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A pool that holds up in South Georgia isn’t just about picking a shape and a color. Tift County’s Coastal Plain soils sandy loam over clay subsoil shift with every heavy rain event. A pool that wasn’t engineered for those conditions will show it within a few years: settling, cracking, structural problems that no warranty will fully cover. When your pool is built on a properly reinforced concrete framework designed for the ground it’s sitting in, you don’t think about that. You just use it.
Unionville sits right off US 41 south of Tifton, and summer here means months of real heat the kind where a backyard pool goes from a nice idea to something your family genuinely depends on from April through October. That’s seven months of use. A concrete pool doesn’t need a liner replaced every decade, doesn’t degrade in UV exposure the way fiberglass does over time, and can be refinished or updated years down the road without tearing everything out. You’re not buying a product. You’re adding a permanent feature to your home.
And for families with young kids which describes a lot of Unionville every pool we build comes with a custom-fitted safety cover included. Not as an add-on. Not something you negotiate for later. It’s built into the project from day one because it should be.
Deep Waters Pools was founded in 2014, but the experience behind it goes back more than three decades. We spent years in concrete, plumbing, and construction before starting this company not because it seemed like a good business, but because we watched too many South Georgia families get taken advantage of by contractors who disappeared mid-project or delivered work that failed within a few years.
That history shapes how every project runs in Unionville and across Tift County. You get a real process, real communication, and a final product that was built by people who have been doing this kind of work longer than most pool companies have existed. We know the soil conditions here, the county permit offices, and the local build environment not from a brochure, but from actual work done in this region. If you’re a homeowner in Unionville looking to build an inground pool, you deserve to work with someone who takes the investment as seriously as you do.
It starts with a design conversation. Before anything is sketched or quoted, we want to understand your yard, your family’s needs, and what you’re actually hoping to get out of this space. From there, we build a 3D rendering of your specific pool in your specific backyard so you can see the depth, the steps, the sun shelf, the deck layout all of it, before a single shovel moves. Changes on paper cost nothing. Changes after the concrete is poured cost everything.
Once the design is locked in, we handle the permit process entirely. In Unionville, that means coordinating with Tift County Code Enforcement for the building permit and, if your property runs on a septic system, getting Environmental Health sign-off through the Tift County Health Department on East 12th Street in Tifton. Most homeowners have never dealt with that process before. We have, repeatedly, and we manage it so your project stays on schedule instead of stalling in a county office.
Construction follows the permit approval. We excavate, set the steel framework, plumb the system, and pour the concrete shell all built to handle South Georgia’s rainfall and soil movement. After the shell cures, finish work begins: tile, coping, decking, equipment installation, and final inspections. By the time we hand the pool over to you, it’s ready to swim. No punch list hanging over your head, no mystery items left unfinished.
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Every pool we build is fully custom concrete designed around your yard, your budget, and how your family actually uses outdoor space. There are no fiberglass shells, no vinyl liners, no off-the-shelf shapes. What you approve in the design phase is what gets built. The price you’re quoted is the price you pay. We don’t price patio work and retaining walls by the square foot after you’ve signed that’s one of the most common ways pool buyers end up thousands over budget, and it’s not how we operate.
Included in every build: the full permit process with Tift County, the 3D design rendering, the engineered steel framework, all plumbing and equipment installation, finish work, and a custom-fitted safety cover designed specifically for your pool’s shape and dimensions. For Unionville homeowners on properties served by a private septic system which applies to a significant number of lots in this unincorporated community the Environmental Health coordination is handled as part of our standard process, not billed separately.
We also offer ongoing weekly maintenance plans for homeowners who want their pool kept swim-ready without spending their weekends testing chemicals and scrubbing walls. If you want to enjoy the pool instead of manage it, that option is there.
Yes, and in Unionville specifically, that permit process runs through Tift County not a city building department, because Unionville is an unincorporated community with no municipal government of its own. That means your building permit comes from Tift County Code Enforcement, and if your property uses a private septic system, you’ll also need Environmental Health review through the Tift County Health Department on East 12th Street in Tifton before construction can begin.
Georgia state law requires a permit for any inground pool, and Tift County enforces the International Swimming Pool and Spa Code for all residential construction. Beyond the building permit and septic review, you’ll also need electrical inspections for pool wiring and bonding, a compliant safety barrier around the pool, and a final inspection before the pool can be used. Most homeowners have never navigated this process before. We handle all of it every office, every submission, every inspection scheduling so your project moves forward without delays caused by paperwork.
