Dynamic duos: portable spas and inground pools are proving to be quite a match

When Mike Hagemann's customers consulted him about all elaborate pool and spa project they were planning for their North Carolina backyard, they had one major request: Install an acrylic rather than concrete spa.

The homeowners had once owned a portable spa, leaved it and wouldn't accept tiny substitutions. At the same time, they didn't want the new unit to stick out like a sore thumb.

It was up to Hagemann, president of Master Pools by New Bern Pool Inc. in Raleigh, to make the project work.

The result fulfilled their every desire. The pool and spa look as if they were made to be together. Four steps lead up to the spa, which was set at a higher elevation than the pool. A sheet waterfall is positioned to flow seemingly from the spa into the inground gunite pool, giving it a spillover effect.

Like Hagemann, many pool builders are giving portable spas or manufactured spa shells prominent places in backyards, teaming them with inground pools for custom looks. The spas in these projects aren't seen as solo features, relegated to an isolated patio or deck, or tucked away out of view from much of the yard. Rather, they are dramatic, integral parts of the poolscapes.

Propelled by customers seeking alternatives to concrete spas, these builders have found creative ways to unite the two disparate features. Relying on the retail arm of their businesses for assistance, construction companies have found a profitable way to bring the products together.

Promoting the combo concept

Once people are assured that these spas can be seamlessly worked into their backyard landscapes with custom inground pools, the combination isn't a hard sell. Many are longtime portable spa owners and want to recreate the experiences they've enjoyed in the past. In fact, clients appreciate the manufactured spas' one-of-a-kind attributes--especially targeted hot-water therapy.

Nils Erickson, for one, says his typical customer is someone who wants the true hydrotherapy experience. "You can't achieve it with gunite to the extent that you can with a hot tub," says the owner of Erickson Custom Pools & Spas Inc., a Pool & Spa News Top Builder in Clermont, Fla.

As a result, most builders play up the units' unique therapy amenities, which are specifically engineered with a spa soaker's comfort in mind. For instance, most spas typically sport contoured seats, lounges, reverse-molded neck and foot massage systems, and dozens of jets.

"The contours are difficult to even come close to when troweling out concrete," says Dave McKibben, Retail and Spa Division manager at Patio Pools & Spas, a Tucson, Ariz.-based Pool & Spa News Top Builder. "Your average inground spa is 5 feet round or square, with six jets on a concrete bench in a straight upright position."

Builders also point to economic and practical advantages when suggesting an acrylic spa in this application. "Portable spas are more energy-efficient, cheaper to operate and better insulated than concrete spas," says Irven McGoohan, owner of Splash Pools & Spas in Lawton, Okla.

"The heating cost for an inground spa in winter is much more than maintaining a self-contained portable," McKibben adds. He estimates that electrical costs range from $15 to $20 per month for a portable spa, while costs to heat and reheat a concrete spa with a gas heater are much higher.

Homeowners also can save money if they choose an installation that integrates the spa's plumbing with the pool's equipment. "The cost savings we can offer people comes from using one set of equipment," Hagemann says. With shared water, consumers only have to invest in one sanitizing method, rather than operating a chlorinated pool and a spa that uses a different set of chemicals.

While their customers tend to benefit financially over the long run, builders are of two minds about how they profit when their clients choose a portable spa over its inground cousin. Some feel these sales provide a financial advantage because portable projects often can be less labor-intensive. This keeps the overall price of the project down, but earnings up.

"If our cost [for the portable spa] is $4,000 and we sell it for $7,500, we get a $3,500 profit," McGoohan says.

Others see little difference in costs and profitability between the two spa types. They say it's a wash when the costs of installing all the hardscape elements required to meld the spa into the poolscape are factored together.

Costs for inground concrete spas in Arizona, for instance, range from $6,000 for a basic design to $20,000 for one with customized seating and additional jets.

"Or you can get a portable with twice as many jets and the hydrotherapy benefit," McKibben says. "Now you're looking at $6,000 to $9,000 before the custom installation." Depending on the complexity of the installation, the final dollar amounts can start to mount.

