Hear from Our Customers
Relee sits in one of the best climates in the country for pool ownership. You’re looking at roughly eight months of legitimate swim season March through November with summer afternoons that push well into the 90s and overnight lows that barely cool things down. That’s just South Georgia, and it means a pool here gets used, not just admired.
The properties out here are another reason concrete makes sense. Rural Coffee County lots tend to run larger than what you’d find in a suburb, which means you’re not stuck choosing from a handful of pre-molded fiberglass shapes. You have the land to build something that actually fits how your family lives whether that’s a freeform design with a spa, a lap pool, or a simple, clean rectangle with a patio that ties it all together.
And when it’s built right properly engineered for the sandy loam and clay subsoil conditions that run through this part of the Coastal Plain a concrete pool will outlast every other option on the market. No liner replacements every ten years. No shape limitations. Just a permanent feature of your property that adds real value and gets used from the first warm weekend in spring to the last one in fall.
We’re based in Douglas the county seat of Coffee County and the hub that Relee residents rely on for just about everything. That proximity matters. When something needs attention on a project, we’re not calling you from three counties over. We’re down the road.
Our founder spent more than 30 years working in concrete construction, plumbing, and custom pool building across South Georgia before launching Deep Waters in 2014. That experience wasn’t accumulated somewhere else and imported here it was built right here, in this region, in these soil conditions, through these summers. We started because too many Coffee County families, including those in Relee, had been burned by contractors who took the deposit, dragged out the timeline, and disappeared before the job was right. That’s still the reason we operate the way we do.
Every project we handle is licensed, insured, fully permitted through Coffee County, and finished with a formal handoff complete system training, full site cleanup, and a custom safety cover included as standard.
It starts with a conversation about your property and what you’re actually trying to build. Not a sales pitch a real assessment of your lot, your goals, and what’s realistic given the timeline you’re working with. If you want to be swimming before summer hits in Coffee County, the window to start that conversation is earlier than most people think.
Once the design is locked in, we handle the permit process through Coffee County. Because Relee is unincorporated, there’s no city building department to navigate permits go through the county directly, and we manage that from application through inspection sign-off. You don’t have to chase anyone or figure out the process yourself. Most projects move from permit approval to a finished pool in eight to twelve weeks, depending on scope and weather. South Georgia’s afternoon thunderstorm season in June through August is real, and we account for it in the timeline rather than pretending it doesn’t exist.
Construction runs through excavation, shell forming, plumbing, electrical, decking, and finishing all coordinated by the same team that designed the project. When we’re done, we walk you through every system before we leave. The pool is ready to use, the yard is cleaned up, and the safety cover is installed. That’s what the end of a project looks like.
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New construction is the core of what we do, but it’s not the only thing. A lot of homes in Coffee County are sitting on pools that were built in the 1980s and 1990s and those pools are now at the age where resurfacing, tile replacement, coping work, and equipment upgrades aren’t optional anymore. If you’ve got an older pool that’s starting to show its age, renovation is often a fraction of the cost of replacement and gets you a pool that performs like new.
Beyond construction and renovation, we handle repairs, filter cleaning, pump replacement, and chemical balancing. For Relee homeowners who want one local company they can call for anything pool-related not a different contractor for every problem that full-service range is what makes the relationship work long-term.
Every new build we complete includes a custom safety cover as standard. With a large number of Coffee County households having children at home, that’s not an upsell it’s a baseline. Georgia code requirements for pool safety barriers apply regardless of whether you’re in Douglas or in an unincorporated community like Relee, and every pool we build meets those standards before we consider the job finished.
Yes and this is one of the more important things to understand before you hire anyone. Because Relee is an unincorporated community, there’s no city building department involved. Pool construction permits are issued at the county level through Coffee County, and they’re required before any excavation starts. Any contractor who suggests skipping the permit process in an unincorporated area is creating a serious problem for you, not saving you time or money.
An unpermitted pool can complicate a home sale, void coverage on a homeowner’s insurance claim, and expose you to liability if an accident happens on the property. We handle the entire permit process application, documentation, and inspection coordination as a standard part of every project. You don’t have to make a single call to a government office. We know the Coffee County process, we know the timelines, and we make sure every pool we build is fully permitted and properly inspected before it’s handed over to you.
