anyone ever built a spa?

Good food, drink, and a little debauchery sounds just about right. ;-)

That wood-fired hottub picture on Flickr looks absolutely amazing. If only had had a setting like that!

I think I'm going to go ahead and order the plans. It's only $50, and I enjoy a long planning/researching stage to my big projects. This one, however, I won't start doing the manual labor in the height of the summer. ;-)