How to Build a Pool and Hot Tub in your Basement. Adrian Martin
Masonry hole saw set - this set from Harbor Freight (Item #68116) was the absolute best set ever. It lasted exactly to the end of the project, and then was totally spent.
Powder nailer - used to attach things to concrete floors and walls.
Miter saw - for cutting framing, trim, and pvc pipe.
Drywall saw.
Cutout tool - again, from Harbor Freight, (item 42831). Used to cut holes for lights and outlets in drywall.
Propane torch and related tools to help sweat copper pipe.
Concrete trowels and finishing tools.
Cement mixer (item 67536) from Harbor Freight. I love these mixers and I own two of them because I used to have a small business making concrete countertops. These reliable electric machines never failed me, were easy to maintain, and just always worked.
Basement Design Software
I used a design and modeling tool called Google Sketchup to design my basement. It is free, powerful, and easy enough for the average person to use. Download it from the Google website. I won’t be explaining step-by-step how to use this tool but it has a help section, and YouTube has tutorials. What is most important to understand is that this tool exists and can be very useful at helping you discover the limits of your area as well as spot design problems before you start building.
What you will want to do is take a tape measure and some graph paper down into your basement and start to draw out the length of your walls and to mark the position of important objects like support pillars, windows, doorways, furnaces, water heaters, floor drains, and any roughed-in plumbing. Also note the locations of DWV (drain, waste, ventilation) pipes, and any existing outlets or wiring - like smoke detectors.
Transfer your wall measurements into Sketchup, pull up walls, pop out windows and then create a hot tub shape. Mine was a square with 6 feet by 6 feet of interior space. My swim spa was a rectangle roughly 12 feet long and 6 feet wide. Then, move those shapes around your model, trying them out and seeing where they might fit best.
Originally, I had planned to try to save money by using one set of equipment to handle both pools. I eventually abandoned this idea, but for a while, I was trying hard to keep the pools very close to each other so as to facilitate the sharing of pumps, filters, heaters, and pipes.
Here are a few of the many models I created. You can see the various ways I tried to situate the pools.
Dimensions of my basement. This type of measuring is essential so you can plan the location of equipment.
It took awhile and a lot of 3D modeling to detemine how to layout the pools and other parts of the basement - like the exercise area, bar, and TV.
Here I experiment with placing the pool in a dark corner of the basement, and situating the hot tub near a window.
I got creative by adding water texture and wooden decking texture as well as plants to better understand how things would look, feel and work in this trial layout.
The 6 foot tall figures help understand the space. I also added an exercise bike and table and then tried out the idea of a curved bathroom wall.
The model can be spun and flipped, allowing you to see problem spots. I think the pool is a little cramped. I may have to move it, but where?
Another thing that bothered me was how far apart the pools were. I need them closer so they can share equipment so let’s move the hot tub.
I finally settle on the permanent position of the two pools. I have adequate room for pipeage, while still maximizing the basement space and leaving the room walkable and open.
Now that I know where the pools, TV and bar will be, I can work out a lighting plan, locate outlets, and plan for the equipment area.
Basement Pool Design
TIME TO VISUALIZE!
Design tools like Google Sketchup are great at allowing you to virtually play with the space you have to work with. But no tool is as powerful as your mind so you will want to spend time in your basement visualizing. You and others should walk around the unfinished space and pretend to be entering a hot tub or pool. Lay on the floor and stretch your arms and legs out both forward and side to side. Do you have enough room or are you hitting walls with your feet or fingers? Are ceilings low in one area and high in another? Where are your windows? Can you maximize natural light falling on the water? I used blue tape or scrap wood on the floor to mark out potential walls and then walked around pretending they were there and trying to figure out how they felt. Sit in one area and look towards the rest of the room and pretend to be in the hot tub. How is the view? How is the ventilation? You will want air to easily circulate through the room and around the pools. If you have windows at opposite corners of the room, try not to enclose them or block them. The cross ventilation they afford will be valuable at venting moist air out of your basement and keeping it dry and smelling fresh.
Yes, I spent quite a bit of “design time” simply taking long walks during my lunch hour and letting the brain work on the challenges. I would entertain an idea and then find all the things wrong with it and then try out a new idea. After a while, I would settle on one plan which I would write down in a notebook. Sometimes I would paste ideas to the wall in the basement in the approximate location where I expected them to be. This is useful for planning out where doors, outlets and switches might be located.
I did all the plumbing, framing, drywall, and equipment set up myself. I hired a very good electrician to do all the electrical work according to code. I was able to hand him my lighting plan (which was shown in the previous chapter) and he interpreted it according to the building code, making adjustments where necessary. For example, he moved the location of an outlet near the swim spa, and also placed the switches for lights and ceiling fans out of reach of anybody in the water - for safety.
WHAT IS YOUR THEME?
My wife and I envisioned the basement as a spa-room. A place where one could go to relax, read, watch tv, or exercise and become recharged. Our basement theme was “elemental” - stone, wood, fire, metal, plants, and water. We didn’t want any plastic down there. Nor did we want a bedroom or a movie-room or a game room. In addition to the hot tub and swim spa, I envisioned an area with a cafe table and two chairs, a bar, an exercise area with treadmill, bicycle, and elliptical, and flat-screen television mounted on the wall with several chairs or a couch for viewing. These pieces of furniture required some careful thought on where to place them, how close they could be to each other, what requirements they had for electrical, and how to keep them from taking over all the valuable floor space. I really wanted to maximize floor space. I did not want a cramped and cluttered basement.