Hot tub removal cost in Sacramento

The short answer

Hot Tub / Spa removal is $322. That covers breaking the shell down on site, getting it out of the yard, and hauling and disposing of it.

Related items you may be clearing at the same time: Cold Plunge Tub $271, Above-Ground Pool (Frame + Liner) $145, Patio Table $89, Patio Chair $30 each, Propane Grill $71.

You need an electrician to disconnect the 240-volt supply first. That is the one part of the job that is not ours.

Why Sacramento back yards are full of dead hot tubs

Because of the climate, and it is not the reason people expect.

A hot tub in this valley is usable for maybe five months of the year. From late June to September the ambient temperature is regularly over 100 and nobody wants to sit in 104-degree water. From November to February the Tule fog settles in and getting from the back door to the tub in a bathrobe stops being appealing. That leaves spring and autumn, which is genuinely pleasant, and which is about the length of time most people keep using it.

Then there is the standing cost. Holding several hundred gallons at temperature through a Sacramento August, in an outdoor cabinet, against a 105-degree afternoon and a warm night, is not a small line on a bill. At some point people stop heating it. After that it is a large plastic container of green water in the yard.

Where they are

The suburban ring, overwhelmingly. Citrus Heights, Orangevale, Fair Oaks, Carmichael, Elk Grove, Rocklin and Folsom, installed on a concrete patio slab or a redwood deck some time between the mid-nineties and the mid-2000s, usually with a pergola over it and a fence panel added afterwards.

You see far fewer on the grid, because a Midtown or East Sac lot with an alley garage does not have the patio space and the access to get one in. The ones that do exist there are the hardest removals in the region, because the only route out is a three-foot side yard or the alley gate.

The standing water problem

An abandoned tub with water in it is a mosquito breeding site, and in the Sacramento Valley that is taken seriously for reasons everyone here understands. Vector control in this region actively works on neglected pools and spas.

If yours has been sitting with water in it, deal with it rather than waiting. Drain it properly, away from the storm drain and in line with whatever your local rules say about chlorinated water, and get the shell out.

A cover left in Sacramento sun goes the same way. UV here destroys vinyl covers in a few seasons, at which point the cover is waterlogged, twice its original weight and no longer keeping anything out.

What the job actually involves

1. Drain it. Do this the day before, not on the morning. A full tub is thousands of pounds and nothing happens until it is empty.
2. Disconnect the power. A licensed electrician, at the subpanel. Hot tubs run on a dedicated 240-volt circuit and this is not a DIY step.
3. Cut it down. The shell gets sectioned on site. It does not come out in one piece and it never goes over a fence intact.
4. Carry it out. Usually through the side gate, occasionally through the house when the yard is fully enclosed, which is why we ask about the route.
5. Haul and dispose. Shell, cabinet, cover, pump and pack. All in the $322.

Access in a Sacramento back yard

Three recurring complications here, none of which change the price:

• The deck was built around it. Extremely common on 1990s Orangevale and Fair Oaks patios. The tub was set first and the redwood decking framed to it.
• The pergola or patio cover. Often added later, directly over the tub, with a post exactly where you would want to lift.
• The side gate. Standard suburban fencing gives a 36-inch gate. The tub is wider than that. It comes out in sections through the gate, or the gate post comes out temporarily.

Tell us which of these you have when you book. It changes the crew and the gear, not the number.

Worked examples

Citrus Heights patio, tub plus the furniture that went with it. Hot Tub / Spa $322 + Patio Table $89 + Patio Chair $30 + Patio Chair $30 + Patio Chair $30 + Patio Chair $30 + Propane Grill $71 = $602. That is above the 3/4 truck rate of $587, so it books at $587.

Elk Grove back yard, full reset. Hot Tub / Spa $322 + Above-Ground Pool (Frame + Liner) $145 = $467, which is above the 1/2 truck rate of $431, so it books at $431.

Just the tub, Fair Oaks. $322, and that is the visit.

Selling it instead

Worth ten minutes of effort before you book. A working tub under about ten years old, with a good cover and a recent pump, does have a market here, particularly in spring.

An older one does not. Nobody wants a twenty-year-old spa with a failed heater, because moving it costs more than it is worth and the buyer knows it. If yours has been sitting empty through a couple of Sacramento summers, the shell has taken UV damage and the market for it is zero. Book the $322 and get the patio back.

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