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A pool built right doesn’t just look good on day one it performs for decades without becoming a money pit. Gunite construction gives you a shell that holds up through South Georgia’s heat cycles, the clay-heavy soil that Thomas County is known for, and the kind of daily use that comes with a swim season that runs from March through November. That’s not something a vinyl liner or a prefab fiberglass shell can honestly promise you.
For Boston-area homeowners, especially those on larger rural lots outside city limits, this investment also does something else: it adds real, measurable value to the property. In warm-climate markets like South Georgia, a professionally built inground pool adds an estimated five to eight percent to home value. On a $200,000 home, that’s $10,000 to $16,000 in equity from something your family uses almost year-round.
The other thing worth knowing is what a bad build costs you. An unpermitted pool, a pool with plumbing that wasn’t installed correctly, or a deck that wasn’t designed for Thomas County’s drainage conditions those aren’t just inconveniences. They’re liabilities that complicate resale, cost money to fix, and follow you. The difference between a pool that adds value and one that creates problems almost always comes down to who built it and how.
We founded Deep Waters Pools in 2014 in Douglas, Georgia not because starting a pool company seemed like a good business move, but because our owner spent more than three decades watching South Georgia families get burned by contractors who overpromised and underdelivered. That’s the actual reason we exist. And it’s the reason every project is handled the way it is.
We serve the full Thomas County area, including Boston and surrounding communities along the US-84 corridor. Whether you’re on acreage outside Boston city limits or in the historic core closer to town, the same experienced crew shows up, manages your permits, and builds your pool from excavation to final inspection. No subcontractors handed a job they didn’t design. No project manager who’s never touched a shovel making calls from an office.
What you get is a team that’s accountable from the first site visit to the day you fill the pool.
It starts with a site evaluation before any money changes hands. For Boston-area properties particularly those on Thomas County acreage with red clay soil and specific drainage patterns that first visit matters. We look at how your land drains, where utilities run, what equipment access looks like, and whether there are any site-specific factors that need to be addressed in the design. You know exactly what the build involves before you sign anything.
Once the design is finalized and permits are pulled we handle all of it, including the distinction between Boston city-limit permits and unincorporated Thomas County permits excavation typically takes one to three days. From there, the gunite shell is applied, plumbing and electrical are run concurrently, and the deck is installed. A standard residential build runs six to eight weeks from excavation to water. That timeline holds because one team is sequencing all of it, not waiting on a subcontractor’s schedule to move to the next phase.
Every inspection required by the state of Georgia is scheduled and managed in-house. When the final certificate of occupancy is issued, your pool is fully documented, code-compliant, and ready to use not just visually finished but legally cleared.
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The full scope covers every phase of construction under one roof. Site evaluation and custom design, permit acquisition and management, excavation, gunite shell construction, swimming pool plumbing installation, electrical, pool deck installation, and complete project management from contract to completion. Nothing is handed off. The same team that evaluates your site and designs your pool is the team that builds it.
On the plumbing side, we install Schedule 40 PVC at minimum the kind of material that holds up in South Georgia’s ground conditions without degrading prematurely or requiring early replacement. Electrical work is bonded and grounded per NEC Article 680, which is a federal requirement for all new pool construction and something a lot of homeowners don’t know to ask about until there’s a problem. Every new build also includes Virginia Graeme Baker Act-compliant anti-entrapment drain covers required by federal law and installed as standard.
For Boston homeowners with larger rural lots, the deck design phase is worth paying attention to. More square footage means more options and the right deck layout can change how the whole outdoor space functions. Whether you’re working with a flat yard off a county road or a sloped property that needs grading, we design for your land, not a generic template. Fencing is also included in the permit package barrier requirements under Georgia law are part of the site plan from day one, not an afterthought.
Yes and the answer is slightly more specific depending on where your property sits. If your home is inside Boston city limits, your permit gets filed with the City of Boston directly. If you’re on a rural lot in unincorporated Thomas County outside city limits, that permit goes through the Thomas County Building Inspections office at 227 West Jefferson Street in Thomasville. It’s a distinction a lot of homeowners don’t realize until they’re already in the process.
