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Lee County’s clay soil expands when it rains and contracts when it dries out. That cycle repeats every season, and it puts real pressure on anything buried in the ground. A pool that wasn’t engineered with that in mind will show it cracks, shifts, structural problems that no amount of patching fixes for long. When it’s built right from the start, none of that becomes your problem.
Concrete pools are permanent. They don’t need liner replacements every seven to ten years. They don’t float when the water table rises during a heavy South Georgia rain event and if you’ve lived along the Muckaloochee Creek corridor long enough, you know what a hard rain can do to low-lying ground. The material itself bonds with the earth over time and gets stronger as it cures. That’s just how concrete works.
The families moving into Smithville and Lee County are here for the land, the schools, and the space to build something that lasts. A custom concrete pool fits that picture. It adds real value to the property, it’s usable from April through October in this climate, and it becomes part of the land not something sitting on top of it.
We founded Deep Waters Pools in 2014, but the experience behind it goes back more than 30 years hands-on concrete, plumbing, and pool construction work built up long before the company had a name. That depth matters when you’re talking about a permanent structure in South Georgia clay.
We’re based in this region. Not Atlanta. Not a franchise with rotating crews. The people building your pool know what Lee County soil behaves like, we know what Lee County Building Inspection requires, and we’ve worked through the same permit process in Leesburg that your Smithville project will go through. That’s not something you get from a builder who added your zip code to a service area map.
Every project includes complete permit handling, a custom safety cover, and a construction timeline with clear milestones. You know what’s happening, when it’s happening, and what it costs before anything starts.
It starts with a design conversation about your specific property the lot size, the grade, the way you plan to use the space. Smithville and the surrounding Lee County countryside has a lot of rural acreage tracts, and a custom pool design should work with that land, not against it. You’ll see 3D renderings of what your pool looks like on your actual property before any dirt moves.
Once the design is finalized, we handle every step of the permit process with Lee County Building Inspection in Leesburg. That means submitting the plans, coordinating inspections, and managing the timeline through approval you don’t have to learn the county’s specific pool requirements or make trips to the county office. It’s handled.
Construction runs 8 to 16 weeks from permit issuance depending on the scope of the build. The process follows clear milestones excavation, steel framework, concrete, plumbing, electrical, finish work so you always know where the project stands. Lee County families who want a pool ready for summer need to start the design and permitting process by late winter. The county is growing fast, and the best builders fill their calendars earlier every year.
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Every pool we build is a custom inground concrete pool designed from scratch for the specific property, engineered with reinforced steel frameworks built for South Georgia’s clay soil conditions, and finished to the homeowner’s specifications. There are no catalog templates. The design starts with your land and works outward from there.
What’s included in every build: complete permit coordination with Lee County Building Inspection, a reinforced steel framework engineered for Lee County’s expansion-contraction soil cycle, a full concrete shell, plumbing and electrical work, and a custom safety cover fitted to your pool’s exact shape and dimensions. The safety cover isn’t an add-on it comes with every build, because a pool without one isn’t finished.
We also offer weekly maintenance plans for homeowners who want the water balanced and the equipment running without spending every weekend doing it themselves. For a Lee County family that chose Smithville for the outdoor lifestyle not to become weekend pool technicians it’s the natural next step after the build. The same company that engineered your pool for your soil and handled your permits will keep it in the kind of shape where you can actually use it without thinking about it.
Yes and in Lee County, the permit process runs through Lee County Building Inspection in Leesburg. You’ll need a building permit application submitted with a complete set of plans, a site plan showing setbacks (pools and equipment generally need to be at least 10 feet from property lines), and compliance with the county’s adopted building codes covering structural, plumbing, and electrical requirements. There are also inspections during construction and at completion.
One thing worth knowing: Lee County Building Inspection explicitly verifies that all contractors hold current state certifications before issuing permits. That means working with a properly licensed Georgia contractor isn’t just a preference it’s a requirement the county enforces. We handle every step of this process, from plan submission to final inspection sign-off, so you’re not navigating the county office on your own.
The clay-heavy soil throughout Lee County expands when it absorbs moisture and contracts as it dries out. That cycle happens with every rain event and every dry spell, and it places constant stress on anything buried below grade including swimming pools. A pool built without a reinforced steel framework designed specifically for this soil behavior will develop structural problems over time. Cracks, shifting, and long-term instability are the documented failure modes for under-engineered pools in this environment.
We engineer the steel framework in every pool for South Georgia’s specific soil conditions. That’s not a standard feature you’ll find from every contractor who shows up in a search result. It’s the difference between a pool that holds up for decades and one that starts showing problems within the first few years. If a builder you’re talking to hasn’t brought up soil conditions on their own, that’s worth asking about directly.
Concrete inground pools in Georgia typically start around $70,000 and can go well above $150,000 depending on size, features, finish selections, and site conditions. The range is wide because no two properties are the same a flat lot with easy equipment access is a different project than a sloped rural tract that requires more excavation and engineering work.
For Smithville and Lee County homeowners, the investment makes sense when you frame it correctly. Inground pools add an average of 5 to 7 percent to home value, and in a county where property values are rising alongside a 15-plus percent population increase over the last decade, that appreciation compounds. You’re also buying decades of use with no liner replacement costs concrete pools don’t have that recurring expense. The number on the contract from us is the number on the final invoice. No scope creep, no surprise add-ons after signing.
It can and it’s not as rare as you might think. When the water table rises rapidly during a heavy rain event, hydrostatic pressure can push a fiberglass shell upward out of the ground. Southwest Georgia gets significant rainfall, and the region has experienced serious flood events tied to tropical weather systems moving through. For a homeowner near the Muckaloochee Creek corridor or on a low-lying rural tract in Lee County, that’s not a hypothetical risk.
Concrete pools don’t have this vulnerability. A properly engineered concrete pool bonds with the surrounding earth as it cures, and the weight and structure of the shell works with the ground rather than against it during high-water events. This is one of the primary reasons we build exclusively in concrete not because fiberglass is always a bad product, but because for South Georgia’s soil and weather conditions, concrete is the more appropriate material for a permanent installation.
From permit issuance to a finished, swim-ready pool, most custom concrete pool builds run 8 to 16 weeks depending on the scope of the project. Larger pools with spas, water features, or complex site conditions take longer. Straightforward builds on flat lots move faster.
The permit process itself adds time before construction begins, which is why timing matters. Smithville families who want a pool ready for summer and with South Georgia’s heat, that window runs April through October need to start the design and permitting process by late winter, typically January or February. Lee County’s population has grown significantly over the last decade, and the best local builders are booking further out every year as more families settle in the area. Starting the conversation early isn’t urgency for its own sake it’s just the realistic timeline for getting a quality build done before the season you want it ready for.
Yes. We’re a South Georgia-based company that serves the Lee County area, including Smithville and the surrounding communities between Smithville, Leesburg, and the Albany commuter corridor. We’re not an Atlanta-area contractor who added your zip code to a map we’re a regional builder who knows this county’s soil conditions, has worked through the Lee County Building Inspection permit process in Leesburg, and understands the kind of rural residential properties that make up most of the buildable land in this part of the county.
For Smithville homeowners specifically, that local knowledge translates directly into better outcomes. A builder who knows Lee County’s clay soil, knows the county’s permit requirements, and knows what a South Georgia summer actually demands from a pool is a different conversation than a builder learning your conditions on your project. If you’re on a rural tract off SR 118 or anywhere in the surrounding Lee County area, we serve your location and know what building there actually involves.
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