colo_artist

Wow, just wow.

Thanks for the pics. Very nice! Now I see why you wanted decking under the spa...so it would fit in with the deck. It looks great. Oh man, I thought my deck had a lot of angles. It looks like your miter saw got a good workout. I especially like the way you treated the end of the bench with a triangular piece. Clean and tidy. What kind/color of stain did you go with?

Sorry to hear things have gone badly with your Marquis. Last month I had a Marquis Wish installed and it went just fine. No problems whatsoever. I too have heard every Marquis spa is tested at the factory and since there was a bit water in the plumbing, it looks to be quite true with my spa. Two bad boards in a row, especially when one is in a brand new spa from a name brand company, and the second tested fine at the store sounds very unlikely. I suspect the problem will be with the electrical from the house, which will probably be eventually identified after it's fried the 3rd and 4th boards too. With my spa, I was replace an old one. The line from the shutoff box was too short for the new spa. I was tempted to do the line myself, but decided to have a licensed electrician do it...one who is familiar with hooking up spas. I think I would have done okay, but the job the electrician did was top notch and cleaner than the way I would have done it. It's stories like these that make me glad I hired an electrician and fortunately found a good one. Best of luck with it. Let us know what the problem turns out to be. Post some pics once it's up and running.

I don't really see how using the shipping platform would help things. As long as the pavers are even the wooden platform wouldn't help with evening out the load. It'd just make your spa higher and a bit harder to get into and out of. Plus it might prove to be a tempting home for various critters. Everything else sounds like they would be fine, but they all sound like a lot of work. A concrete pad might be simpler in the long run. There's also pre-fabricated pads, like the EZ PAD. I used one under my new spa. However, my spa is recessed into a deck. I think if it were out in the open I would have gone with a concrete pad. Which ever way you go take some pics and post 'em. Best of luck with it.

I don't replace spas every day, so when I replaced our old spa with a new one I learned a few things during the process. When I was looking at replacing my old recessed spa with a new spa, one of my primary concerns was how well it was going to fit into my redwood deck without doing major rework on the deck. For fit I was focused on the dimensions for length and width. The height was on the radar, but only in that it be deep enough for a good soak. I hadn't really considered how high the spa should be in relation to the deck. Deck level on the old spa was about half way up the side, and that seemed fine. We decided on a Marquis Wish. It has a couple of cool-down seats that were about half way down the height of the spa. I thought it would be good to make them even with the decking. It meant raising the base a bit, but that was okay. Turned out that was a lucky decision. The old spa was there when we bought the house and I wasn't sure what kind trouble the previous owners had gone to for the base. If there was a concrete pad under there, I'd skip trying to raise the base. I was also trying to decide as to whether to use an EZ Pad with the new one or not. Since I wanted to raise the base a bit anyway, and it turned out there wasn't an existing concrete pad in place, I decided to go with the pad. That turned out to be another lucky decision for a couple of reasons. On the big day I soon found out it was good I had done a bit of planning. Once the old spa was out there's a limited amount of time before the new one is ready to go in. Although the delivery guys weren't rushing me, and were very helpful, the clock was ticking for getting the base prepared. With any spa you want to make sure it's going to be level, but with a recessed deck you really want to be sure it's going to be even with the deck. Once the spa is in it's going to be a pain to take it back out to readjust things. While the crew was there I had them move the new spa so it was lined up where I thought was square with the house and lined up best for access. After the crew was gone and I had started working on fitting the boards to the larger spa I realized I needed to fine tune the spa's placement. With the EZ Pad under the spa I found it was simple for me to bump the spa to get it right where I wanted it to be. I also soon discovered the EZ Pad made my life easier when it came to getting the new spa to fit well with the deck. The Wish has some covered screw heads about 1/2 way up the side. An 1" lower and the screws would have been at "board level" and I would have had to fiddled around to get them to recess into the deck. There are also a couple of vents in the front. An 1" lower they would have touched the deck and looked a bit odd. Being recessed the spa doesn't need a step, but it was part of the deal so I figured I'd use it as a seat and convert it for storage. An 1" lower and the cover would have hit it. Here are some pics. Higher would have been fine, but even 1/2" lower and things wouldn't have lined up nearly as nicely...

I was getting ready to order a second set of filters for my new Marquis Wish and saw this post. I believe the Rendezvous and the Wish use the same filter type, 1 in the Rendezvous and 2 in the Wish. The filters that came with the spa don't have any model numbers, and the manual doesn't specify the filter type. Searching online I found the Unicel 5CH-502, but I also found a 5CH-352. They are the same size, but the 502 is a 50 sq. ft. filter and the 352 is has 35 sq. ft. of material. I've heard the 35 will provide better water flow than the 50, but I'd think the 50 would be better at filtering...but that's only guessing on my part. What would be the advantages/disadvantages of the 35 vs. the 50? Thanks.