Integrated installations

The key to a stunning portable spa/ inground pool combination is making sure the two look like they were meant to be together, builders say. To do this, the installers must first consider placement of the spa. For many, it may require a shift in mind-set.

Designers tend to locate pools in the corner of the yard as a focal point, and simply place the spa next to it. This may not work as effectively when dealing with a portable spa. Over the years, Patio Pools' McKibben says he has relied on various layouts, from "hanging the spa off the edge of the pool, to placing it as a totally separate issue off the master [bedroom] and 60 feet away from the gate that enters the inground pool.

"My take is that these are two separate bodies of water with two different usages, seasons and sanitizing needs," he says. To meet the needs of both, it may require that the distance from the pool to the spa, and from the spa to the house, be different from what's typically used when building a concrete pool-spa combination, McKibben notes.

When in doubt, spa usage should be the primary factor when determining the best placement. For homeowners who plan to use their spas while socializing with swimmers, Erickson locates the unit close to the pool. For those seeking a more private experience, he positions the spa a little farther away from the pool area, and installs arbors to foster privacy.

"We can create an intimate setting using a pergola with chiffon curtains," Erickson says.

Climate also affects the location of the pool/spa combination. "Most people shut their pools down in October and open them up again in April, but they leave the spa running year 'round," says Bob Wason, president of Gym & Swim, a Master Pools Guild builder, in Louisville, Ky. With the impact of weather in mind, he often positions the portable within view of the pool, but closer to the master bedroom.

"The truth is that a spa has a different season than an inground pool," McKibben says. "Most of the time, people use tubs in the cooler temperatures in spring, fall and winter. In the winter, they don't want to walk across the yard to use it."

Hidden treasures

Once the spa's placement has been selected, builders focus on establishing a cohesive look. Most homeowners don't want portable spas to dominate their poolscapes, so contractors have developed several camouflaging techniques.

Some prefer to conceal the self-contained spa's cabinet above the ground or partially recessed into it. Others submerge the acrylic spa shell, with its PVC plumbing foam-jetted in place, into a vault or sub-basement. Builders say both techniques have advantages and disadvantages from the standpoint of aesthetics and spa operation.

* Self-contained strategies

McKibben prefers designs that hide the portable spa's synthetic wood cabinet while maintaining the integrity of the manufacturer's construction and warranties. Housed in its original cabinet, the spa operates using the manufacturer's standard equipment.

"What we like about keeping them in the self-contained manner is the enhanced energy efficiency and the structural strength of the galvanized steel frame," McKibben explains. "It maintains all the warranties equipment-wise, as well. By keeping the hot tub intact in that cabinet, you also maintain the no-freeze protection from the manufacturer."

But he and his colleagues do not simply plunk down the portable spa adjacent to an inground pool. For an architectural look, most construct low walls around two, three or all four sides of the unit. In a two-wall application, concrete or flagstone steps often are placed on one of the open sides and act as a third barrier. The section without a wall is left open to allow access to the spa's equipment.

Jim Courage, president of Jim Courage Pools in Roseville, Calif., recently used the two-wall technique to enclose a client's existing spa. During construction of the adjacent pool, he created a raised patio that surrounds the spa on two ends, built a drystack wall using rock from the pool's waterfall on the third side, and left one side open for access.

Many builders construct the raised walls using blocks that are reinforced with concrete during the gunite phase of the pool construction. They can be topped with the stone, brick, stucco or the used for the rest of the project. For a finished, built-in look, these same materials can be placed around the top of the spa, right up to its lip.

On four-sided treatments, contractors will leave a gap between the spa and one wall for equipment access. The gap can be bridged with wood planks or other materials to form a trap door or hatch, which can be easily lifted off for service or repair.

On projects without walls, pool pros have found imaginative ways to dress up stand-alone units. Some will mortar natural stone to thick sheets of plastic attached directly to the spa's cabinet. A hatch-type door, also covered in stone, then provides access to the equipment pack.

Concealing the spa behind waterfeatures also works well. "We build a wall at the end of the pool and add a waterfall on the front side of the wall and then slide the spa in behind it," McGoohan says. He encloses two sides of the spa in rock or brick and may add a seating ledge around the spa's top edge, using the same coping material found on the pool.

