Hear from Our Customers
Southeast Georgia doesn’t give you a two-month summer. In Sunnyside and the surrounding Ware County area, you’re looking at pool weather from April straight through October. Highs in the mid-to-upper 90s are routine by June, and a backyard pool stops being a luxury pretty fast when the heat index climbs past 100. For families with kids at home, it’s the difference between a summer you remember and one you just survived.
A custom inground pool also does something for your property that above-ground options and community memberships can’t touch. Home values in Sunnyside have more than doubled since 2000, and a well-built gunite pool adds roughly 7% to your property’s value real equity in a market where homeowners are clearly investing for the long term.
The other piece that matters here is soil. Sunnyside sits at the edge of the Okefenokee ecosystem, where the ground transitions between sandy coastal plain and areas with higher moisture content and water table variability. That’s a different engineering environment than you’ll find in north Georgia or even Coffee County. A pool built without accounting for those conditions won’t perform the way it should and the problems don’t always show up right away.
We were founded in 2014, but our founder spent more than three decades in concrete, plumbing, and custom pool construction before Deep Waters ever opened its doors. That means no learning curve on your Sunnyside project. The soil conditions along the Ware County coastal plain, the water table behavior near the Okefenokee, the permitting process through Ware County’s Planning and Codes department none of that is new territory for our crew.
Based out of Douglas, we serve Southeast Georgia broadly, and Sunnyside falls squarely within our working area. We’re not stretching our service map to pick up a lead. We’re a builder who has worked in this region long enough to know what the ground does, what the weather does, and what the county requires.
Every project is handled by the same in-house crew from excavation to finished deck. No subcontractors. No handoffs. The same people who dig your pool are the same people who finish it.
It starts with a site evaluation and design consultation. We use 3D renderings so you can see exactly what your pool will look like before anything is approved or financed. Once the design is locked, we handle every permit required through Ware County’s Planning and Codes department the pool permit, the electrical permit, and every required inspection including the mandatory rebar review before gunite is ever applied. You don’t call the county. You don’t track permit status. We handle that.
Excavation comes next, and this is where local knowledge matters. The sandy, low-lying soils common to the Ware County area require specific attention during excavation proper compaction, awareness of water table depth, and the right approach to shaping the shell so it performs for decades. After excavation, the rebar cage is installed and inspected, then the gunite is applied. Gunite cures and strengthens over approximately 28 days, which is why the timeline from excavation to completion typically runs six to eight weeks.
Plumbing, electrical, equipment installation, and pool deck work all follow in sequence handled by our crew, not handed off to separate trades. A custom safety cover is included with every build at no additional charge. From the time you start the design process to the day you’re swimming, most projects run three to six months, depending on permitting and seasonal scheduling. If you’re planning to swim by Memorial Day, starting the conversation in the fall puts you in the best position.
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Fiberglass pools arrive in fixed shapes from a factory. If the shape doesn’t fit your yard or your vision, that’s a compromise you live with for the next 30 years. Gunite doesn’t work that way. Every pool we build is constructed from scratch on your Sunnyside property any shape, any size, any configuration your lot allows. Whether your backyard is narrow, has an odd footprint, or you’ve had a specific design in your head for years, gunite can match it.
The full scope of what we build includes the gunite shell, all pool plumbing and swimming pool plumbing connections, NEC Article 680-compliant electrical bonding and grounding, equipment installation, pool deck installation, and a custom safety cover included standard. In Ware County, where permits run through the county rather than a city building department, we manage that process entirely in-house pulling permits in our name, because we’re the ones standing behind the work.
Spa and hot tub construction, pool renovation and restoration, and ongoing maintenance and chemical service are also available for Sunnyside homeowners who want a single point of contact after the build is complete. The price you’re quoted is the price you pay no change orders for scope that should have been in the contract from the start.
Yes and because Sunnyside is an unincorporated community, your pool permit goes through Ware County’s Planning and Codes department, not a city building department. Ware County has a specific permit form required for residential pool construction, and the process also includes a separate electrical permit and mandatory inspections at key stages including a rebar inspection before any gunite is applied.
