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A gunite pool built right doesn’t just look good on day one. It holds up through decades of South Georgia summers, through the seasonal wet-dry cycles that Coffee County soil goes through every single year, and through the kind of heat that makes a backyard unusable without one. That’s the difference between a pool that’s still solid in 30 years and one that starts showing stress cracks in five.
Lehigh properties tend to have real land behind them. Larger lots, more flexibility, more room to build something that actually fits the space instead of something shoehorned into a corner. A custom gunite shell can be shaped, sized, and positioned to work with your property not against it. Spa additions, beach entries, custom depths none of that is possible with a prefab fiberglass unit dropped in by a crane.
And because South Georgia’s swimming season runs from roughly April through October, you’re looking at six to seven months of use out of this investment every year. That’s not a seasonal luxury. That’s a backyard you actually live in for more than half the year and a home that’s worth more because of it.
We were founded in Douglas, GA the Coffee County seat, less than ten miles from Lehigh by a team that spent more than 30 years in concrete, plumbing, and pool construction before ever hanging a sign. We didn’t start this company because building pools sounded like a good business. We started it because we watched too many South Georgia families hand over deposits to contractors who overpromised, underdelivered, and left homeowners with no real recourse.
Every phase of a Deep Waters build excavation, rebar, gunite application, plumbing, electrical, finishing, and deck work is handled by our own crew. No subcontractors. No rotating strangers on your property. The same people you meet at the start are the ones who finish the job.
Because we’re based in Douglas, we know Coffee County’s permitting office, its inspectors, and its timelines. We’ve navigated that process dozens of times. For a Lehigh homeowner building in unincorporated Coffee County, that familiarity isn’t a small thing it’s the difference between a smooth build and one that stalls waiting on paperwork.
It starts with a site evaluation. Before anything is designed, we look at your property your soil, your grade, your drainage, and how the pool will sit relative to your house and your land. In Coffee County’s coastal plain geology, that step matters more than most builders will tell you. The seasonal ground movement here is real, and a pool shell engineered for this soil behaves very differently from one built to a generic spec.
From there, you’ll see your pool in 3D before a single shovel breaks ground. Every shape, depth, spa configuration, and deck layout is visualized in detail so there are no surprises mid-build. Once you’ve signed off on the design, we handle every permit building permit, electrical permit, and all required Coffee County inspections. You don’t touch a form or make a call to the county office. That’s handled.
Construction follows a set sequence: excavation, rebar framework, gunite shell application, plumbing, electrical bonding and grounding, equipment installation, and finishing. Because every phase is done in-house, there’s no handoff gap where quality falls through the cracks between crews. Fall and winter are actually the best time to start a build in South Georgia the ground is more stable, crews are more available, and your pool is ready for a full April-through-October season the following year.
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Gunite construction starts with a pneumatically applied concrete shell rebar-reinforced and shaped to whatever design your property calls for. It’s not a prefab unit. It’s not a liner stretched over a frame. It’s a structure built in place, on your land, engineered for the specific soil conditions under your backyard in Lehigh. That’s why properly built gunite pools have been the industry standard for custom residential builds since the 1940s, and why concrete accounts for roughly 65% of the U.S. pool construction market today.
For Lehigh homeowners, the relevant question isn’t whether gunite is the right material it’s whether the builder knows how to engineer it for Coffee County’s ground. The cracking problems you may have heard about from fiberglass-only companies aren’t a material failure. They’re a construction failure. A shell designed with local soil movement in mind doesn’t crack from normal seasonal expansion and contraction.
Every Deep Waters build includes full electrical bonding and grounding to NEC Article 680 the federal safety standard for swimming pools. That’s not a marketing line; it’s the code that separates a professionally built pool from one that creates a safety hazard. After the build, we service all major equipment brands Hayward, Pentair, Jandy, Sta-Rite, and Zodiac so the company that built your pool is also the company you call when something needs attention years down the road.
It’s a real concern if the builder doesn’t account for it and a non-issue if they do. Coffee County sits in South Georgia’s coastal plain, where soils are a mix of sandy loam, clay, and organic material that expand when saturated and contract when dry. That seasonal cycle puts stress on anything embedded in the ground, including a pool shell. The reason you hear cracking stories about gunite pools is almost always traceable to a builder who used a generic shell design without engineering for local soil movement.
