Hear from Our Customers
When a gunite pool is built correctly for your property, the first thing you stop worrying about is whether it’ll hold up. Funston sits in Colquitt County’s Coastal Plain, where the soils are sandy and flat different from the heavy clay you’ll find in other parts of South Georgia and a pool shell that’s properly engineered for those drainage conditions doesn’t crack, shift, or settle unexpectedly. You get a structure that was designed for where you actually live, not a one-size-fits-all build transplanted from somewhere else.
The other thing you gain is time. Funston’s swimming season runs roughly six to seven months out of the year. July averages 82 degrees, winters are mild, and snowfall is rare enough that most years you won’t see any. That’s a long, usable season and a pool that’s built to last 30-plus years with proper maintenance gives you decades of that return, not a few good summers before problems start showing up.
There’s also the long-term cost picture. A well-built gunite pool typically needs resurfacing every 10 to 15 years. You may have heard the claim that gunite requires replastering every three to seven years that’s what happens with pools built by crews who cut corners on the shell. The material isn’t the problem. The builder is. When the work is done right from the start, you’re not looking at constant upkeep. You’re looking at a backyard that stays functional and looks good for a long time without nickel-and-diming you every few years.
We’re based in Douglas, GA and have been building custom inground pools across South Georgia since 2014 but our founding team brought more than 30 years of hands-on experience in concrete, plumbing, and pool construction before we ever opened our doors. That background matters when you’re making a $75,000 to $150,000 investment in your property.
What makes our work different is straightforward: every phase of your build is handled by the same in-house crew. Excavation, rebar, gunite application, plumbing, electrical bonding and grounding, equipment installation, decking all of it. We don’t bring in subcontractors to handle phases we don’t want to deal with. You know who’s on your property, and you know who’s accountable if something isn’t right.
Funston is the kind of community where that accountability is visible. In a town of around 400 people one elementary school, one cotton gin, neighbors who talk the quality of your work follows you. We build in communities like this knowing that reputation travels fast, and we build accordingly.
It starts with a site evaluation and a 3D design rendering of your pool. You’ll see the shape, the depth, every feature designed around your specific backyard before anything gets approved or scheduled. This isn’t a catalog pick. It’s a custom layout built around your property and what your family actually needs.
Once the design is locked in, we handle all permitting in-house. In Funston, that means coordinating with both the Town of Funston’s Planning and Zoning Department and, where applicable, the Colquitt County Compliance Department at 101 East Central Avenue in Moultrie. Two separate offices, two sets of documentation, multiple required inspections none of that falls on you. Building permits, electrical permits, inspection scheduling it’s all managed without you having to track a single piece of paperwork.
From there, the build follows a structured sequence: excavation, steel rebar installation, gunite or shotcrete application, plumbing, electrical work to NEC Article 680 standards, equipment installation, and finish work including decking. The realistic timeline for a full custom gunite build in the Southeast is three to six months. If you’re thinking about a pool for next spring, the best time to start that conversation is now fall and winter bookings move faster through the permit process, and crews are more available than during the spring rush when everyone else is trying to start at the same time.
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Custom gunite and shotcrete pool construction is the core of what we do but the scope of work goes well beyond pouring the shell. Every build includes custom 3D design, full excavation, structural steel rebar, gunite or shotcrete application, complete plumbing, electrical bonding and grounding per NEC Article 680, equipment installation, and decking. We handle both residential and commercial builds, which matters in Colquitt County where agricultural landowners and farm properties often have the space and the outdoor lifestyle that makes a custom pool a natural fit.
Beyond new construction, we also build custom spas, handle pool rescue and restoration for neglected or damaged pools, and provide ongoing maintenance weekly, monthly, and seasonal. Equipment service covers Hayward, Pentair, Jandy, Sta-Rite, and Zodiac systems. That means the company that builds your pool in Funston is also the company you call five years from now when something needs attention. You’re not starting over with a stranger every time you need service.
For Funston homeowners, that full-lifecycle relationship is especially valuable. There’s no local pool service company with a physical address in town. Having a builder who also maintains what they build and who knows your specific equipment, your shell, your plumbing layout removes a layer of uncertainty that most pool owners in rural South Georgia have to deal with on their own.