For most homeowners, this is unfamiliar territory. Navigating a county-level permitting office is different from dealing with a city hall, and the inspection schedule has to be coordinated carefully to avoid delays in the build timeline. We handle the entire permitting process in-house. We pull the permits in our name, schedule every required inspection, and manage the back-and-forth with Ware County so your project moves on schedule without you making a single call to a government office.
It matters more than most people realize. Ware County sits at the edge of the Okefenokee ecosystem, which means the soil profile shifts between sandy coastal plain and areas with higher moisture content and water table variability. Sandy soils drain quickly, which reduces some moisture-related expansion issues, but they can shift or settle around a pool shell if excavation and compaction aren’t handled correctly from the start.
The bigger consideration is water table depth. In low-lying areas near the Okefenokee, groundwater can sit closer to the surface than in other parts of Georgia. During excavation, that means the pool shell has to be engineered to handle hydrostatic pressure the upward force groundwater exerts on a pool that’s empty or partially filled. A builder who hasn’t worked in this specific soil environment won’t account for that properly. We’ve been building in Southeast Georgia long enough to know what the ground does here, and every pool is evaluated and engineered for the actual conditions on your property.
The honest answer is three to six months from the time you start the design process to the day you’re swimming and the biggest variable is permitting, not construction. Active construction from excavation through completed deck work typically runs six to eight weeks. But the design phase, 3D rendering approvals, and the Ware County permitting process happen before a shovel touches your yard, and that front-end timeline depends on how quickly the county processes applications and schedules inspections.
The practical advice for Sunnyside homeowners is to start in the fall or early winter if you want to be swimming by Memorial Day. Southeast Georgia’s mild winters mean construction can happen year-round unlike northern states where the ground freezes and work stops entirely. Starting the conversation in October or November puts you in the best position to be fully permitted and ready for a spring excavation, which lines up with the beginning of the seven-month swimming season in this area.
Fiberglass pools are manufactured in a factory and delivered to your property in a fixed shape and size. The selection is limited to whatever the manufacturer offers, and if your yard doesn’t accommodate the shape or you have a specific design in mind you’re either compromising or looking at a different product entirely. Installation is faster, but you’re working within constraints that were set before anyone ever saw your backyard.
Gunite is built from scratch on your property. The shape, size, depth, and configuration are determined by your design, not a catalog. For Sunnyside homeowners with specific lot dimensions, unique backyard footprints, or a clear vision for what they want, gunite is the only option that doesn’t require a compromise. It’s also the more durable long-term investment gunite concrete strengthens as it cures and ages, and a properly built gunite pool can last 30 or more years without the liner replacements or gel coat degradation that come with other pool types. The higher upfront cost reflects a structure that’s built to outlast the alternatives.
A custom inground gunite pool in the Southeast Georgia market typically starts in the $60,000 to $80,000 range for a standard residential build, with larger or more complex designs running higher depending on size, shape, water features, and site conditions. That range includes the full scope excavation, gunite shell, plumbing, electrical, equipment, and pool deck installation. A custom safety cover is included standard with every build at no additional charge.
For Sunnyside homeowners, it’s worth framing that number against your property’s value. With median home values in the area around $175,000, a pool represents a meaningful investment and the right builder matters. The worst outcome in pool construction isn’t paying too much for a good pool. It’s paying a lower number for a pool that shifts, cracks, or sits unfinished because the contractor disappeared or the subcontractors didn’t communicate. We quote a fixed price and build to that number. What you sign is what you pay.
Yes. We offer pool maintenance and chemical service, water testing, and equipment service across all major brands for homeowners in Sunnyside and the Ware County area. For a lot of buyers, this matters more than it seems upfront. Owning a pool means managing water chemistry, equipment upkeep, and seasonal adjustments and in Southeast Georgia’s climate, where you’re running the pool for seven months a year and dealing with roughly 50 inches of annual rainfall, that maintenance load is real.
Having the same company that built your pool handle the ongoing service means we already know your equipment, your plumbing layout, and how your pool was constructed. There’s no onboarding a new service company and hoping they figure out the setup. For Sunnyside homeowners who want a single point of contact from build through long-term ownership, we’re set up to provide that continuity. Reach out directly to ask about maintenance schedules and what’s included for your specific pool and equipment.
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