Hear from Our Customers
Valdosta sits far enough south that your pool season runs from late April through October closer to seven months than four. That changes the math on what a custom pool is actually worth. You’re not buying a summer novelty. You’re adding a permanent feature to your property that your family will use for the better part of every year, for decades.
A gunite pool gives you something a fiberglass shell can’t: a shape, depth, and layout that fits your actual yard and your actual vision. Whether you’re on a large lot in Providence Point, an established home in North Valdosta, or a newer build near the Bemiss Road corridor, the pool gets designed around your space not squeezed into a mold someone else decided on.
What most people don’t think about until after they’ve signed a contract is who’s actually doing the work. In this industry, it’s common for a builder to hand off every phase excavation, plumbing, steel, gunite application, finishing to separate subcontractors the homeowner never meets. We don’t operate that way. Every phase of your build is done by our own team. That means one point of accountability, from the first shovel to the final inspection.
We were founded in 2014 out of Douglas, GA about 60 miles up US-221 from Valdosta by a team that had already spent 30-plus years in the field doing concrete, plumbing, and custom pool construction across South Georgia. We didn’t start the company to grow fast. We started it because we watched too many homeowners get burned by builders who overpromised and subcontracted everything out.
We build in Lowndes County regularly, and we know the difference between working in Coastal Plain sandy soils down here versus the clay conditions further north. That’s not a detail that shows up in a brochure it’s the kind of thing that matters when the pool shell is going in the ground and the engineering has to be right.
No subcontractors. No strangers on your property. The same crew that digs your pool installs your plumbing, applies the gunite shell, handles all electrical bonding and grounding, and pulls every permit whether that’s through the City of Valdosta’s permit office or Lowndes County’s building department.
It starts with design. Before anything gets dug, you’ll see your pool in 3D exact shape, depth, placement on your lot, every feature accounted for. That step matters more than people realize. It’s how you catch a layout problem before it becomes a construction problem, especially on lots in established Valdosta neighborhoods where setbacks and existing landscaping require real planning.
Once the design is locked, we handle the permitting. In Valdosta, that means filing with the City’s permit office at City Hall Annex on North Lee Street under 2018 ICC codes or through Lowndes County Building Permits and Inspections on North Ashley Street if your property sits outside city limits. Either way, you don’t touch a form. We handle both.
From there, excavation begins, followed by rebar framework, gunite shell application, plumbing, electrical bonding and grounding per NEC Article 680, equipment installation, and decking. Every phase is done by our own crew not handed off. Valdosta’s mild winters mean construction can run year-round, which is worth knowing if you’re thinking about starting the process in fall. Homeowners who begin in October or November consistently have their pools ready before Memorial Day, without competing with the spring permit rush.
Ready to get started?
A Deep Waters Pools gunite pool build covers the full scope: excavation, custom rebar framework, gunite shell application, all plumbing, electrical bonding and grounding, equipment installation, deck work, and final finish. We also build shotcrete pools and if you’ve been researching the difference, the short answer is that both are pneumatically applied concrete. The real variable isn’t the method. It’s the crew applying it and the engineering behind the build.
For Valdosta homeowners near Moody Air Force Base, in the North Valdosta corridor, or anywhere across Lowndes County residential builds are the core of what we do. We also take on commercial gunite pool installation for facilities that need the same level of structural integrity and in-house accountability on a larger scale.
Equipment matters too, and we service what we install. We work with Hayward, Pentair, Jandy, Sta-Rite, and Zodiac systems so when something needs attention three years from now, you’re calling the same company that built your pool and knows your system from the inside out. That continuity isn’t common in this industry, and it’s worth factoring into your decision before you sign with anyone.
Yes and it’s not optional or a gray area. The City of Valdosta requires a building permit for all inground pools under 2018 ICC codes. That permit is filed at the City’s Permit Office at City Hall Annex, 300 North Lee Street. Pools also have to meet specific requirements for enclosures, barriers, and safety devices, so there’s more to the process than just filing a form.
