Hear from Our Customers
A pool built near the Okefenokee Swamp region isn’t the same as one built in the Atlanta suburbs. The soil around Manor is sandy, often poorly drained, and sits above a water table that moves with the seasons rising after heavy rains and tropical weather events the same way it has for generations in this part of Ware County. A pool that isn’t engineered for that reality won’t just underperform. It can shift, crack, or worse, get pushed upward out of the ground entirely when groundwater pressure builds underneath it.
Concrete changes that equation. It’s a permanent structure not a shell sitting in the soil, but something that becomes part of it. You’re not replacing a liner every eight years or worrying about what a wet spring does to your investment. What you’re getting is a pool that holds its shape, holds its value, and holds up through everything South Georgia throws at it.
And with Ware County’s summers running deep into the 90s from June through September, the return on that investment starts the day you fill it. That’s not a short season. You’re looking at six solid months of use every year, and a properly built concrete pool will still be delivering that return twenty or thirty years from now.
Deep Waters Pools was founded in 2014, but the people behind it had already spent more than three decades working in concrete, plumbing, and construction much of it in the same Lower Coastal Plain environment that defines Manor and Ware County. That background isn’t a footnote. It’s the reason every pool we build is engineered for the actual ground it’s going into, not a generic template designed for somewhere else.
We’re based in Douglas, about 60 miles west of Waycross on U.S. 84 the same road that runs right through Manor. We’re not a metro contractor who drives down once and figures it out as they go. We know this region, we know what the soil does, and we know what it takes to build something that lasts here.
The reason we exist is straightforward: too many Manor and Ware County families were getting burned by contractors who took deposits and disappeared. We built our entire process around making sure that doesn’t happen transparent pricing, clear timelines, and complete permit handling through the Ware County Planning and Codes office, start to finish.
It starts with a design conversation. Before anything is drawn up, we want to understand how your family actually uses outdoor space whether that’s a shallow sun shelf for young kids, a spa that gets used year-round in Manor’s mild winters, or a full entertaining setup with water features and a custom patio. From there, we build a 3D rendering of your specific pool in your specific backyard, so you can see exactly what you’re getting before a single shovel of dirt moves.
Once the design is approved, we handle the permitting. Because Manor is unincorporated, your pool permit goes through the Ware County Planning and Codes office not a city building department. That distinction matters, and it’s one most homeowners don’t know until they’re already stuck waiting. We file everything, coordinate the inspections, and keep the project moving without putting that burden on you.
Construction follows a clear milestone schedule. You’ll know what’s happening, when it’s happening, and what comes next. After excavation and concrete work, we handle plumbing, equipment installation, and finishing and every pool we build comes with a custom-fitted safety cover included as a standard part of the build, not an add-on priced in at the end. When we hand it over, it’s ready to use.
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Every pool we build in Manor and the Ware County area is custom inground concrete construction. We don’t offer fiberglass shells or vinyl liners and in this part of South Georgia, that’s a deliberate choice. The sandy, high-moisture soils near the Okefenokee Swamp region create hydrostatic pressure conditions that fiberglass shells are particularly vulnerable to. Concrete, built and engineered correctly, doesn’t have that problem.
Beyond the pool itself, we offer full spa construction, custom patio design, and weekly maintenance plans for Manor and Ware County homeowners who want their pool to stay swim-ready through the long South Georgia summer without spending every weekend managing chemicals and equipment. If you built it with us, we already know exactly how it was constructed and what it needs which makes ongoing maintenance a lot more straightforward than starting from scratch with a maintenance company that’s never seen your pool before.
The full scope of what we handle includes the design, permitting through Ware County, excavation, concrete construction, plumbing, equipment installation, finishing, and that custom safety cover. There’s no handoff midway through to a subcontractor you’ve never met. The same team that starts your project finishes it and the price you’re quoted at the beginning is the price you pay at the end.
Yes and because Manor is an unincorporated community, your permit doesn’t go through a city building department. It goes through the Ware County Planning and Codes office, which has its own specific residential pool permit application, site plan requirements, and inspection schedule. That distinction trips up a lot of homeowners and even some contractors who aren’t familiar with how Ware County handles unincorporated areas differently from the City of Waycross.
