Hear from Our Customers
A gunite pool built correctly holds its shape, holds its surface, and holds its value for decades. You’re not calling someone out every few years for major repairs. You’re not re-plastering on a short cycle because the shell was rushed. You’re swimming in something that was engineered for your specific property not a catalog insert dropped into your backyard.
In Bacon County, the soil is sandy loam coastal plain well-drained, stable, and fundamentally different from the expanding clay soils further north in Georgia. That matters because a lot of the “gunite pools crack in Southern soil” talk you may have heard online is really a story about poorly built pools, not the material itself. When the rebar framework is correct, the walls are the right thickness, and the curing process isn’t rushed, the shell performs exactly the way it should in this soil environment.
The other thing worth saying: Alma’s outdoor season runs from April through October six to seven months of real swimming weather. That’s not a three-month window where a pool barely pays for itself. That’s more than half the year where your backyard becomes the place your family actually wants to be. A quality gunite pool, built once and built right, earns its keep every single summer.
We’re based in Douglas, GA about 25 miles from Alma on U.S. 1. That’s not a distant company sending a crew through once and moving on. We’re a South Georgia builder who knows this region, understands Alma and Bacon County’s permitting structure, and will still be down the road when your equipment needs attention three years from now.
The experience behind Deep Waters Pools started well before 2014. Our founders spent over 30 years working hands-on in concrete, plumbing, and pool construction before launching the company because they watched too many South Georgia families get burned by contractors who showed up, took the deposit, and delivered something no one would have agreed to if they’d seen it coming.
Every phase of your build excavation, rebar, gunite application, plumbing, electrical, finishing, and deck is handled by our own crew. No subcontractors. No strangers you’ve never met working in your yard. In a community like Alma, that means something.
It starts with a site evaluation and a conversation about what you actually want not a sales pitch. From there, you’ll see your pool in 3D before a shovel touches the ground. Every dimension, every depth, every feature is mapped to your specific property in Bacon County, whether you’re on a rural lot outside Alma’s city limits or a residential parcel inside the incorporated boundary. That distinction matters because permitting works differently here properties within Alma’s city limits require city building and electrical permits through the Code Enforcement Office, while properties outside city limits in Bacon County operate under a different set of requirements entirely. We handle all of that in-house, so you don’t have to figure it out.
Once design is approved and permits are pulled, excavation begins. After that, the steel rebar framework goes in this is the skeleton that determines how your pool performs for the next several decades. Gunite is then applied by our own crew, not a sub, and the curing process is given the time it actually needs. Plumbing, electrical bonding and grounding, equipment installation, and finishing work follow in sequence.
By the time we’re done, you’re not handing off a list of punch items to three different contractors. You’re getting a finished pool from the same team that started it inspected, permitted, and ready for an Alma summer.
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Custom gunite pool construction with Deep Waters Pools covers the full scope 3D design, excavation, steel reinforcement, gunite application, plumbing, NEC Article 680-compliant electrical bonding and grounding, equipment installation, deck construction, and every required permit and inspection. That’s not a list of things we coordinate with other people. That’s everything done by our crew, from the first stake in the ground to the day you fill it.
Equipment installation includes all major brands Hayward, Pentair, Jandy, Sta-Rite, and Zodiac and our service team handles repairs and maintenance after the build is complete. For Bacon County homeowners, that means you’re not tracking down a separate service contractor when something needs attention. We’re 25 miles away on U.S. 1 and can be back out when you need us.
Beyond new construction, we also handle pool restoration for existing pools that have been neglected or poorly built by a previous contractor. If you’ve got a gunite shell that was rushed, undersized, or improperly finished, restoration is often a more cost-effective path than starting over. Whether you’re building from scratch on a new lot in Bacon County or bringing a failing pool back to life, the process starts the same way with a real conversation about what you’re working with and what it’s going to take to get it right.
This is one of the most common concerns we hear from Alma homeowners, and it’s worth addressing directly. The short answer is that a properly built gunite pool does not crack from normal soil movement in Bacon County’s sandy loam coastal plain environment. The cracking you’ve heard about is almost always tied to builder quality walls that were applied too thin, rebar that was undersized or improperly spaced, or a curing process that was rushed to hit a deadline.
Bacon County’s soil is fundamentally different from the expansive red clay soils in North Georgia’s Piedmont region. Sandy loam drains quickly, doesn’t swell and contract with moisture the way clay does, and presents a more stable environment for a gunite shell when the construction is done correctly. When the engineering is right correct wall thickness, adequate steel, proper compaction, and a curing process that isn’t cut short gunite is one of the most durable pool construction methods available in the South Georgia market.