Beyond the building permit, pool construction in Georgia also requires a separate electrical permit, multiple inspections at specific construction stages, and a final certificate of occupancy before the pool can be filled and used. Georgia law also requires barrier fencing around residential pools, and the fencing details materials, height, gate mechanism have to be included in the site plan submitted for permitting. We handle all of this in-house, so you’re not navigating county offices or tracking down inspection schedules on your own.
For a standard residential gunite build, the timeline from excavation to water runs roughly six to eight weeks. Excavation takes one to three days depending on your site. Gunite application is typically one to two days. Plumbing and electrical run concurrently over the following week or two, and decking takes three to five days. Final inspections and filling round out the back end of the schedule.
What keeps that timeline tight is the single-team build model. When one crew is managing every phase not waiting on a subcontractor to show up before the next step can start the sequencing stays on track. The most common reason pool projects drag past their projected finish dates is coordination failure between multiple subs. That’s not a factor here. South Georgia’s mild winters also mean there’s no hard freeze window to work around, so construction can be planned and started year-round in the Thomas County area.
Gunite is the right choice for most South Georgia homeowners, and the reasons are practical. Thomas County’s soil red clay with specific drainage behavior requires a pool structure that can handle seasonal moisture fluctuation without cracking, shifting, or degrading. Gunite is a concrete shell applied in place, which means it’s engineered for your specific site rather than manufactured to a standard shape and dropped into a hole.
Vinyl liner pools are cheaper upfront, but liners need to be replaced every eight to twelve years at a cost of $3,000 to $5,000 per replacement and they don’t hold up as well in ground conditions that shift. Fiberglass pools are faster to install but limit your design options significantly and can show wear after 15 to 25 years. Gunite gives you a fully custom design, a structure built for your land, and a functional lifespan of 25 to 30-plus years with proper maintenance. For a South Georgia swim season that runs eight to nine months a year, that lifespan matters.
A standard residential inground gunite pool typically runs between $55,000 and $100,000. Custom builds with larger footprints, more complex deck configurations, or added water features can exceed $150,000. Those ranges are consistent across the South Georgia market, including the Thomas County area.
What affects your specific number most is lot size and site conditions, pool size and shape, deck material and square footage, and the scope of the electrical and plumbing work. Boston-area homeowners on larger rural lots often have more flexibility in design which is an opportunity, but it also means more variables in the final cost. The best way to get an accurate number for your property is a site evaluation, which we conduct before any contract is signed. You’ll know what your build involves and what it costs before you commit to anything. No estimates that balloon after excavation starts.
In warm-climate markets like South Georgia, yes a professionally built inground pool adds an estimated five to eight percent to residential property value. On a home valued at $175,000 in the Boston area, that’s roughly $8,750 to $14,000 in added equity. The key word is professionally built, and the key qualifier is permitted.
An unpermitted pool doesn’t just fail to add value it can actively complicate or kill a sale. Buyers and their lenders flag unpermitted structures during the inspection process, and resolving an unpermitted pool after the fact is expensive and time-consuming. A pool that’s properly permitted, built to Georgia code, and fully documented is an asset at resale. One that isn’t is a liability. The contractor you choose, and whether they pull every required permit and pass every required inspection, determines which one you end up with when it’s time to sell.
The Thomas County pool market has options Cox Pools has been around since 1955, Thomasville Pools and Spas serves the area, and Mystic Pools operates out of Quitman just east of here on Brooks County. Competition is real, and that’s fine. What sets us apart isn’t a slogan it’s the build model and the experience behind it.
Most pool companies in this region use subcontractors for at least part of the build. That means your project gets handed off to crews who didn’t design it, may not communicate with each other, and are working your job between other jobs. We operate on a single-team model the same people who evaluate your site and design your pool are the ones who excavate it, apply the gunite, run the plumbing, and set your deck. For Boston and Thomas County homeowners who value accountability and aren’t interested in chasing down answers from three different contractors, that model makes a real difference. Add thirty-plus years of hands-on South Georgia construction experience behind the company, and the choice becomes straightforward.
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