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A gunite pool built correctly in this part of Georgia doesn’t just hold water it holds its value. You’re looking at a shell that lasts decades, a surface that won’t need resurfacing for 10 to 15 years, and a structure engineered to handle the specific ground conditions under your feet in Ware County’s coastal plain flatwoods. That’s not a generic claim. Sandy soils in this region drain differently than the clay-heavy ground you’d find further north, and a builder who doesn’t account for that during excavation and backfill is setting you up for problems down the road.
You’ve also got one of the longest swimming seasons in the country out here. From April through October sometimes longer the heat in Okefenokee country is real. That’s six to seven months of actual use every year, which changes the math on what a pool investment means for your property and your daily life.
And when you’re putting this kind of money into a homesite you’ve already invested heavily in around Millwood, the last thing you want is a pool that looks dated in five years or needs major repairs before the decade is out. A properly built gunite pool is the one that doesn’t make you regret the decision it makes the property complete.
We’re based in Douglas, GA South Georgia through and through. Our founding team carries more than 30 years of hands-on experience in concrete work, plumbing, and pool construction, and we started Deep Waters Pools for one specific reason: too many families in Millwood and across Ware County were getting burned by contractors who showed up, took the deposit, and handed everything off to crews they’d never even met.
That’s not how we work. Every phase of your build excavation, rebar, gunite application, plumbing, electrical bonding, finishing, and inspections is handled by our own crew. Nobody gets subbed out. That matters especially if you’re building on a large rural lot in a community like Millwood Plantation, where your property is private, your investment is significant, and accountability isn’t optional.
We’ve been doing this across South Georgia long enough to know the ground, the county permit offices, and what it takes to build a pool that actually holds up in this region.
It starts with a site evaluation. Before any design gets finalized or any equipment gets ordered, we walk your property. On large rural homesites in Ware County especially in the flatwoods terrain west of Waycross that step matters more than most builders will tell you. Soil drainage, site access, elevation, and proximity to any water features on your land all factor into how the pool gets engineered and positioned.
From there, you’ll see your pool in 3D before a single shovel breaks ground. Every shape, depth, and feature gets designed around your specific lot and how you plan to use it. Once you’re locked in on the design, we pull every permit the building permit, the electrical permit, and any required county inspections through Ware County Planning and Codes. You don’t fill out a form or call an inspector. That’s handled.
Construction itself typically runs three to six months for a custom gunite build. That’s an honest number, not a sales pitch. Excavation comes first, then steel reinforcement, then the gunite shell gets applied by the same crew that set the steel. Plumbing and electrical bonding follow, then the deck, then the finish work. Every inspection happens on schedule. When we leave, the pool is done not almost done.
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A Deep Waters Pools gunite pool build is a complete scope not a base package with a list of add-ons that quietly inflate the final number. The shell is reinforced steel and gunite, engineered for South Georgia’s coastal plain soil conditions. Plumbing and equipment installation are done in-house. Electrical bonding and grounding are handled to NEC Article 680 standards the federal safety code that governs pool electrical work. Deck installation is included. And the 3D design process at the start ensures what gets built matches what you envisioned.
For homeowners in Millwood and the surrounding Ware County area, the permit process runs through the county not a city building department and we manage that entire process from application to final inspection. If you’re on a large rural lot in Millwood Plantation, that also means coordinating site access, managing drainage considerations specific to the flatwoods terrain, and making sure the finished pool fits the property the way it should.
After the build, we service what we install. Hayward, Pentair, Jandy, Sta-Rite, Zodiac if it’s on your equipment pad, we can maintain it. For a rural property where the nearest pool supply store isn’t around the corner, that long-term service relationship is worth more than most people realize until they need it.
Because Millwood is an unincorporated community, your pool permit runs through Ware County Planning and Codes not a city building department. That’s a distinction a lot of homeowners don’t know until they’re already in the middle of the process, and it matters because county permit timelines and requirements can differ from what you’d encounter in Waycross or another incorporated city nearby.
