Bottom of Jacuzzi J-275 spa

[Fallbrook]

Hi everyone,

I am getting a Jacuzzi J-275 spa, and I am going to sink it into the ground leaving about 10 inches exposed to accommodate the flaps on the hot tub cover. The cover will flip off onto the concrete patio without a lifter.

The spa will be installed on the diagonal (diamond pattern), with two sides facing a concrete wall with the patio on top, and the other two sides open facing outward onto a large hillside away from the patio. The idea behind this was to have two sides on the hill side below open for maintenance, pump, electrical, control issues, but the entry would be from the two sides on the patio above. By sinking the spa into the cut hillside, you don't impair the view from the house and patio with the large spa in the way, and by flipping the cover onto the patio, you don't impair the view from the spa down the canyon with the cover being held up by the lifter. All good :-)

Here are my questions:

1) Does anyone know how thick the ABS on the bottom of the J-275 spa is? We have a lot of wildlife out here in Northern San Diego County, and I am wondering about critter control techniques.

2) The spa pad could be either concrete (probably better for critter control), or stones (maybe better for leveling and setting the exact spa height above the lip of the patio). If we go concrete, is it best to put channels in the concrete for drainage out to the side of the hill. How big are the channels and how are they typically formed?

Thanks!

[TwinCitiesHotSpring]

spa manufacturers are much more aware of rodent problems than they were years ago...of course nothing is 100% fool proof so you could go the extra step and put some mothballs, rodent traps, etc. around the base of the spa or inside the cabinet as a little extra preventative measure.

Concrete will always be the #1 recommendation as far as the base is concerned, obviously in most cases it is also the most expensive as well but a properly framed/reinforced/poured slab can easily last 20+ years so like anything else you get what you pay for...

when I assist in having a slab poured for a customer I always have them pour a slight rain slope in the pad (example 1/4" over 4' on a 8' x 8' slab) enough slope for heavy rain to run-off but not enough that the spa is obviously out of level.

Although if you are building into the side of hill you may want to look at having a center drain installed in the middle of your pad and/or running a length of drain tile connected to a hose which takes water down the hill and away from your spa....this is obviously crucial if you deal with "washout/erosion" etc

[d00nut]

1) Does anyone know how thick the ABS on the bottom of the J-275 spa is? We have a lot of wildlife out here in Northern San Diego County, and I am wondering about critter control techniques.

There is no ABS pan on J-200 series hot tubs.  They have a sheet of visqueen running across the bottom.  That is fairly typical in the value segment of spas.  The pan is reserved for 300 series and beyond.  That being said, I'd go concrete.