Hear from Our Customers
Nicholls summers don’t ease up. From late May through September, afternoon heat regularly pushes toward 90°F with humidity that makes every degree feel worse. If your property doesn’t have a pool, you’re either staying inside or driving somewhere else to cool off and neither of those is what you had in mind when you bought a place with a yard.
A properly built inground pool changes that equation completely. You’re not just adding a feature to your property you’re adding roughly seven to eight months of usable outdoor living season. That’s the realistic swim window in this part of South Georgia, and it starts earlier and ends later than most people expect when they first start thinking about it.
What makes the difference here specifically is how the pool is built. Coffee County’s soil has clay in it, and clay moves it expands when it gets wet and contracts when it dries out. A pool engineered without accounting for that will show it eventually, through cracking, drainage problems, or deck movement. Getting it right from the start means you’re not dealing with those headaches five years in. That’s the whole point of working with someone who has actually built in this soil before.
We’re based in Douglas the Coffee County seat, 13 miles west of Nicholls on Georgia State Route 32. That’s the same road you’re already driving to handle most of what you need. We’re not a regional franchise or an out-of-area contractor making a long haul to win a bid. We’re a family-owned business that works in this county, knows this county, and has been building here long enough to understand what the ground actually does.
Our founder spent more than 30 years in concrete construction, plumbing, and custom pool building before we opened Deep Waters in 2014. That history matters because the experience behind every project isn’t theoretical it’s been tested in South Georgia’s soil, heat, and permit environment specifically. Coffee County’s building process, the clay-heavy terrain around communities like Nicholls, the long swim season that demands durable construction none of that is new to us.
We started this company because we watched too many families in this region get burned by contractors who took deposits and went quiet. That’s not a marketing line. It’s the reason the company exists.
It starts with a free on-site estimate. We come to your property, look at the space, talk through what you’re thinking, and give you a clear picture of what’s realistic size, layout, timeline, and cost. No vague ballpark figures, no pressure to decide on the spot.
Once you’re ready to move forward, we handle the permit process through the City of Nicholls building authority. That’s not something you should have to figure out on your own. Georgia requires permits for inground pool construction, and the application involves site plans, contractor documentation, and compliance with the International Swimming Pool and Spa Code. We’ve done this in Coffee County before. We know what the building department needs, and we keep the process moving so it doesn’t drag out.
After permit approval, construction typically runs eight to twelve weeks. We’ll tell you that upfront and explain what can affect it weather, site conditions, inspection scheduling. Concrete pools are built in stages: excavation, steel and plumbing, the concrete shell, tile and coping, plastering, and finally equipment installation and startup. Each stage has to be right before the next one begins. When we’re done, we clean up the site completely, walk you through your pool’s systems, and hand you something that’s ready to use not a punch list to chase us about.
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We specialize in custom inground concrete pools not fiberglass shells, not vinyl liners, not whatever’s easiest to move off a lot. Concrete is the most structurally durable option available, and in a climate that runs a seven-to-eight month swim season with the kind of heat South Georgia produces, that durability matters. A concrete pool built correctly is a 30-plus year structure. One built without accounting for local soil conditions is a problem waiting to happen.
Every pool we build includes a custom safety cover as standard. Georgia code requires proper safety barriers fencing, self-closing and self-latching gates and we treat those as baseline requirements, not add-ons. With a swim season that stretches from spring through fall and families spending long summer days outside, safety isn’t a box to check at the end. It’s built into the project from the beginning.
Beyond new construction, we also handle pool renovation and repair. A significant portion of homes in the Nicholls area were built between 1970 and 1999, and pools from that era are now well into their renovation cycle. If you have an existing pool with aging plaster, worn tile and coping, outdated equipment, or structural concerns, that’s work we do too. Not every project starts from scratch and sometimes the right answer is restoring what’s already there rather than replacing it.
Yes any inground pool deeper than 24 inches requires a building permit in Georgia, and that applies to Nicholls. The permit process runs through the City of Nicholls building authority, and it involves submitting site plans, contractor license documentation, and demonstrating compliance with the International Swimming Pool and Spa Code with Georgia Amendments. That code covers structural requirements, safety barriers, equipment standards, and setback distances from property lines.