The permit process covers the building permit, the electrical permit, and required inspections at each phase of construction. We handle all of it in-house. You won’t be tracking down forms, scheduling inspectors, or trying to figure out which office handles what. That’s managed from the first application through the final sign-off, so the only thing you’re focused on is watching your pool take shape.
Most residential gunite pool projects in Georgia fall somewhere between $75,000 and $150,000, depending on size, shape, depth, water features, and the specifics of your site. For a large rural lot in Ware County especially in a community like Millwood Plantation where homesites can run 20 to 80 acres site-specific factors like access, drainage planning, and the distance from the road to your build location can affect the final number.
What you want to watch out for is a low bid that doesn’t account for those variables upfront. Builders who quote low and adjust later are one of the most common complaints in this market. We give you a real number based on a real site evaluation not a number designed to get you to sign and figure out the rest later. The 3D design process at the start of every project exists specifically so there are no surprises once construction begins.
For a custom build on a large rural lot in Millwood, gunite is the only option that gives you complete design freedom. Fiberglass pools come in fixed shapes and sizes what you see in the catalog is what you get. A gunite pool gets designed around your property, your preferences, and how you actually plan to use it. If your homesite in Ware County has a specific grade, a particular view you want to face, or a shape that fits the footprint of your outdoor space, gunite is the one that can do that.
The argument you’ll hear against gunite is that it cracks or costs more to maintain. Cracking is a construction quality problem, not a material problem. A gunite shell that’s properly reinforced, correctly cured, and built for South Georgia’s coastal plain soil conditions doesn’t crack. And a quality gunite surface needs resurfacing every 10 to 15 years not the 3 to 7 years that fiberglass competitors tend to cite. That shorter number comes from pools built too thin or finished with inferior materials, not from gunite as a category.
A realistic timeline for a custom gunite pool build is three to six months from permit approval to final inspection. That range accounts for the actual steps involved site evaluation, design, permitting, excavation, steel and gunite, plumbing, electrical, deck, and finish work plus any site-specific variables that come up on rural properties in Ware County.
Builders who quote 8 to 12 weeks are either describing a fiberglass drop-in or they’re not being straight with you about what the process actually involves. County permit timelines in Ware County, equipment lead times, and the logistics of working on large rural lots west of Waycross all factor into how long this realistically takes. An honest builder tells you that upfront and gives you clear milestones so you know what’s happening at every stage not a vague promise and a phone that stops getting answered.
Yes, and it’s one of the reasons site evaluation matters before anything else happens. Ware County sits on the Lower Coastal Plain of Georgia pine flatwoods terrain with sandy, well-draining soils that behave very differently from the clay-heavy ground you’d find in other parts of the state. Sandy soil doesn’t expand and contract with moisture the way clay does, but it can shift, settle, and erode around a pool shell if excavation, backfill compaction, and drainage aren’t handled correctly from the start.
In areas closer to the Okefenokee Swamp’s influence lower-lying flatwoods with higher water table potential dewatering during excavation can also be a factor on certain sites. A builder who has worked in this specific terrain knows what to look for during the site walk. A builder applying generic construction specs without accounting for local soil conditions is taking a risk with your investment, and you’re the one who lives with the result.
We service all major equipment brands Hayward, Pentair, Jandy, Sta-Rite, and Zodiac after your pool is complete. That’s not a small thing if you’re on a rural property in Millwood where the nearest pool supply store isn’t a quick drive away and calling a random repair company to service equipment they didn’t install is a frustrating experience most homeowners only go through once before they wish they’d thought about it sooner.
The service relationship starts when the build ends, not when something breaks. Knowing the team that built your pool is also the team that maintains it means there’s no gap between who installed the equipment and who understands how it was set up. For a property you’ve invested this much into, that continuity matters. You’re not starting over with a stranger every time something needs attention you’ve got a builder who knows your pool, your equipment, and your site.
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