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Moultrie summers start in April and don’t let up until October. That’s nearly seven months of 90-degree heat and the kind of humidity that makes staying inside feel like the only option. A gunite pool changes that math completely and when it’s built correctly, it stays that way for decades without becoming a maintenance burden.
The soil in Colquitt County is the real test. Southwest Georgia’s clay and sandy loam shifts with moisture, and the area pulls in around 50 inches of rain annually. A gunite shell engineered with the right rebar density, proper wall thickness, and a correctly built bond beam handles that movement it doesn’t fight it. What you get is a pool that holds its shape and its value through every wet season and every dry stretch this region throws at it.
Beyond the structural side, you’re looking at a pool that fits your property the way you actually want it to not a prefab shape dropped into your backyard. Custom gunite construction means you choose the depth, the footprint, the features, and the finish. Families in neighborhoods like Countryside and Westwoods have the lot size to do something worth doing. A properly built gunite pool is the only type you can fully redesign years down the road without replacing the shell that kind of long-term flexibility matters when you’re investing at this level.
We’re based in Douglas, GA about 60 miles northeast of Moultrie and have been building custom gunite pools across South Georgia since 2014. But the team behind Deep Waters Pools has been working in concrete, plumbing, and pool construction for over 30 years. That’s not a corporate timeline. That’s decades of hands-on work in the same climate, the same soil conditions, and the same regional permit offices that govern construction in Colquitt County.
What makes the difference here isn’t just experience it’s how the work gets done. We don’t subcontract. Every phase of your build, from excavation through final inspection, is handled by the same in-house crew. No rotating strangers, no handoffs, no accountability gaps. In a city of 14,000 people like Moultrie where word travels fast, that kind of consistency either builds a reputation or destroys one. We’ve built ours on not cutting corners.
We founded Deep Waters Pools specifically because too many South Georgia families were getting burned by builders who overpromised and disappeared. That’s the origin, and it still drives how every project is run today.
It starts with a 3D design rendering of your actual pool not a sketch, not a sales brochure image. Before anything is excavated, you see the shape, depth, and features rendered against your property. That’s the version you approve, and that’s what gets built.
Once the design is locked, we handle every permit required for your build in Moultrie. That means both the City of Moultrie Community Enhancement Department and the Colquitt County Compliance Department two separate permitting layers that most homeowners have no experience navigating. Both are handled in-house. You don’t track paperwork, schedule inspectors, or make calls to the compliance office. That’s covered.
From there, the build moves in sequence excavation, rebar and steel framework, gunite shell application, plumbing, electrical bonding and grounding to NEC Article 680 standards, decking, equipment installation, and final inspection. The honest timeline for a custom gunite build in this area is three to six months after permitting clears. That’s not the eight to twelve weeks some builders quote it’s the real number. If you’re planning for next summer’s swimming season, fall and winter are the right time to start. Permit queues are shorter, crews are more available, and your pool is ready when April arrives.
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A Deep Waters Pools gunite pool build covers the full scope from day one. Design, permitting, excavation, steel and rebar, gunite shell, plumbing, electrical, decking, equipment installation, and all required inspections every phase done by the same in-house team. There are no subcontractors brought in for individual stages, which means there’s one point of contact and one crew accountable for the entire project.
On the equipment side, we install and service all major brands Hayward, Pentair, Jandy, Sta-Rite, and Zodiac. That matters in a regional market like Moultrie, where finding a qualified equipment service provider after your pool is built isn’t always straightforward. The team that built your pool knows its plumbing, its equipment specs, and its construction history. When something needs attention three years after installation, you’re calling the same crew not starting over with someone who’s never seen your pool.
For Colquitt County homeowners, the median home value in this area sits around $157,200. A custom gunite pool is a significant investment relative to that number, which is exactly why durability and long-term cost of ownership matter more here than they might in a higher-value market. A properly built gunite shell needs resurfacing every 10 to 15 years not the 3 to 7 year cycle that poorly constructed pools require. That difference adds up to real money over the life of the pool, and it starts with how the shell is built on day one.
This is one of the most common questions in the Moultrie market, and it’s worth answering honestly. Southwest Georgia’s clay and sandy loam soils do shift Colquitt County pulls in around 50 inches of rain annually, and that moisture fluctuation causes ground movement throughout the year. The claim that this makes gunite pools prone to cracking is technically misleading, though. Cracking is a builder failure, not a material failure.
