Standard drawings for a concrete spa
After helping several customers build custom concrete and tiled spas, we noticed that certain configurations crop up regularly, so we wanted to share some ideas with you as a starting point for your own plans.
There are three circuits in a concrete spa, of which only the first is essential:
- Filtration, heating and jets
- Blower and air jets
- Venturi air system
This is the most basic version of a concrete spa installation. If you want to start building a hot tub and have any particular requests, we strongly advise you to contact a qualified electrician, a plumber or a specialised company (often pool builders).
If you want to use a liner in your concrete spa, please note that we do not sell products for this type of coating. Even when reinforced, the spa liner is fragile and has a limited lifespan. It also restricts which maintenance products you can use in your spa, as these can damage it, and has a hard time withstanding very high temperatures.
The items listed below are not suitable for commercial use.
Filtration, heating and jets (first diagram)
This circuit consists of the following elements (in approximate sequence from suction drain to jet):
- 2 Suction fittings, with tees and elbows to connect them
- 1 2" guillotine valves to isolate the filter-heater-pump group during maintenance (you can use a 1.5" valve at the other end of this assembly - see below)
- 1 Cartridge filter
- 1 Control box with an integrated heater
- 1 Keypad to control the pump, blower, and temperature (other keypads are available)
- 1 Two-speed pump which provides filtration and massage, plus its unions.
- 2" pipe to connect everything up.
Most compact filters have 1.5" connections, so you also will need the following elements:
- 2 1.5" unions
- 1 1.5" valve to isolate the filter-heater-pump system (see 2" valve mentioned previously)
- 1 1.5" Y-shaped tee
- 6 1.5" equal tee
- 2 1.5" elbows for the jets at the ends of the circuit (see diagram)
- A reel of 1.5" flexible hose.
- 8 Wall fittings
- 8 Jet sockets
- 8 jets, with a choice of directional or rotational massage styles
Blower and air jets (second diagram)
A blower creates a stream of air bubbles that comes out of the underwater jets. These are mounted on a horizontal surface, usually where people sit so they can feel the bubbles on their skin. A typical air jet installation would use the following parts:
- 1 Genesis heated 900W blower
- 1 air loop so that part of the air circuit is above the waterline, which prevents water from re-entering to the blower
- 1 check valve, which works in conjunction with the air loop to prevent water from re-entering the blower
- 8 Balboa Lo-Pro jets
- 7 1" tees to distribute air to each jet
- 2 1" elbows 90° to finish distributing to the jets
- 10 meters of 1" pipe to connect all the air jets.
Venturi air (third diagram)
Many venturi air jets have nozzles that suck in air and add bubbles to the water stream, which changes the massaging effect, but can also make the water colder in the winter. If you do not want these air bubbles, you have to block the airway on each jet. Or, you could install a circuit that controls the airways on all the jets. This system consists of:
- 2 Air control valves
- 2 manifolds to distribute air to each jet
- To adapt between each air valve and feeder, you will need 1.5"M to 1" F reducers and 2 2"M to 1.5"F reducers.
- 2 Plugs for male end of manifold
- Finally, to connect the feeders to each nozzle, you'll need about 20m of 1/2"flexible hose.
We remain at your disposal for further information. Don't forget the glue!