If your property is in unincorporated Lowndes County rather than inside city limits, the permit runs through a separate office Lowndes County Building Permits and Inspections at 327 North Ashley Street. Contractors also have to hold a valid Valdosta business license and be registered with the City’s Business License Office. If a homeowner pulls their own permit, they sign a notarized affidavit and take on full legal liability for the construction. We handle all of this in-house both city and county so you’re not navigating two different permit offices or tracking paperwork on your own.
A typical custom gunite pool build runs somewhere between 8 and 16 weeks from permit approval to completion, depending on the complexity of the design, the features involved, and the current permit queue. The permitting phase itself is where most timelines get affected spring is when Valdosta’s permit office sees its highest volume of pool applications, and that’s when wait times stretch.
Homeowners who start the process in fall or early winter consistently get better results. Valdosta’s temperatures rarely drop below freezing, which means construction can run through the winter without the hard shutdowns that affect northern markets. A homeowner who commits in October or November can realistically have their pool filled and ready before Memorial Day without fighting the spring backlog. If your goal is to swim by summer, the best time to start is before everyone else decides the same thing.
You’ve probably come across content suggesting that gunite cracks in Southern soil. It’s worth being direct about where that claim comes from and what it actually means. Gunite cracking is a construction failure, not a material failure. It happens when builders apply the shell too thin, rush the curing process, use insufficient rebar, or don’t account for local soil conditions in their structural design.
Lowndes County sits on the Gulf Coastal Plain, with sandy, well-draining soils that behave differently from the expansive clay soils further north in Georgia. Those soil conditions have their own engineering considerations and a builder with genuine South Georgia experience designs for them specifically. A properly engineered gunite shell, with adequate rebar density, correct wall thickness, and full curing time, holds up in this soil without issue. The cracking problem is a builder problem. Fiberglass has its own limitations in South Georgia’s UV-intense climate, and it comes in pre-manufactured shapes meaning you’re choosing from someone else’s mold rather than designing a pool that fits your yard and your vision.
Most custom gunite pools in the Valdosta market fall somewhere between $75,000 and $150,000, depending on size, shape, depth, features, and site conditions. That range moves based on what you’re adding a spa, a water feature, a specific decking material, LED lighting, or a more complex layout will push the number up. A straightforward rectangular pool on a flat lot with standard equipment will sit closer to the lower end.
What’s worth understanding before you focus too hard on the number is that the cost of a pool isn’t just the construction quote it’s also what happens after. A pool built with thin walls and rushed curing might need replastering in three to five years. A pool built correctly needs resurfacing every ten to fifteen. Over a thirty-year ownership period, that difference adds up to real money. Valdosta’s cost of living runs below the national average, which makes a custom pool a more accessible investment here than in higher-cost markets but the builder you choose still determines whether that investment holds its value.
Both are pneumatically applied concrete meaning the material gets sprayed onto a rebar framework under pressure to form the pool shell. The technical difference is that gunite uses a dry mix that combines with water at the nozzle, while shotcrete uses a wet mix that’s already combined before application. In practice, both methods can produce a structurally sound, long-lasting pool shell when applied correctly.
What actually determines the quality of the finished shell isn’t the method it’s the crew doing the work and the engineering behind the build. An experienced nozzleman applying gunite with proper technique will produce a better result than an inexperienced crew using shotcrete, and vice versa. We build both gunite and shotcrete pools across South Georgia, and we’ll recommend the approach that makes the most sense for your specific project. If a builder leads with the method as their main selling point, that’s worth a second look the method is far less important than who’s holding the hose.
Yes and we’re familiar with the distinction. Properties inside Valdosta city limits go through the City’s permit office on North Lee Street. Properties in unincorporated Lowndes County go through the county’s Building Permits and Inspections department on North Ashley Street. The two processes are separate, and not every builder working in this area knows how to navigate both without slowing down your timeline.
We build throughout Lowndes County including areas like North Lowndes, near the Long Pond corridor, and in the larger-lot communities that sit just outside city limits. If your property is in an area where you’re not sure which jurisdiction applies, that’s something we can help you sort out early in the process. Getting the permit filed in the right place from the start is one of those details that sounds minor until it causes a three-week delay. It’s the kind of thing that comes from actually building in this county, not just saying you serve the area.
Local Resources
Useful Links
