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Most Cadwell homeowners who call us have been sitting on this idea for years. They’ve got the land, they’ve got the vision, and they’re just waiting on a contractor they can trust enough to actually pull the trigger. That’s the part we take seriously.
When you build in concrete, you’re not picking from a factory catalog. You’re starting with your lot your trees, your slope, your view down the back pasture and designing something that fits it. Freeform shapes, beach entries, attached spas, deep ends where you actually want them. That’s not possible with a fiberglass shell. It’s only possible when the pool is built from the ground up, specifically for your property.
And in central Georgia, where June highs push into the low 90s and the pool season runs from April through October, this isn’t a weekend novelty. It’s where your family spends their summer. A pool built right with the right shell thickness, the right hydraulics, the right finish performs beautifully for 30 to 40 years. That’s the outcome worth investing in: not just a pool, but a backyard that becomes the place everyone wants to be.
We’re a custom concrete pool builder based in Southeast Georgia, and we’ve built across the region including properties in Cadwell and throughout central Georgia where the soils shift from sandy coastal plain to the heavier clay-influenced terrain you find throughout Laurens County. That distinction matters more than most homeowners realize. Soil type affects drainage design, backfill compaction, and how we manage hydrostatic pressure on any lot near the Oconee River system. We’ve dealt with those conditions before. We’re not learning them on your project.
What separates us from most contractors in this category is simple: we manage the entire build. Design, permits pulled through Laurens County’s Building Inspection Department, excavation, shell construction, plumbing, electrical, decking, coping, interior finish, and startup chemistry. One point of contact from the first conversation to the day you swim. No subcontractor relay race. No finger-pointing when something needs to be addressed. Just one company that’s accountable for all of it.
It starts with a site visit and design conversation. We come out to your property, look at what you’re working with lot size, grade, drainage, existing trees, how you want the pool to relate to your house and outdoor space and we start talking through what’s realistic and what’s possible. For most Cadwell properties, the lot is an asset, not a constraint. You’ve got room to do this right.
Once the design is agreed on, we handle the permit application with Laurens County. Georgia requires a building permit for inground pool construction, and all work has to meet the state’s adopted International Swimming Pool and Spa Code. We pull the permits, we schedule the required inspections at each phase, and we build to pass them not just to get through them. If you’ve heard stories about contractors suggesting you skip permits, that’s a contractor who isn’t confident their work will hold up to inspection. We don’t operate that way.
From there, it’s excavation, steel and gunite shell, plumbing and electrical rough-in, decking and coping, and interior finish. Each payment milestone is tied to completed, verified work not to a deposit made on a promise. The timeline from contract to first swim typically runs several months, which is why fall and winter starts are ideal for homeowners who want to be in the water by the following summer.
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Every pool we build is a custom concrete pool gunite construction, engineered specifically for the site, with no factory molds and no predetermined shapes or depths. That means if your Cadwell property has a slope, a drainage feature, a stand of mature pines you want to work around, or a view you want the pool to frame, we design for all of it. The pool fits the land, not the other way around.
The full scope of what we deliver includes design consultation, site assessment, excavation, concrete shell construction, plumbing, electrical, coping, decking, interior finishing plaster, pebble, or quartz and startup chemistry. We also specify variable-speed pump equipment on every build, which cuts pool energy consumption by 50 to 75 percent compared to older single-speed technology. For a pool running through six months of Georgia summer, that efficiency shows up on every utility bill for the life of the pool.
Laurens County’s rising property values up 12.4 percent in 2024 alone mean a well-built inground pool is a genuine investment in your property, not just a lifestyle upgrade. A custom concrete pool typically returns 50 to 70 percent of its cost in resale value. For a rural Cadwell homeowner with land and equity, that math is worth understanding before you decide whether or how to move forward.
For a custom concrete inground pool in central Georgia, most projects fall somewhere between $60,000 and $100,000, with larger or more complex builds going higher depending on size, finish selections, added features like attached spas or water features, and site-specific factors. That range reflects real projects not a low-ball number designed to get you on the phone.