This is a question worth asking before you commit to anything, because the answer actually depends on where you’re building. Coffee County sits in Georgia’s Lower Coastal Plain, where the soil profile typically runs sandy loam over clay subsoils. That combination affects drainage, how much the ground moves with moisture changes, and how much stress gets put on a pool shell over time. It’s not the same as building in red clay or in sandy coastal soil, and a contractor who hasn’t built extensively in this region may not account for it properly.
Concrete pools, when engineered correctly for local conditions, are the most durable long-term option in this environment. The shell can be reinforced and designed to handle the specific drainage and movement patterns of Coffee County soil. Fiberglass pools are limited to pre-molded shapes and sizes, and vinyl liner pools require liner replacement every eight to twelve years regardless of soil conditions. We build concrete exclusively not because it’s the easiest option, but because it’s the one that holds up the longest when it’s built right for this region.
For most custom concrete pool projects in Coffee County, you’re looking at eight to twelve weeks from permit approval to a finished, ready-to-use pool. The range depends on the complexity of the design a pool with an attached spa, custom coping, and an extended patio takes longer than a straightforward rectangular build and on weather. South Georgia’s afternoon thunderstorm season runs from June through August, and those storms can cause legitimate delays in excavation and shell work. We account for that in the timeline we give you upfront rather than quoting you an optimistic number and then explaining the delays after.
The most important timing factor is when you start the conversation. If you want to be swimming by Memorial Day weekend, you need to be talking to a builder in January or February at the latest. Permit processing takes time, and construction slots fill up. Homeowners who call in April hoping for a June pool almost always end up disappointed not because the build takes that long, but because the lead time wasn’t there. Starting early is the single biggest thing you can do to hit your target date.
A custom inground concrete pool in Coffee County typically runs between $60,000 and $150,000, with most residential projects landing in the $70,000 to $100,000 range depending on size, features, and site conditions. Concrete sits at the higher end of the cost spectrum compared to fiberglass or vinyl liner options and that difference is real. What’s also real is that concrete pools don’t require liner replacements every decade, offer unlimited design flexibility, and carry a structural lifespan that can exceed 30 years when built correctly.
Given the cost of living in this area, that’s a significant investment and it should be treated like one. The instinct to go with the lowest quote is understandable, but in a market like Coffee County, the cheapest bid often becomes the most expensive pool once you factor in structural issues, unpermitted work complications, or repairs that shouldn’t have been necessary in the first place. The better question to ask any contractor isn’t “what’s your price?” it’s “what does that price include, what’s the timeline, and can I see what you’ve built locally?”
Yes, and it’s a meaningful part of what we do. A significant number of homes across Coffee County including in communities like Relee are sitting on pools that were built in the 1980s and 1990s. Those pools are now 30 to 40 years old, which means many of them are showing real wear: rough or deteriorating plaster surfaces, cracked or missing tile, outdated coping, and equipment that’s well past its service life. The structure itself may be sound, but the finish and mechanical systems need work.
Renovation covers a wide range: resurfacing and replastering, tile and coping replacement, deck repair or replacement, LED lighting upgrades, new pump and filtration systems, and heater installation. In most cases, a well-executed renovation brings an aging pool back to full performance for significantly less than a full replacement. Fall and winter are the best time to schedule renovation work in South Georgia the pool is less actively used, contractors have more scheduling flexibility, and you’re set up to open a fully refreshed pool when the swim season starts in the spring.
The practical answer is accountability. When you hire a company based in Douglas the same county where you live that company’s reputation is tied to the same community you’re part of. We shop at the same stores, our crews drive the same roads, and our name circulates through the same local networks. In a rural county like Coffee County, word travels fast. A contractor who does poor work or disappears after taking a deposit doesn’t stay anonymous for long.
Regional companies that list Coffee County as one of many service areas on a website are not the same thing as a builder who has spent decades constructing pools specifically in this region. They may not know the Coffee County permit process, the local soil conditions, or the seasonal timing that affects how projects should be planned here. We were built in Douglas, have operated in this county since 2014, and were founded specifically because local families weren’t getting a straight deal from contractors who weren’t truly local. That’s the difference and it’s one you’ll feel from the first conversation to the final walkthrough.
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