What hot tub removal costs in Denver

The short answer

Hot Tub / Spa is $390. Hot Tub / Spa — 6-8 Person is $501. A Sauna (1-2 Person / Barrel / Infrared) is $293 and a Cold Plunge Tub is $271.

That price includes the demolition — a tub that cannot be carried out whole gets cut apart on site — the carry to the truck and the disposal. It does not include the electrical disconnect, which needs a licensed electrician, because a Denver hot tub is almost always on a dedicated 240-volt circuit run out to the deck.

Why there are so many of them here

A hot tub makes obvious sense on the Front Range. Cold, dry, clear nights, a long winter, and a household that has just spent the day on a hill. Backyards across Arvada, Littleton, Golden, Evergreen, Lakewood and the older Denver neighborhoods have one on a deck or a pad, and a large share of them were installed by a previous owner.

They also fail here in recognisable ways. The heater goes out during a cold snap and the plumbing freezes — that is the single most common reason a Denver hot tub becomes a removal job rather than a repair job. Hail cracks the cover, then the cover stops sealing, then the running cost doubles. And the sun at 5,280 feet is brutal on acrylic and on the cabinet skirt; ten years of that UV leaves a shell that chalks and a cabinet that crumbles when you lean on it.

At that point the tub is a very heavy object taking up the best part of the yard, and everyone stops talking about fixing it.

Getting it out is the whole job

Nobody removes a hot tub whole in central Denver. The bungalow lots in Wash Park, Congress Park, Platt Park and Berkeley are narrow, the houses sit close to the property line, and the only route from the back yard to the street is a side gate with maybe four or five feet of clearance between the house and the fence. A tub is wider than that.

So it gets cut down in place — cabinet off, shell sectioned, frame and plumbing separated — and carried out in pieces. That is normal, it is included in the price, and it is why the job takes a crew and a plan rather than four friends and a dolly.

The suburban version is easier but not automatic. Arvada, Centennial, Highlands Ranch and Parker yards have side gates and sometimes an open run to a driveway, but the tub is often sunk into a deck, which means deck boards come up before anything else moves. Tell us that when you book.

What comes out with it

A hot tub is rarely alone. The patio it sat on, the furniture around it, and the shade structure over it usually go at the same time — especially after a hail season that wrecked all of it at once.

Typical Denver combinations: the tub and the hail-shredded shade it sat under is $390 + $53 = $443. A full back-yard reset with the tub and the patio table is $390 + $89 = $479. A larger tub plus the fire pit that replaced it is $390 + $56 = $446.

Before the crew arrives

• Drain it. Fully, and the day before, not the morning of. A tub with water in it weighs several thousand pounds and is not going anywhere. In winter, drain it while there is still a thaw window — a partially frozen tub cannot be emptied or cut safely.
• Have the power disconnected. Licensed electrician, breaker off, whip disconnected at the tub. We do not do this and neither should you.
• Clear the path. The side gate, the alley approach, whatever the route is. If a gate post has to come out, decide that in advance.
• Say what it is sitting on. Deck, concrete pad, pavers, or sunk into a deck frame. Sunk-in tubs change the sequence.
• Check the alley in winter. If the truck is working from a service lane behind a Park Hill or Berkeley house and the plows have bermed the alley mouth, the job runs long. Better to know before the day.

Season matters more than you would think

Denver compresses outdoor work into the warm months, and hot tub removal is outdoor work. The best window is spring through early autumn: the tub drains, the ground is workable, the yard is not a sheet of ice and the crew is not cutting fiberglass in a snowstorm.

The catch is that everyone else — roofers after hail, landscapers, deck builders, movers — is working the same window, so book a week or two ahead in June and July. The price never changes with the season: $390 is $390 in April and in October. Winter removals are possible, they just want a thaw and a clear path.

What happens to it

A hot tub separates into more recoverable material than most people expect. The frame and pump assembly carry steel and copper, the shell is fiberglass and acrylic, the cabinet is timber or composite, and the cover is foam and vinyl. We separate what can be diverted and route the rest to a permitted facility.

What you do not want is a shell sitting on the side of the house for a year while somebody figures it out, which is the alternative outcome and by far the most common one.

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