What hot tub removal costs in Salt Lake City

The short answer

A hot tub or spa is $322 in Salt Lake City. Flat. That is the breakdown, the carry, the load and the disposal. There is no separate demolition charge, no charge for a difficult deck, and no weight-based fee at the end.

Related outdoor items are priced the same way. A cold plunge tub is $271. An above-ground pool with frame and liner is $145. A patio table is $89 and patio chairs are $30 each. If the whole back deck is being cleared, you can price the lot before you book.

Why a dead hot tub is a Salt Lake problem

Hot tubs do well in this valley because the climate justifies them. Cold, dry winters and a ski culture that puts a lot of people in the backyard tub at seven in the evening in January. Cottonwood Heights, Holladay, Sandy, Draper and the foothill streets above Millcreek are full of them.

The same climate kills them. A tub that loses its heater in a cold snap, or a household that goes away for two weeks in February without winterising properly, ends up with water freezing in the plumbing. Lines split, the pump housing cracks, and by spring you have a fiberglass shell full of green water and a repair quote that is worse than the tub is worth. That is the single most common hot tub removal in this market: not a tired unit, a frozen one.

What the crew actually does

A hot tub does not come out in one piece off most Salt Lake decks. The job runs:

• Confirm the power is dead. The tub should be disconnected at the breaker before we arrive, and hard-wired units need an electrician to disconnect them properly.
• Drain it. Hoses out to a place it can safely run — not into a storm drain, and not into a neighbor's yard.
• Strip the cabinet, pull the pump and heater pack, and separate the equipment.
• Cut the shell into sections that will go through the gate, down the deck stairs, and round the side of the house.
• Carry, load, and take the shell, the frame, the cabinet and the equipment away.

A standard tub is a two-to-four hour job. A large swim spa, or one boxed in by a deck built around it after installation, takes longer — and still costs $322.

Access is the Salt Lake variable

The hard ones here are on the benches. A foothill lot in Federal Heights, the upper Avenues or Cottonwood Heights typically has the house at the front, a steep side yard, and the deck at the back on the downhill side. That means the tub sections come up a slope, through a side gate that is narrower than the deck stairs, and out to a truck parked on a road that pitches.

Newer homes in Herriman, Riverton, Draper and Daybreak are easier at the back but tighter at the side — narrow lots, a gate barely wide enough, and often a rear alley rather than a driveway. None of it changes the $322. It changes how long we schedule for, so tell us the approach when you book.

Do it in the right season

April through October is the sensible window. A tub full of frozen water cannot be drained, and a deck with three inches of ice on it is not a place to be carrying fiberglass sections. If the tub died in January, the honest advice is to disconnect it at the breaker, tarp it, and book for spring — unless it is a hazard or the house is going on the market.

Spring is also when people discover the problem. The tub was ignored from November, the cover collapsed under snow load, and the first warm week reveals what is underneath. Book early in spring; it is the busiest stretch of the year for this particular job across the valley.

Clearing the whole deck at once

A typical spring deck clearance: hot tub $322 + patio table $89 + four patio chairs at $30 each ($30 + $30 + $30 + $30 = $120) = $322 + $89 + $120 = $531. Add the grill that spent the winter uncovered and it is $531 + $71 = $602. One visit, one $75 minimum, one number agreed in advance.

Two tubs in one visit — the increasingly common hot tub and cold plunge pairing on the benches — is $322 + $271 = $593.

Before we arrive

Four things:

• Switch the tub off at the breaker. If it is hard-wired, have an electrician disconnect it.
• Drain it if you can, or tell us and we will. Know where the water can safely go.
• Clear the deck and the side path — pots, furniture, bikes, the winter's worth of things stacked against the gate.
• Measure the narrowest gate on the route and tell us the number when you book. That one measurement decides how the crew plans the cuts.

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