Hot tub removal cost in Orlando

The short answer

A hot tub or spa is $322. That is a flat price covering the breakdown, the carry-out, the truck and the disposal. There is no surcharge for a tub inside a screen enclosure, none for a long carry around the side of the house, and none for a same-day booking.

A cold plunge tub is $271. An above-ground pool with frame and liner is $145. The per-visit minimum is $75, which a hot tub clears many times over.

Why hot tubs get abandoned in Orlando

They get bought in January, when a couple of cool weeks make a spa seem like a wonderful idea, and they get used about six times. By June, a heated tub in Central Florida is a piece of equipment nobody wants, running a pump against a power bill through a summer where the ambient temperature already exceeds what you would want to sit in.

Then it sits. And a hot tub that sits in this climate deteriorates fast — the cover absorbs water and becomes a two-person lift on its own, the cabinet swells, and the shell fills with rain and becomes the best mosquito habitat on the property. That last part is usually what triggers the phone call, often via a neighbor or the HOA.

The screen enclosure question

This is the genuinely Orlando part of the job. In Hunter's Creek, Meadow Woods, Winter Springs, Dr. Phillips and most of the Kissimmee pool-home communities, the spa sits on a pool deck inside an aluminum screen cage.

A hot tub does not fit through a standard screen door. So the crew has three options, and the right one is chosen on site:

• Cut it down inside the cage and carry the pieces out through the door. Usually the answer, and the least risk to the enclosure.
• Remove a screen panel from the frame and re-fit it afterwards. Possible when the spa can be moved intact and the panel is a simple spline.
• Through the house, which nobody wants, and which is rarely needed once the tub is in sections.

Tell us there is a cage when you book. It changes the tools, not the price.

How the removal actually goes

• The tub is drained. Do this yourself in advance if you can — a full spa holds hundreds of gallons and it takes hours, not minutes.
• Power is disconnected. A hard-wired spa on its own circuit needs an electrician to disconnect it safely before the visit; a plug-in unit is unplugged on the day.
• The cover and cabinet come off.
• The shell is cut into carryable sections.
• Everything is loaded and taken for disposal. Nothing is left on the deck.

Budget a couple of hours for a typical unit. It is noisier than most jobs, which matters in a dense subdivision, so morning slots are the polite choice.

Before the crew arrives

Four things that make the day go quickly:

• Drain it fully. Start the night before. Direct the water where it will not flood a neighbor's yard, which on a flat Central Florida lot with a shared swale is a real consideration.
• Get the power disconnected by a licensed electrician if it is hard-wired.
• Clear the route. Move patio furniture and planters off the deck and unlock the side gate.
• Check the HOA rules if you are in a deed-restricted community. Some have work-hour restrictions, and a few require notice for anything involving a saw.

What about the pad and the wiring?

The tub goes. The concrete pad it sat on and the electrical run to the disconnect box do not go with it, because those are trade jobs — a concrete contractor and an electrician respectively.

If you want the pad broken up as part of a wider clearance, concrete and masonry debris is priced separately at $219 per quarter truck. Most people leave the pad, because it makes a perfectly good base for a fire pit or a storage shed, which in a metro with no basements is worth something.

Other outdoor items, priced

Since the crew is already on the deck, it is worth pricing the rest of it:

A hot tub plus the tired patio set beside it — table and four chairs — is $322 + $89 + $30 + $30 + $30 + $30 = $531. Disconnect the propane tank from the grill and keep it; tanks are exchanged where you bought them, not taken on the truck.

Booking it

Send a photo of the tub, one of the route from it to the driveway, and one showing whether it sits inside a screen enclosure. You get the flat $322 back before anyone drives out.

Morning slots are worth asking for in summer. Cutting a spa apart on a pool deck at 2pm in July is a slower job than the same work at 8am, and the afternoon storm will stop it anyway.

Frequently asked questions