For a custom gunite pool in the Alma and Bacon County area, you’re typically looking at a range of $75,000 to $150,000 depending on size, features, depth, decking, and equipment. That range reflects what a quality build actually costs in South Georgia not the lowest number a contractor will quote to win the job, and not an inflated figure that assumes you want every premium add-on available.
The gap between a $50,000 quote and a $90,000 quote usually isn’t a savings it’s a difference in what’s actually being built. Thinner walls, lighter steel, faster curing, subcontracted labor with less oversight. Those decisions don’t show up on day one. They show up five years later when the surface is failing or the shell has shifted. In Alma, where there’s no local pool builder to call for a second opinion, the lowest bid carries real risk. A transparent conversation about what drives the cost and what you’re actually getting for it is the starting point for any project we take on.
A realistic timeline for a custom gunite pool build in Bacon County runs between three and six months from signed contract to finished pool, depending on design complexity, permitting timing, and scheduling. Any builder quoting you eight to twelve weeks on a full custom gunite build is either giving you the best-case scenario or not accounting for the full scope of work.
The permitting process in Alma adds a step that some out-of-area contractors underestimate. Properties within Alma’s city limits require building and electrical permits through the City of Alma’s Code Enforcement Office, and the process involves meeting with the Code Enforcement Officer before a permit is issued. Properties outside city limits in Bacon County operate differently. We handle all of that in-house, which removes the back-and-forth that can add weeks to a project when a contractor isn’t familiar with the local process. If you’re planning around Alma’s outdoor season which runs comfortably from April through October the earlier you start the design and permitting process, the better your chances of being in the water before summer peaks.
Gunite and shotcrete are both pneumatically applied concrete meaning the material is shot through a hose at high velocity onto a steel rebar framework. The difference is in how the concrete is mixed. With gunite, the dry ingredients are mixed at the nozzle when water is added just before application. With shotcrete, the concrete arrives pre-mixed and wet, and is applied directly. Both methods, when done correctly by an experienced crew, produce a structurally sound pool shell.
In practice, the distinction matters less than the quality of the crew applying it. The rebar layout, the wall thickness, the application technique, and the curing time are what determine how your pool performs over the next 20 to 30 years not which of the two methods was used. At Deep Waters Pools, we work with the method that best fits the specific project, and we don’t cut corners on the steps that actually determine the shell’s long-term integrity. If a contractor is leading their pitch with “we use shotcrete, not gunite” as a quality differentiator, that’s worth questioning the real differentiator is the crew and the process, not the label.
It depends on where your property sits. This is one of the more genuinely confusing parts of building a pool in Bacon County, and it’s worth understanding before you start talking to contractors. If your property is within the incorporated city limits of Alma, you’ll need building and electrical permits through the City of Alma’s Code Enforcement Division. The city requires applicants to meet with the Code Enforcement Officer before a permit is issued, and all work must comply with the adopted building codes, including the International Plumbing Code with Georgia State Amendments.
If your property is outside Alma’s city limits in the unincorporated areas of Bacon County, including communities like Rockingham or Sessoms the situation is different. Bacon County does not require building permits for construction in unincorporated areas. That doesn’t mean the work can be done without professional standards or electrical safety compliance, but it does change the permitting process significantly. We’ve navigated both scenarios for clients in this area and handle all permitting in-house, so you don’t have to figure out which office applies to your address or what forms to file.
A well-built gunite pool surface typically lasts 10 to 15 years before resurfacing is needed sometimes longer with consistent water chemistry and routine maintenance. The 3 to 7 year figure that gets cited online applies to pools where the gunite was applied too thin, cured too fast, or where water chemistry has been poorly managed over time. It’s not a baseline expectation for a quality build.
In Alma’s climate, water chemistry management matters more than in cooler regions simply because your pool is in active use for six or seven months out of the year. The longer your season, the more important it is to stay on top of pH balance, calcium hardness, and sanitizer levels not because gunite is fragile, but because any pool surface degrades faster when the chemistry is off. We handle ongoing maintenance and equipment service after the build, which means you have a consistent point of contact who already knows your pool’s specs, your equipment setup, and your water chemistry baseline. That continuity makes a real difference in how long your surface holds up between resurfacing cycles.
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