This isn’t a formality to skip. An unpermitted pool creates real legal and financial exposure at resale, for homeowner’s insurance claims, and for any future work that requires inspection. Any contractor who suggests bypassing the permit process is telling you something important about how they operate. We handle the entire permit process as part of every project, so you’re not navigating the City of Nicholls building department on your own.
For a custom concrete inground pool in the Coffee County area, you’re typically looking at a starting range of $65,000 to $85,000 for a standard design, with more elaborate pools larger footprints, custom water features, expanded patio and outdoor living areas running higher from there. The final number depends on size, shape, finish selections, equipment package, and site-specific factors like soil conditions and access.
What’s worth understanding in this market is that concrete pools aren’t priced the same as vinyl liner or fiberglass options, and the difference isn’t arbitrary. Concrete is a permanent structure engineered for your specific site. In Coffee County’s clay-heavy soil, that engineering work proper drainage design, structural reinforcement, site preparation is part of what you’re paying for. A cheaper pool built without accounting for local soil behavior can develop problems within a few years that cost more to fix than the original savings were worth. We give you a clear, itemized estimate before anything starts so you know exactly what you’re committing to.
From permit approval through final startup, most custom concrete pool builds run eight to twelve weeks. That timeline covers excavation, steel and plumbing installation, the concrete shell pour, tile and coping work, plastering, and equipment installation. Each phase has to pass before the next one begins, and inspections are scheduled at specific stages which is one reason the permit process matters for keeping things on track.
The practical planning implication for Nicholls homeowners is this: if you want your pool ready for summer, you need to start the conversation in January or February at the latest. Permit processing takes time, and the spring construction window fills up. Families who contact us in March hoping for a Memorial Day pool are usually looking at mid-summer at the earliest. Getting ahead of that timeline is the single most common thing that separates a smooth project from a frustrating one.
The core difference comes down to durability, customization, and long-term cost. Concrete pools are permanent structures built on your site, engineered to your specifications, and designed to last 30-plus years with proper maintenance. You’re not limited to pre-molded shapes or standard sizes. The pool is built to fit your yard, not the other way around.
Fiberglass pools come as pre-manufactured shells that are dropped into an excavated hole. They’re faster to install and lower maintenance in some respects, but you’re choosing from whatever shapes the manufacturer offers, and the shell can be affected by ground movement over time a relevant concern in Coffee County’s clay soil. Vinyl liner pools are the least expensive upfront, but the liner itself needs replacement every eight to twelve years, which adds recurring cost over the life of the pool. For Nicholls homeowners with larger rural lots and a seven-to-eight month swim season, the long-term math on concrete usually makes the most sense you’re building something once and building it right.
Yes renovation and repair is a significant part of what we do, and it’s increasingly relevant in the Nicholls area. A large portion of homes here were built between 1970 and 1999, which means pools from that era are now 25 to 50 years old. At that age, you’re typically looking at plaster surfaces that have deteriorated, tile and coping that needs replacement, pump and filter equipment that’s past its useful life, and sometimes structural concerns that need to be assessed before anything else.
The renovation process starts the same way new construction does we come out, look at the pool, and give you an honest assessment of what it needs. Sometimes the answer is a full renovation. Sometimes it’s targeted repairs and equipment upgrades that extend the pool’s life significantly at a fraction of the cost of starting over. Either way, you’ll know what you’re dealing with before any work begins. If you have a pool on your property that’s been sitting unused or showing its age, it’s worth having someone look at it before writing it off.
In a small community like Nicholls, you don’t have a deep bench of local pool builders to choose from. That reality makes contractor selection more consequential, not less. A bad experience here a contractor who takes a deposit and goes quiet, skips permits, or delivers work that fails within a few years doesn’t have an easy remedy when the local market is thin.
The questions worth asking any pool company before you hire them: Are you licensed and insured in Georgia? Will you pull the permits, or are you expecting me to handle that? Can you show me completed work in Coffee County or the surrounding area? What’s your actual build timeline, and what’s in writing? A contractor who hesitates on any of those questions is telling you something. We’re licensed, insured, and have been building in this region for years. We handle the permits, we give you a real timeline, and we don’t hand you a finished pool and disappear. That’s not a high bar but in this market, it’s one worth confirming before you sign anything.
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