A gunite shell engineered with proper rebar density, 6 to 8 inch wall thickness, a correctly built bond beam using four runs of half-inch steel at 12 inches thick, and adequate curing time is designed to handle regional soil movement not resist it rigidly until something gives. We’ve spent over 30 years working in South Georgia’s specific soil conditions. The pools we build are engineered for Colquitt County’s ground, not for a generic American backyard. If a builder can’t explain their rebar schedule and bond beam specs when you ask, that’s a red flag worth paying attention to.
For a custom gunite pool in the Moultrie area, you’re generally looking at a range of $75,000 to $150,000 depending on the size of the pool, the features you include, your lot’s site conditions, and the finish materials you choose. Larger pools with water features, custom decking, and premium equipment will sit toward the higher end of that range. A more straightforward build on a flat lot with standard finishes can come in closer to the lower end.
It’s worth framing that number against what you’re getting. With Moultrie’s median home value around $157,200, a gunite pool is a meaningful investment relative to the property which is exactly why the quality of the build matters so much. A pool that needs replastering every five years because the shell was built too thin costs you significantly more over 20 years than one built correctly the first time. The upfront number is only part of the real cost calculation. When you talk to us, you’ll get a specific quote based on your actual property and what you want to build not a ballpark designed to get you to sign something.
The honest answer is three to six months after your permits are approved and that timeline is worth understanding before you talk to any builder. A lot of companies in South Georgia quote eight to twelve weeks, and that number rarely holds. What they’re not factoring in is permit processing time through both the City of Moultrie and Colquitt County, inspection scheduling, cure time for the gunite shell, and the reality that rushing any of those phases creates problems that show up years later.
If you’re planning for next summer’s swimming season April through October in Moultrie the best time to start is fall or winter. Permit queues are shorter during those months, crews have more availability, and you’re not competing with the spring rush that hits every year when temperatures start climbing and everyone decides they want a pool by Memorial Day. Starting in October or November gives you a realistic path to being in the water by the time Moultrie’s heat arrives in the spring.
Pool construction in Moultrie involves two separate permitting layers, which surprises a lot of homeowners who’ve only dealt with single-jurisdiction permits before. You’ll need to go through the City of Moultrie Community Enhancement Department at 200 1st Street N.E. for city-level residential construction permits, and separately through the Colquitt County Compliance Department at 101 East Central Ave for county-level building and electrical permits. Both layers require inspections at various stages of the build.
We handle both permit applications and all required inspections in-house. You don’t fill out forms, make calls to the compliance office, or track where your application stands. That’s managed from start to finish. One thing worth knowing: if a builder ever suggests that you pull your own permit “to save time,” walk away. When a homeowner pulls their own permit, they assume legal liability for the construction quality. That’s not a shortcut it’s a risk transfer that puts you on the hook for someone else’s work.
This question comes up a lot in the Moultrie market, partly because there are local builders actively marketing fiberglass as the better option for Southern soil conditions. The honest answer is that it depends on what you actually want from your pool but the comparison isn’t as one-sided as some of that marketing suggests.
Fiberglass pools come in fixed shapes and sizes. What you see in the catalog is what you get, and the largest standard shells top out around 16 feet wide due to transportation limits. If your lot in Countryside or Westwoods has the space for something larger, or if you want a specific shape, depth profile, or feature set, fiberglass simply can’t deliver it. Gunite is the only pool type with no design constraints any shape, any depth, any configuration. It’s also the only type you can fully retile, refinish, and redesign years later without replacing the shell. For a long-term investment in a South Georgia property, that flexibility has real value. The soil cracking argument against gunite applies to poorly built pools, not to shells engineered correctly for regional conditions.
Yes and in a regional market like Moultrie, that’s worth more than it might seem. Finding a qualified pool equipment service provider in South Georgia after your pool is built isn’t always easy. A lot of homeowners finish their build and then spend the next few years piecing together service from whoever is available, often working with technicians who’ve never seen their specific equipment setup.
We service all major equipment brands Hayward, Pentair, Jandy, Sta-Rite, and Zodiac and offer weekly, monthly, and seasonal maintenance programs. Because we built your pool, we already know its plumbing layout, equipment specs, and construction history. That context matters when something needs attention. You’re not explaining your pool to someone new every time you’re calling the team that knows it. For Colquitt County homeowners who want one less thing to manage after a major investment, having your builder also serve as your long-term service provider is a practical advantage that compounds over time.
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