The permit process typically requires a building permit before any excavation begins, a site plan showing setbacks from property lines and existing structures, and inspections at key milestones during construction. Pools in Georgia generally need to maintain at least 10 feet of setback from property lines, and fencing and barrier requirements apply to all residential pools statewide. We handle the entire permitting process on your behalf filing the application, coordinating with the county, and scheduling inspections so you’re not navigating that on your own.
Custom inground concrete pools in Georgia typically start around $70,000 and can go well past $150,000 depending on size, features, spa additions, and patio work. That range reflects real variation a straightforward rectangular pool with standard finishes sits at a different price point than a freeform design with a spa, water features, and a full custom patio. What doesn’t vary is the pricing model: the number you’re quoted is the number you pay. No square-footage add-ons buried in the contract, no change orders used to inflate the final bill.
It’s also worth thinking about the investment side of this. Inground pools add an estimated 5 to 7 percent to home values nationally, and Ware County is entering a real growth phase right now the ADMARES manufacturing facility coming to Waycross is bringing over 1,400 new jobs and $750 million in investment to the county. Property values in the surrounding area, including Manor, are positioned to strengthen. A concrete pool built today isn’t just a lifestyle upgrade it’s a long-term asset in a market that’s moving in the right direction.
For Manor and Ware County, concrete is the most structurally appropriate choice. The Lower Coastal Plain soils in this region are sandy, often poorly drained, and influenced by the Okefenokee Swamp’s hydrology which means the water table moves. It rises after heavy rains, after tropical weather events, and during the swamp’s natural flood cycles. That movement creates hydrostatic pressure, which is the upward force of groundwater pushing against the underside of a pool structure.
Fiberglass shells are particularly vulnerable to this. When a fiberglass pool is drained or when the water table rises faster than expected that upward pressure can literally push the shell out of the ground. It’s called pool pop, and it’s not a rare edge case in high-water-table environments. Concrete doesn’t carry that risk the same way. A properly reinforced concrete pool becomes structurally integrated with the surrounding ground. It’s engineered to stay exactly where it was built, regardless of what the water table does. In this region, that’s not a preference it’s the engineering argument.
Most custom inground concrete pool projects take somewhere between 8 and 16 weeks from permit approval to completion, depending on the complexity of the design, the scope of patio and spa work, and the time of year. In Ware County, the permitting phase through the county Planning and Codes office adds time to the front end of the project typically a few weeks which is why starting that process early matters, especially if you’re hoping to be swimming by early summer.
Weather is also a real factor in South Georgia. The rainy season and occasional tropical weather events can create delays during excavation and concrete work, particularly in Manor’s sandy, moisture-prone soil. We build realistic timelines that account for those variables rather than giving you an optimistic number that falls apart the first time it rains. You’ll know the schedule going in, you’ll know what can affect it, and you’ll hear from us when anything changes not after the fact.
The full build includes design consultation, 3D rendering, all permitting through the Ware County Planning and Codes office, excavation, concrete construction, plumbing, equipment installation, finishing, and a custom-fitted safety cover all standard. That last item is worth noting specifically: the safety cover is not an upsell priced in at the end of a long project. It’s included from the start, sized and fitted to the exact shape of your pool.
Beyond the pool itself, we also build spas, custom patios, and offer weekly maintenance plans for Manor and Ware County homeowners who want consistent, professional upkeep through the long South Georgia swimming season. If you want a full backyard build pool, spa, patio, and ongoing maintenance that’s a conversation we can have from the first design meeting. Everything is scoped and priced clearly before construction begins, and the team that starts your project is the same team that finishes it.
This is the right question to ask, and the fact that you’re asking it means you’ve probably already heard a story or two. The pool construction industry has a real reputation problem in rural South Georgia markets contractors who collect a deposit, dig a hole, and then go quiet for months. It happens often enough that it’s the first thing most Ware County homeowners mention when they start looking for a builder.
The practical things to verify before signing anything: confirm the contractor is licensed under the Georgia State Licensing Board, ask specifically who handles the Ware County permit process and what happens if there’s a delay, get a written timeline with milestones rather than a single vague completion date, and make sure the pricing is itemized and fixed not subject to change orders that appear mid-project. We were built around exactly these concerns. We’re a licensed South Georgia contractor based in Douglas, operating on the same U.S. 84 corridor that runs through Manor, with more than 30 years of hands-on construction experience in this region. Our process was designed from the ground up to be the opposite of what too many families here have already experienced.
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