Most manufacturers offer their spas without the skirting.You can install either a skirted or unskirted tub in-ground. You can dig a hole and build a box (concrete or cinder block) that the tub will sit in with one side 3' wider for access to the equipment(if your tub is 6'X6' the inside dimension of the box should be 6' X 9'). Build the box so the top of the walls are just below finished grade, depending on your finishing materials. The elevation of the floor should allow the tub to sit on the floor with the lip slightly above the finished height of the walls (not hanging from the walls). Set the tub in place and landscape up to it. Build a removable wooden "deck" over the equipment area. Don't forget to bring power/water to the equipment area. This will only work provided drainage from the bottom of the box is not an issue.I have left the bottom of these boxes gravel.

whatareuthinking, I was reading your response and appreciate the constructive criticism but you have me a bit confused on some of your questions and statements. I just replied to all to make it simple. a) it looks like one valve is going to be in the dirt After concrete was pored it still clears the dirt line. b) the new spa plumbing is touching the reinforcing steel (not the prescribed 2" clearance from plumbing to steel as the engineers decree!). This was my suggestion. This is a remodel, not a new build. I wanted the jets in a specific area so they cut some corners here without compromising the integrity of the existing structure. c) How are you going to clean out the jet pump? The dumb asses forgot a valve on the intake line... are you going to drain the spa down every time you want to get hair, dirt, rocks, lizards, etc. out of the pump trap? This is where you got me. I just don't know wtf you are talking about here. I simply remove the lid while the pump is turned off, remove the trap, clean and replace. Why would I need a valve to do this? The pump is higher than the pool. Gravity will not allow the water to go threw the pump while I clean it. d) why so many damn elbows enroute from the pump to filter?? Couldn't they have turned the filter towards the heater (90 degrees)? They could have eliminated a few elbows, saved themselves some time & money, and made the system more efficient... You actually had me thinking on this one. I examined my setup to eliminate elbows when I noticed the real problem. Even if the PB had turned the filter inline with the heater, its the Vario Valve that is F'ing everything up. It requires 3 to 4 unneeded elbows no matter how the filter is situated. This will be going on ebay as soon as I get the DE Quad filter which will not have a valve at all. I will take your advice here and direct this towards the heater. Thanks man. Anymore advise?

I am not expert, but here is my take on it. Propane can heat up water much faster, but it costs more. So, a 400k BTU heater can heat up a spa from 80 to 104 in minutes (I am making the actual numbers up, but it is relatively true). An electric heater would take much longer to do so. Portable spas mostly all use electric heaters (not propane) and usually are kept at the usable temperature all the time because it takes too much time to bring them up to 104 otherwise (and with the cover on, maintains the heat easily). Again, I am giving you my understanding, with not much to back it up. We have a propane heater (the costs was minimal) for our pool and an Electric Heat Pump (much more expensive) for our pool. The thought is that we will use the propane heater to get our pool up to a usable temperature quickly in the early and late seasons and the electric heat pump to maintain the temperature (or rise it slowly). I don't want to not swim in the pool because it is too cold (during the swimming season), but I don't want to pay an arm and a leg to do so. From my own (again, unscientific) calculations at the current propane rate where I live ($2.45/gallon), it will cost about $11/hour to run the propane heater. I can't tell how much the heat pump will cost, because their specifications don't tell me that in an easy way to read, but it look like closer to .50/hour to run (although you get much less heat for that). We are getting a hot tub, but not one built in (because we want to use it in the winter, when our pool is closed). As I said above, that will be electric for heating, but from what I am told, with the cover on, it is able to maintain the heat for little cost (I was told

We have a "spool", a small pool/spa combo. One side of our pool has a bench with jets all along the side. They have no heat source. I like it but find we probably don't use it as much as we thought we would. I don't think I would like heated water on hot Florida days but we probably would like it for evenings. We opted for this because of space constraints...couldn't fint a conventional spa and pool in the space.