A properly reinforced gunite shell with adequate rebar spacing, correct concrete mix, appropriate curing time, and footings designed for the specific drainage characteristics of the site handles that movement without cracking. We’ve been building in South Georgia’s soil for over 30 years. We don’t fight the ground; we build for it. The difference shows up decades later when your pool is still structurally sound and a cheaper build down the road is showing stress lines.
Most residential gunite pool projects in the Coffee County area fall between $75,000 and $150,000, depending on size, shape, depth, and features like spa additions, beach entries, or custom deck configurations. More complex builds larger footprints, elaborate water features, premium finishes can push past that range. That’s the honest number, and any builder quoting significantly below it on a full custom gunite build is worth questioning closely.
It’s also worth thinking about the long-term math. A gunite pool needs resurfacing every 10 to 15 years that’s a maintenance event, not a structural replacement. Compare that to a vinyl liner pool, which requires full liner replacement every 5 to 9 years at $4,000 to $4,500 per replacement. Over a 30-year horizon, the total cost picture for a quality gunite build often looks better than it does on paper at the start. And in Georgia, a pool adds roughly 7% to residential property value so a portion of that investment comes back when you sell.
Because Lehigh is an unincorporated community in Coffee County, there’s no city hall or municipal permitting office involved. All building permits, electrical permits, and construction inspections go through Coffee County directly. For homeowners who haven’t navigated county-level permitting before, that process can feel unclear there’s no single obvious front door to walk through, and the requirements aren’t always easy to find on your own.
We handle all of it in-house. We pull the building permit, the electrical permit, and coordinate every required Coffee County inspection from start to finish. You don’t fill out a form, make a call to the county office, or track a permit number. Because we’re based in Douglas the county seat we work with Coffee County’s permitting office regularly. We know the process, the timelines, and the specific requirements. That familiarity keeps your build moving instead of stalling on administrative delays.
A standard residential gunite pool typically takes 8 to 14 weeks from groundbreaking to water, assuming no major weather delays or permit holdups. The actual timeline depends on the complexity of the design, the size of the shell, and how quickly inspections are scheduled and cleared. In Coffee County, our familiarity with the local permit office helps keep the inspection schedule from becoming a bottleneck which is one of the more common causes of timeline creep on builds handled by out-of-area contractors.
Weather is a real factor in South Georgia. Gunite application can’t happen in rain, and spring in Coffee County brings frequent afternoon thunderstorms that can push scheduling around. This is one of the reasons experienced South Georgia builders recommend starting in the fall or winter the ground is more stable, the weather is more predictable, and you’re not racing the spring storm season to hit your application window. A fall start typically means a pool ready for the full April-through-October swimming season the following year.
For a Lehigh homeowner with a rural lot and a long-term investment horizon, gunite is generally the stronger choice but the honest answer depends on what you’re building and why. Fiberglass pools are faster to install and have lower annual chemical costs in some cases. If you’re looking for a standard shape, a quick installation, and minimal customization, a fiberglass unit can make sense. But if your property has the space for a custom design and most Lehigh lots do a gunite shell gives you shapes, depths, and features that a prefab fiberglass unit simply can’t match.
The durability argument is also real. A quality gunite shell lasts 30 to 50 years structurally. The surface needs refinishing on a 10-to-15-year cycle, but the shell itself doesn’t get replaced. Fiberglass pools are durable too, but they come in fixed sizes and shapes, and the gel coat surface can fade and oxidize in South Georgia’s intense summer sun. For a permanent property in Coffee County where you’re building something meant to last, gunite’s longevity and customization flexibility tend to win out.
Yes and that continuity is worth more than most people realize until something goes wrong. We service all major pool equipment brands: Hayward, Pentair, Jandy, Sta-Rite, and Zodiac. We offer weekly, monthly, and seasonal maintenance programs, so you’re not left searching for a separate maintenance company after your build is done.
The practical advantage is that we already know your pool. We know the plumbing layout, the equipment spec, and how the shell was built because we built it. When a pump starts making noise or the water chemistry goes sideways after a heavy Coffee County rainstorm, you’re not explaining your pool’s history to a service tech who’s never seen it before. You’re calling the same company that designed and constructed it. For a Lehigh homeowner making a $75,000-to-$150,000 investment, having one accountable team for the full life of the pool isn’t a convenience it’s a meaningful form of protection.
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