The short answer
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| Hot Tub / Spa | $390 |
| Hot Tub / Spa — 6-8 Person | $501 |
| Cold Plunge Tub | $271 |
| Sauna (1-2 Person / Barrel / Infrared) | $293 |
| Above-Ground Pool (Frame + Liner) | $145 |
That price includes disassembly or cut-up where needed, the carry out to the truck, and disposal. Minimum $75 per visit, but a hot tub is never going to bump into that.
Drain it before the day. A full tub is thousands of pounds of water and no crew can move it loaded.
Why so many Houston hot tubs go unused
Nobody sells a hot tub with the Gulf Coast climate printed on the box. It gets installed in October, it is wonderful for three months, and then it is April and the ambient air is warm and humid, and a hot tub in a Houston August is not a thing anybody wants.
So it runs unused for most of the year while the heater and the pump keep drawing power. Eventually somebody switches it off, and from that point the clock starts: standing water, algae, a cover that has absorbed rain and sagged into the shell.
A cover that has waterlogged is astonishingly heavy and is usually the first thing a crew deals with. That is included in the price.
The gate is the whole job
Ask yourself one question: how did it get in? If it came in before the fence went up, or was craned over, or arrived while the house was still being built, it is not coming back out the way it went in.
Standard side gates in Houston subdivisions — Katy, Cypress, Sugar Land, Pearland, Fulshear — are frequently narrower than a spa shell. Inner-loop lots are worse: a Heights or Montrose bungalow on a narrow lot may have a side passage three feet wide between the house and the neighbor's fence, and a new-build townhouse may have no side access at all.
When it will not fit, the crew cuts it up in place — acrylic shell, frame and cabinet, separated and carried out in manageable pieces. That is what the flat price buys, and it is the part people assume will be an extra.
Draining it properly
Do this a day ahead, not on the morning. A standard spa holds several hundred gallons and it takes hours to empty through a hose.
Where does it go? Not into a storm drain or the street — chemically treated water should not go into the drainage system, and in a flood metro the drainage system is something people here take seriously. A sanitary sewer clean-out is the usual route. Let the water sit without chemicals being added for a few days first if you can.
Also disconnect the power. Most tubs are on a dedicated circuit with a spa panel nearby; switch it off at the breaker and, if the connection is hard-wired, have an electrician disconnect it before the visit. We move spas; we do not disconnect electrical supply.
Decking, surrounds and the slab
Many Houston spas sit in a deck cut-out or on a concrete pad, sometimes with a built surround of timber that has had a hard life in this climate. Rot at the base of posts is common because the ground here stays damp.
Timber surrounds and decking come out as lumber — $41 a bundle. If a concrete pad is going too, that prices separately as masonry at $219 per quarter truck, because concrete goes to a different facility from everything else.
A full clear of a spa with its timber surround: $390 + $41 + $41 = $472. Tell us at booking what is around it so the crew brings the right tools.
Hurricane season and the empty shell
An empty hot tub shell is a large, light, dish-shaped object, and that is the worst possible combination in high wind. A disused spa that has been drained and left in a back garden is a genuine hazard when a storm is forecast, and so is a stack of cover panels beside it.
The same goes for an above-ground pool frame that has been half dismantled and left for a season — that is $145 to take away, and doing it in May is a great deal easier than doing it in the week of a forecast.
Selling it first, honestly
A working spa under about eight years old, with a clean shell and a working heater, will sell in this market. Be straight in the listing about who moves it — a buyer who has not arranged transport will waste two weeks of your time.
A spa that has been sitting full of untreated water, or whose shell has crazed, or whose pump seized two years ago, will not sell. Nor will it be taken by a charity. That is when it becomes a $390 job, and the number does not change because the gate is narrow.
Frequently asked questions
How much does hot tub removal cost in Houston?
$390 for a standard hot tub or spa and $501 for a six-to-eight-person unit. That includes cutting it up if needed, carrying it out and disposing of it.
What if it will not fit through the gate?
The crew cuts it up in place and carries it out in pieces. That is included in the flat price, not an extra — and in Houston it is the normal outcome, because most side gates are narrower than a spa shell.
Do I need to drain it first?
Yes, ideally the day before. A full spa holds hundreds of gallons and cannot be moved loaded. Drain to a sanitary sewer clean-out rather than a storm drain, and let treated water sit a few days first.
Do you disconnect the electrics?
No. Switch it off at the breaker, and if it is hard-wired have an electrician disconnect it before the visit. We handle the spa itself, not the supply.
Can you take the decking and the concrete pad too?
Timber comes out as lumber at $41 a bundle. Concrete prices separately as masonry at $219 per quarter truck, because it goes to a different facility.