This is probably the most common concern we hear from homeowners in Funston and the surrounding area, and it’s worth addressing directly. Cracking is a construction problem, not a material problem. When a gunite shell is properly engineered for the soil conditions where it’s being built, it doesn’t crack. Colquitt County’s Coastal Plain soils are sandy and well-drained different from the heavier clay soils in other parts of Georgia and those conditions require a builder who understands the hydrostatic dynamics and drainage characteristics of this specific region.
Pools that crack are typically built by contractors who applied the same approach everywhere without adjusting for local soil behavior. When the rebar is properly placed, the gunite is applied at the right thickness and cured correctly, and the shell is designed for the drainage profile of your specific lot, the structure holds. We build for where you actually are not a generalized version of South Georgia.
Most custom gunite pool projects in Georgia fall in the $75,000 to $150,000 range, depending on size, shape, depth, features, and site conditions. A straightforward residential pool on a flat lot in Colquitt County will land toward the lower end of that range. Custom spas, water features, elaborate decking, or more complex excavation requirements will move the number up.
What’s worth understanding is the total cost of ownership over time, not just the upfront price. A well-built gunite pool resurfaced every 10 to 15 years at roughly $6,000 to $15,000 is a very different long-term investment than a cheaper build that needs structural repairs within the first five years. Financing is available and commonly used for projects in this range. The conversation about cost starts with a site evaluation and a design consultation there’s no accurate number without knowing your specific property and what you’re building.
The honest answer is three to six months from permit approval to final inspection for a full custom gunite build in the Southeast. Some builders quote eight to twelve weeks, but that timeline rarely accounts for permitting, inspection scheduling, weather delays, or the full sequence of construction phases that a properly built pool requires.
In Funston specifically, the permitting process involves both the Town of Funston’s Planning and Zoning Department and potentially the Colquitt County Compliance Department in Moultrie, depending on your property’s location. That coordination takes time, and it’s one of the reasons starting in fall or winter works in your favor. Permit queues are shorter, crews have more availability, and a pool that breaks ground in October or November is realistically ready for the following April swim season which in Colquitt County means you’re in the water right when the heat starts building.
With us, we handle all of it. That means the building permit, the electrical permit, and every required inspection coordinated with both the Town of Funston’s Planning and Zoning Department and the Colquitt County Compliance Department at 101 East Central Avenue in Moultrie. You don’t call a permit office, you don’t track paperwork, and you don’t schedule inspectors.
This matters more than it might seem upfront. Navigating two separate permitting layers town-level and county-level with different documentation requirements, different fee structures, and separate inspection schedules is a real administrative burden for a homeowner who has a job, a family, and other things to manage. When your builder handles the entire process, you stay informed without being responsible for moving the paperwork forward. That’s how it should work, and it’s the standard on every build we do.
For most Funston homeowners, the math works out clearly. Colquitt County’s swimming season runs from roughly April through October about six to seven months of genuine, regular use out of a backyard pool. That’s not a seasonal novelty. That’s a functional outdoor amenity your family uses across more than half the calendar year, in a climate where July averages 82 degrees and the heat arrives early and stays late.
On the property side, a custom inground pool adds roughly 7% to residential property value in Georgia, according to real estate data. Funston’s median home value has nearly tripled since 2000 and continues to rise. A pool built into a property on an upward value trajectory compounds that return over time. And unlike a fiberglass shell limited to pre-manufactured shapes and sizes, a custom gunite pool is designed around your specific property your backyard dimensions, your family’s priorities, your budget. That flexibility alone changes what’s possible.
Both gunite and shotcrete are pneumatically applied concrete meaning they’re shot through a hose under pressure rather than poured into a form. The practical difference is in how the mix is prepared. Gunite is a dry mix that combines with water at the nozzle during application. Shotcrete is a wet mix that arrives pre-blended and is applied directly. Both produce a structurally sound pool shell when applied correctly by an experienced crew.
For most residential pool builds in Funston and the surrounding Colquitt County area, the choice between gunite and shotcrete comes down to our equipment, the site conditions, and the specific design requirements of the project. We use both methods and select based on what’s appropriate for each build not what’s most convenient. What matters more than the method is the quality of the application: proper thickness, correct curing time, and the right rebar placement underneath. That’s where pools succeed or fail, regardless of which application method is used.
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