A few things affect where your project lands within that range. Lot conditions matter: a flat, clear lot with easy equipment access costs less to excavate than a sloped or heavily wooded site. Finish selection matters: standard plaster is the entry point, while pebble and quartz finishes add durability and aesthetics at a higher cost. And the scope of your deck, coping, and surrounding hardscape will move the number meaningfully. For Cadwell homeowners specifically, the clay-heavy soils in Laurens County can require more detailed drainage planning than sandy sites, which we factor into the estimate. The best way to get an accurate figure is a site visit that’s when we can actually assess your property and give you a number that reflects your specific project, not a guess.
Yes, a building permit is required for inground pool construction in Laurens County, administered through the Laurens County Building Inspection Department. You’ll also need to meet Georgia’s adopted International Swimming Pool and Spa Code, which covers structural, plumbing, electrical, and safety requirements including anti-entrapment drain covers required under federal law.
Permits aren’t optional, and any contractor who suggests skipping them is putting your homeowner’s insurance, your resale value, and your legal standing as a property owner at risk. We handle the permit application, coordinate with the county, and schedule the required inspections at each phase of construction. You don’t have to manage any of that it’s part of what we do. If you have questions about the current fee schedule, the Laurens County Building Inspection Department can be reached directly at (478) 272-4755.
Fall and winter are genuinely the best time to start and that’s not just a sales pitch. Quality pool contractors in Georgia are typically booked three to six months out during peak demand. If you want to be swimming by Memorial Day, you need to start the process no later than the prior fall. Homeowners who call in March hoping for a summer pool are usually disappointed.
The good news is that central Georgia’s mild winters allow construction to continue through most of the year. Plastering requires temperatures above 50 degrees, but that’s rarely a sustained issue in Laurens County. The bigger timing factor is contractor availability, not weather. Starting in October or November gives you the best shot at a realistic spring completion, the best chance at our full attention, and sometimes better material availability than the spring rush season.
That’s exactly the kind of project concrete construction was made for. Fiberglass pools come out of a factory mold they need a relatively flat, clear site and can only go where the shape allows. Concrete starts with your lot as it actually exists. Slopes, mature trees, drainage features, irregular shapes these are design inputs, not obstacles.
For Cadwell properties specifically, we often work with lots that have meaningful grade changes or established tree lines that the homeowner wants to preserve. We design around them. A freeform pool that wraps around a stand of pines, a beach entry that transitions naturally into a sloped yard, a vanishing edge that opens up to an open field view these are all achievable in concrete when the design starts with your land rather than a predetermined template. The site visit is where we figure out what your specific lot can do.
For a custom concrete pool, the construction timeline from breaking ground to first swim typically runs three to five months, depending on project complexity, weather, inspection scheduling, and material lead times. That timeline starts after the design is finalized and the permit is issued so the full process from first conversation to finished pool is often closer to five to seven months when you factor in the front end.
That’s why the timing of your initial call matters. If you’re reading this in the fall and want a pool for next summer, you’re in a good window. If you’re reading this in April hoping to swim by July, that’s a harder timeline to hit with a quality contractor. We’ll always be honest with you about what’s realistic a rushed pool is not a well-built pool, and we’re not interested in cutting corners to hit an unrealistic deadline.
The honest answer is that fiberglass makes sense for some buyers if you want a fast installation, a lower upfront cost, and a standard shape, fiberglass can deliver that. But if you have land, a specific vision, or any site conditions that don’t fit a factory mold, fiberglass stops being an option pretty quickly.
For most Cadwell homeowners, the lot itself is the deciding factor. Rural Laurens County properties give you space that suburban buyers don’t have space to build something genuinely custom. A pool designed for your specific grade, your specific view, your specific family. Concrete also allows for any depth configuration, any shape, and any combination of features: beach entries, vanishing edges, attached spas, tanning ledges, grottos. The material doesn’t limit the design. And over a 30 to 40 year lifespan which is realistic for a well-built concrete pool the durability and resale contribution of a concrete pool tends to outperform fiberglass on a property where the investment is meant to last.
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