In regions where wood and composite decks are the norm, self-contained portable spas can be submerged in the deck adjacent to the pool. Wason has perfected this technique in his area, where most yards feature rolling hills. "We place the spa in the deck and then use elevation changes in the deck to create a transition to the pool," he says.

Installations that are in-deck or below ground level frequently require construction of a concrete vault with drainage in the bottom. The spa and its manufactured cabinet are then dropped in. "It's literally a subbasement,"

Wason says. "Or we pour a floor and use concrete block to block out a pit." Wason has also recessed spas into the wood deck on three sides, and placed the spa into the cut-out, leaving the fourth side open. Stairs or a series of tiered synthetic wood decks lead from the spa to the pool deck, which may be concrete, pavers or flagstone.

* Shell installs

As an alternative to the self-contained units, builders also offer their customers shell-only options.

These installations provide a built-in look and typically are handled in two ways. One approach is to install the shell and its attached plumbing into a recessed vault, connect it into a plumbing run, and operate the spa using independent pumps and heaters placed on a pad nearby.

Another option starts with the pre-plumbed acrylic shell and ties the spa's operation into the pool equipment, allowing water to pass between the two vessels. Often this method is used with the spillover acrylic spa models available from some manufacturers.

"The No. 1 advantage is that you can exchange water with your pool, so there is no need for two sanitation systems," says Hagemann, who recommends a salt chlorine system for these combos.

Note: Shell-only installations require a support system beneath the spa's weight-bearing foot well. Builders can turn to a number of methods to support the shells, including the use of concrete; concrete topped with a sheet of plastic; a bed of sand; or the contruction of a steel frame under the spa.

RELATED ARTICLE: Getting technical.

Those with experience say there are a few technical aspects that cannot be overlooked when pairing portable spas with inground concrete pools. Here are their hints for successful combination projects:

* Help customers pick the right spas.

People who want to include a portable spa with their inground-pool project require assistance in choosing a unit that will meet their hydrotherapy needs, and it should work with the proposed design, says Dave McKibben, Retail and Spa Division manager at Patio Pools & Spas in Tucson, Ariz.

Either the project must be created around the spa model selected by the customers, or they must choose a unit that suits the agreed-upon design. Appropriate placement for equipment access and users' ability to get in and out of the spa must be considered.

* Think color.

To unite the inground pool and the acrylic spa, keep the colors of the overall project in mind, says Mike Hagemann, president of Master Pools by New Bern Pool Inc. in Raleigh, N.C.

"The color of the spa is important because it is now exposed to the colors of the pool," he says. Pair pools that have white plaster with white or silver spas. For dark, pond-like pools choose a spa that is dark in color.

* Handle access issues.

"You have to design equipment access into every single job," McKibben says. When working with self-contained portable spas placed above ground level, this can be achieved by leaving one side of the spa exposed, by designing clever stone or tile-covered hatches, or by leaving a gap between the spa wall and the surrounding enclosure.

When installing portable spas below ground level, create access to the equipment by including an underground vault or sub-basement. It needs to be large enough for a service technician to enter.

* Allow for drainage around and under the spa.

Take into account the need for drainage when self-contained spa cabinets are recessed below ground level. This will protect the spa skirt from mold, mildew and rot. A drainage system is especially important in freeze/thaw climates. Irven McGoohan, owner of Splash Pools & Spas in Lawton, Okla., recommends that you include a drainage system in the bottom of the vault housing the spa, or position a sump pump in the access area under the recessed spa.

* Design with safety in mind.

Spa installations that hide cabinetry also must take into account how users will be entering and leaving the area. The spas acrylic surface can be slippery. "Getting in and out must be made safe by the installation," Hagemann stresses.

* Test the spa prior to completing the installation.

Before a self-contained portable spa or spa shell is put in place permanently, test it for leaks and equipment problems, McGoohan suggests. Any defects are much easier to fix before the spa is built in or recessed, or the coping is affixed.

--J.P.R.

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