For a custom inground concrete pool in the Tifton and Tift County area, including Unionville, you’re generally looking at a starting point around $70,000 for a straightforward build, with more detailed custom designs larger footprints, integrated spas, elaborate decking running well above $100,000. The range is wide because concrete pools are genuinely custom: your yard, your layout, your features. There’s no standard model to price off a sheet.
What matters most when evaluating cost is understanding what’s actually included in the quote. Some contractors give you a base number and then price everything else decking, retaining walls, equipment upgrades by the square foot after you’ve signed. That’s how a $75,000 quote becomes a $110,000 final bill. When we quote a project, the number we give you reflects the full scope of what’s been designed. No line items appearing after the contract is signed, no square-foot pricing surprises mid-build. The investment is real, but it’s one you can actually plan around.
The main reason comes down to what’s happening underground. Tift County sits in Georgia’s Coastal Plain, where the soil profile is sandy loam over clay subsoil a combination that shifts with moisture changes throughout the year. South Georgia also gets 46 to 50 inches of rainfall annually, with intense summer thunderstorm activity that can temporarily raise local water tables across the flat terrain around Tifton and Unionville. Fiberglass pool shells are vulnerable to hydrostatic uplift in exactly those conditions the shell rises out of the ground when water pressure builds beneath it. It’s a real failure mode, not a hypothetical one.
Concrete pools, once properly set and cured, cannot be displaced that way. Beyond the structural argument, concrete is also the only pool material that’s fully customizable before a shovel hits the ground shape, depth, features, everything is designed around your specific yard. And unlike vinyl liner pools, which need the liner replaced every 7 to 10 years, a concrete pool’s surface can be refinished and updated without replacing the structure. In South Georgia’s climate and soil environment, concrete isn’t just a preference it’s the right engineering choice.
If you want to be swimming by Memorial Day weekend, you need to start the conversation in January or February at the latest. Pool construction demand in South Georgia peaks in late winter and early spring as families start thinking about summer, and the builders with strong local reputations fill their schedules early. Starting the design process in January gives you time to finalize the layout, complete the 3D rendering, submit the permit application to Tift County, and get through the Environmental Health review process all before construction is scheduled to begin.
The Tift County permit process itself takes time, and if there are any revisions or additional documentation requests from Code Enforcement or Environmental Health, those can add weeks to the timeline if you’re not prepared for them. We’ve been through this process enough times to know how to submit correctly the first time and how to manage the review period without your project stalling. If you’re thinking about a pool for this coming summer, the window to start planning is right now not after spring arrives.
From the day excavation begins to the day you’re cleared to swim, a typical custom concrete pool build takes somewhere between 8 and 14 weeks, depending on the complexity of the design, weather conditions, and how quickly inspections can be scheduled. South Georgia’s summer storm season can introduce weather delays during excavation and concrete work, and those are factored into realistic timeline planning rather than ignored in a sales pitch.
The permit and design phase happens before that clock starts. By the time we’re on-site with equipment, the county approvals are already in hand, the design is locked, and the construction sequence is mapped out. What affects the back end of the timeline most is finish work tile, coping, decking, and equipment installation which requires curing time and sequential inspections. We walk you through the realistic schedule at the start of the project, and we communicate throughout so you’re never left wondering what’s happening or when the next phase begins.
It does, and the case is stronger in South Georgia than in most of the country. Nationally, inground pools add roughly 5 to 7 percent to a home’s resale value but that figure is calculated across all climates, including states where a pool sits unused for six or seven months a year. In Unionville and the broader Tifton area, where the outdoor pool season runs from April through October and heated pools are usable year-round, the functional value to buyers is higher. A pool here isn’t a seasonal amenity it’s a usable outdoor living space for the majority of the calendar year.
For homeowners in Unionville specifically, where the community is predominantly owner-occupied and skews toward younger families, a well-built inground pool is a meaningful differentiator when it comes time to sell. Buyers with children are actively looking for properties with outdoor space that works. A concrete pool which won’t need a liner replacement before closing, won’t show the degradation of an aging fiberglass shell, and can be refinished to look new presents far better than the alternatives. The investment holds its value because the structure itself holds up.
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