Hear from Our Customers
A finished pool isn’t just water in the ground. It’s the difference between a backyard you walk past and one your family lives in from April through October and beyond if you add a spa. In Putney, where summer afternoons regularly push past 90°F and heat indices climb well above 100°F, a well-built pool is where your summer actually happens.
But the outcome you’re really paying for is permanence. The Dougherty Plain sits in the Flint River basin, and that matters more than most contractors will tell you. Water tables here can shift after heavy rains, and soil conditions on properties that were once farmland can be unpredictable below the surface. A concrete pool built with reinforced steel and engineered for this specific ground holds its position through all of it. A fiberglass shell doesn’t have that same argument.
There’s also the property value side. Median home values in Putney sit around $132,000, which means a properly built inground pool one that lasts 50 years and adds 5 to 7 percent to your home’s value is a real return on a real investment. That’s not a sales pitch. That’s just math.
We founded Deep Waters Pools in 2014, but the experience behind it goes back more than three decades. Our team spent over 30 years in concrete, plumbing, and pool construction throughout South Georgia before starting the company not because we wanted to learn the trade, but because we were tired of watching Putney and Dougherty County families get burned by contractors who didn’t know what they were doing or didn’t stick around when things got complicated.
We serve the South Georgia region, which means Dougherty County is home territory not a satellite market managed from across a state line. The most visible pool contractor advertising in the Albany area is headquartered in Dothan, Alabama. We’re a Georgia company with Georgia roots, and that matters when something comes up mid-build and you need someone who’s accountable to the community you actually live in.
Every project starts with a 3D design rendering of your specific property. You see exactly what your backyard will look like before a single shovel hits the ground.
It starts with a conversation about your property and what you actually want. From there, we put together a 3D rendering of your design shaped around your specific lot, not a standard template dropped onto your yard. Putney properties tend to have the kind of space that makes a truly custom layout possible, and that’s worth designing around intentionally.
Once the design is locked in, we handle every permit required by Dougherty County. Since Putney is unincorporated, that means working through the county’s building and development process site plan submissions, boundary surveys, structural inspections, and final sign-off. None of that falls on you. Building without a permit in Georgia can result in stop-work orders, forced removal, and complications when you sell the home, so this step isn’t optional and it isn’t something to leave to chance.
Construction follows the permit approval. We build the pool in place using reinforced concrete not manufactured off-site in a fixed shape. That means the structure is engineered specifically for your site’s soil conditions and drainage patterns, which is the right approach for Flint River basin ground. Final inspections are scheduled and completed before the pool is ever filled and used. By the time you’re handing out towels, every box is checked.
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We build exclusively in concrete. Not fiberglass, not vinyl liner concrete. That’s not a preference, it’s a decision rooted in what actually holds up in southwest Georgia’s soil and weather conditions. Fiberglass pools are manufactured off-site in a fixed shape and can’t be modified for what’s actually under your yard. Vinyl liner pools need full liner replacements every 7 to 10 years. Concrete is built in place, reinforced with steel, and gets stronger over time.
Every build includes a custom-fitted safety cover designed specifically for that pool’s shape not a generic tarp, but a cover engineered to fit your pool exactly. That’s standard on every project, not an add-on. For Putney families with young kids, or for the community’s significant retiree population who want peace of mind when grandchildren visit, this matters.
The full scope of what’s included design, permitting, excavation, construction, inspections, and the safety cover is priced transparently from the start. In a market where the median household income is around $68,000, there’s no room for surprise costs or scope creep. The number you’re quoted is the number you pay. Custom inground concrete pools in Georgia typically start around $70,000 and scale from there based on size, features, and site conditions. We’ll give you a clear picture of what your specific build will cost before any work begins.
Yes, and because Putney is an unincorporated community in Dougherty County, the permitting process runs through the county not a city building department. That distinction matters because the process involves a site plan submission showing your pool’s placement relative to property lines, a boundary survey, structural inspections at multiple stages of construction, and a final county sign-off before the pool can be filled and used.