Oh man, I lucked out. Today I was working on the deck for the other two sides. I suddenly realized how I had lucked out. When we got serious about the Wish I did a bunch of measurements to make sure it would fit in the deck without any serious modifications. It was a bit of a snug fit, but no real problems. One thing I focused on was that the warm up seats would end up being slightly lower than deck level. On almost a whim I thought it would be neat for them to be exactly deck level making it super easy to get in and out. To do that I added material to raise the new spa 2 1/2". The Wish has two vents on the front. Right now they end about 1/2" above the deck. If I hadn't have raised the spa, they would have ended below the decking and looked a bit odd. The side panels have covered screws about half the way up. They're about 1" above the decking. They would have been a pain to work around if they ended up "mid board." Also, although I don't need the optional step it was part of the deal. I figured I'd used it as a seat and have plans on putting a hinge on the lid to convert it for storage for spa stuff. Today I put it in place and found that it just fits below the cover's edge by about 1/2". If the spa hadn't have been raised the cover would have hit the step. None of those things would have been big problems, but It's a good feeling when things fit together well...even if it was simply because of dumb luck.

Yeah, all wood...redwood in fact. About 6 years ago I sanded it all down and restained it. The deck looked great until it was damaged by a hailstorm last year. I guess it was good timing to replace the spa since I was gonna be working on redoing the deck anyways. Here's what it looked like the last time around...

Two sides down, two to go. I worked on getting the deck to fit around the new spa. I figured I'd get the hard part done first, the curve at the front. Originally the plan was to make an access panel, but once I got into it, things changed. The spa is in a corner of the deck and the boards run diagonally. It turned out to get to the central controls I'd just need to unscrew 4 boards. I'll go with simple and go without the access panel for now. If it becomes a problem I frame it out and do a panel.

All wired up and filled up, but not quite warmed up.... I probably could have sorted out replacing the wiring from the cutoff box, but the old spa's wiring was done by the previous owner and I wanted it checked out. Plus the statement in the warranty about damage caused by improper wiring not being covered made me have second thoughts of doing it myself. Anyway, after seeing what a great job the electrician did I'm glad I had a pro do it. I'm more comfortable working with wood, so I'll be doing the deck remodeling myself. Here's some pics of the Marquis Wish. We got the "Constellation" lighting upgrade. My wife and I probably would have skipped it, but her sister likes the fancy lighting, so what the heck...it's kinda pretty anyhoo.

It's a big plastic slide. They would have put it some wheeled dollies, but there was a tree with some low branches and a narrow gate which made for a tight fit...so they used the glider. It was much like this spa-sled.

Our 15 year old Saratoga Spa had developed a crack in the shell and we decided it was time for a replacement. During the recent Denver Home and Garden show, my wife and I bought a new Marquis Wish. Here's the background story... Aging Saratoga Spa Out, New Marquis Spas In Since the colors we wanted wasn't in stock we had to wait a bit for delivery. Well, it arrived and Denver's Spa Brokers took out the old and put in the new. The delivery crew did a great job. They took out the old Saratoga and installed the new Marquis with nary a scratch on the easily marred redwood deck. Here are some pics... The Wish has a couple of cool down seats. I recessed the spa so the seats are even with the deck making it easier to get in and out. That curve is going to be a bit of a challenge to fit into the deck, but it does have one advantage...there's a joist near the front and the curve creates a nice access space. Next up...the control panel for the Saratoga was closer to the breaker panel, so I need to replace the cable before I can wire up the Wish. Then it's time to get out the saw and do some work on the deck.

You probably know what you want, but just in case I thought I'd mention some of the drawbacks of a fully recessed spa and advantages of a partially recessed spa. Mine spa is partially recessed into my redwood deck and I like it that way. It's more of a bother for installation and repair access, but entering and exiting the spa is much simpler. The deck and some of the spas interior seats are at about the same height so I don't need to step up or down to get in and out. WIth the spa's top at ground level one has to climb down into the spa and climb up to get out. A handrail would be helpful, but would kinda spoil that "hidden" look. The cover is a problem too. Getting one without lips for a better fit is one thing, but also consider what might happen if someone happens to not notice there's a spa and wonders onto the top of it...that's why a ground mounted cover can be kinda pricey. Most spa covers aren't designed to be walked on. WIth a fully recessed spa you'll also be doing more bending over. Every time you open and close the cover, it'll be from the ground level. Same with checking the chemicals and swapping out the filters...you'll be on your hands and knees. Not a big deal when your young, but as I get older it's an additional bother. A partially recessed spa still gives it a custom look without some of the problems associated with dropping it all the way down to the ground. Either way post some pics if you get one.

I don't know much other than a Google search yielded this page... http://www.gulfcoast-spas.com/ ...which states parts and service are still available for Gulf Coast spas even though they stopped manufacturing them as of March 2009. You could give them a try. Best of luck with it.

Yeah, I hear ya. I've been doing server stuff for decades. For the most part it's a thankless task. I was working on doing an into for my first post when I noticed this one about Spa Depot covers. I thought, "I've got one of those" and innocently thought I'd just post a quick and simple response about my experience with one...something actually useful for my first post. Turned out to be not so quick or simple after all. Sorry for any confusion, and thanks for all of your hard work. It's a great forum.