Georgia also follows the International Swimming Pool and Spa Code, which governs how pools are designed, built, and inspected statewide. Separate electrical and plumbing permits are required on top of the main building permit. Building without going through this process can result in stop-work orders, fines, or complications when you try to sell your home down the road. We handle every part of this process on your behalf from the first submission to the final inspection so you’re never left trying to figure out what Dougherty County needs next.
Custom inground concrete pools in Georgia typically start around $70,000 and can go well above $150,000 depending on size, shape, added features like a spa or water feature, and what the site itself requires. In Dougherty County, site conditions can affect cost properties in the Flint River basin may have soil or drainage factors that require additional engineering, and former agricultural land that’s been converted to residential use can present subsurface conditions that need to be assessed before excavation begins.
The honest answer is that every build is different, and any contractor who gives you a firm number before seeing your property isn’t giving you a real number. What we can tell you upfront is that the price you’re quoted after a proper site assessment is the price you pay. No scope creep, no change orders designed to inflate the final bill. If you’re in the early stages of budgeting, starting the conversation with a site visit and a 3D design is the most useful first step.
From the start of the design process to a finished, inspected pool, most custom inground concrete builds take somewhere between three and six months depending on the complexity of the design, permit processing times through Dougherty County, and weather conditions during construction. Southwest Georgia’s summer thunderstorm season can affect construction timelines, particularly during excavation and concrete work, so factoring in weather is a real part of the planning process here.
The most important timing consideration for Putney homeowners is when to start. If you want your pool ready for summer use, the time to begin the design and permitting process is late fall or early winter. Builders with strong project backlogs fill up months in advance, and the permitting process adds time that can’t be rushed. Starting in January or February gives you the best shot at swimming by June. Starting in April usually means you’re looking at late summer at the earliest.
Concrete is the right answer for this specific geography, and it comes down to how the material is built versus how it behaves in the ground. Putney sits in the Dougherty Plain, which is part of the Flint River basin. Water tables in this area can rise significantly after heavy rainfall, and parts of the county that were formerly agricultural land may have irregular soil compaction or subsurface conditions that a generic construction approach won’t account for.
Fiberglass pools are manufactured off-site as a single shell and installed as-is. They can’t be modified for site conditions, and they’re vulnerable to hydrostatic pressure meaning when the water table rises quickly, a fiberglass shell can lift. Vinyl liner pools avoid that issue but require liner replacements every 7 to 10 years and aren’t a permanent structure. Concrete is built in place with reinforced steel, engineered to the specific demands of your site, and designed to handle pressure from both above and below. In southwest Georgia’s soil and weather environment, that’s not a marginal advantage it’s the difference between a pool that lasts generations and one that needs structural attention within a decade.
It can, and in Putney’s case the argument holds up well. Nationally, inground pools add roughly 5 to 7 percent to a home’s value, and in warm-climate states like Georgia where a pool is usable for six or more months a year without any heating system that return is more consistent than in colder markets where pools sit dormant half the year. With median home values in Putney around $132,000, a 5 to 7 percent increase represents a real and measurable gain.
The more important factor is the type of pool. A properly built concrete pool that lasts 50 or more years and requires no liner replacements is a permanent improvement to the property. A vinyl liner pool that needs a $5,000 to $10,000 liner replacement before a home sale is a different conversation. When you’re weighing the investment, the long-term durability of the material matters as much as the upfront cost and concrete wins that comparison over any meaningful time horizon.
The most visible pool contractor advertising in the Albany market is based out of Dothan, Alabama. There are others that cover the region from Douglas or the broader Coffee County area. We’re a South Georgia company, built by people who spent over 30 years in concrete, plumbing, and pool construction in this region before ever founding the business. That’s not a positioning statement it’s the actual background of the people who will build your pool.
Beyond roots, there are a few practical differences that matter. We build exclusively in concrete, handle every permit required by Dougherty County from start to finish, include a custom safety cover on every build as a standard feature, and price every project transparently with no surprise costs. In a close-knit rural community like Putney, where a contractor’s reputation is everything, those aren’t small things. They’re the reason families refer their neighbors without being asked.
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