Hear from Our Customers
When a pool is built correctly designed for your specific lot, engineered for your soil, and managed by one accountable team you end up with something that runs well, looks right, and holds up for decades. What you do not end up with is a list of post-construction problems, a contractor who stopped answering calls, or a permit situation that complicates your next property sale.
In Relee, most residential properties sit on larger rural lots with sandy loam subsoil common to Coffee County’s Lower Coastal Plain. That kind of soil drains fast but can shift under structural loads if it is not properly evaluated before a single shovel hits the ground. A pool built without that site assessment by a contractor who treated your yard like any other yard is a pool that may develop cracks, settling, or drainage issues years down the line. That is a problem that costs real money to fix.
The other thing worth knowing: South Georgia gets roughly eight to nine months of viable swim weather each year. That is not a small thing when you are weighing whether the investment makes sense. A pool in Relee is not a seasonal luxury that sits covered for half the year. It gets used, and it adds real value both to your daily life and to your property. Inground pools in warm-climate markets like this one add an estimated five to eight percent to home value. On a $250,000 Coffee County property, that is $12,500 to $20,000 in documented equity.
We are based in Douglas the Coffee County seat, just down the road from Relee. This is not a regional company dispatching crews from three counties away. When you call with a question during your build, someone local picks up. When something needs to be addressed after the job is done, the same team that built your pool is reachable.
We were founded in 2014 by an owner with more than 30 years of hands-on pool construction experience. He started Deep Waters specifically because he watched too many families across Coffee County including Relee get burned by contractors who took deposits, missed timelines, and left behind work that did not match what was promised. That founding purpose still drives how every project is managed transparently, with one team responsible from start to finish.
We have completed pools throughout Coffee County and the surrounding South Georgia region. If you want to see finished work near your own community before committing to anything, that is a reasonable ask and one we are ready to answer.
It starts with a site evaluation, not a sales pitch. Before any design is finalized, we look at your specific property soil conditions, drainage patterns, utility locations, equipment access, and anything else that could affect how the build goes. For rural Coffee County lots like those in Relee, this step matters more than most contractors let on. Sandy subsoil conditions require real assessment before excavation begins, not assumptions made from a satellite image.
Once the site is evaluated and the design is locked, we pull all required permits through Coffee County’s building and permitting department. Because Relee is unincorporated, there is no city hall involved everything runs through the county, and we handle that process entirely. You do not make trips to the building department or track inspection schedules. That is handled.
From there, excavation typically runs one to three days. Gunite application takes one to two days. Plumbing and electrical run concurrently over the following one to two weeks, and decking takes three to five days to complete. The full build excavation to water runs six to eight weeks for a standard residential pool. That timeline is the result of one coordinated team executing each phase in sequence, not a rotating cast of subcontractors trying to find availability. Every phase is managed by the same crew, on the same schedule, with one person accountable for the result.
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Our builds cover the full scope: site evaluation, custom gunite pool design, permit acquisition through Coffee County, excavation, gunite shell construction, swimming pool plumbing, electrical installation, pool deck installation, and complete project management through final inspection. There are no phases where a subcontractor takes over and the accountability chain breaks down. The same team that designs your pool builds it.
Gunite is the construction method we use on every pool, and for good reason. It is the only method that allows true custom shaping which matters on rural Relee properties where the lot contours, drainage patterns, and outdoor living vision do not fit a pre-manufactured shell. Gunite pools also last 25 to 30 or more years with routine maintenance, compared to vinyl liner pools that need liner replacement every eight to twelve years at a cost of $3,000 to $5,000 per replacement.
On the deck side, Relee properties often have room for more than the minimum larger deck footprints, outdoor living extensions, and design elements that simply are not possible on a tight suburban lot. We design the deck as part of the pool, not as an afterthought, with proper slope for drainage and material choices suited to South Georgia’s heat and humidity. Every completed pool is also fully permitted, inspected, and code-compliant under Georgia state law and Coffee County requirements including barrier fencing and anti-entrapment drain covers so your investment is documented and protected at the time of any future sale.
Yes and because Relee is an unincorporated community, your permit comes from Coffee County, not a city building department. There is no Relee city hall. All residential pool construction permits, including the building permit and a separate electrical permit, are issued through Coffee County’s building and permitting department in Douglas.
Georgia state law requires permits for all new residential pool construction, and a final inspection must be completed before the pool can be filled and used. We handle all of this in-house permit applications, inspection scheduling, and code compliance documentation. You do not navigate the county building department on your own. This matters more than it might seem: an unpermitted pool can create serious complications when you go to sell your property, and it leaves you without legal documentation of the work that was done.
Most custom inground gunite pools in the South Georgia market run somewhere between $55,000 and $100,000 or more, depending on size, shape, depth, deck design, and features like water elements or upgraded equipment. That range is wide because no two properties and no two builds are identical.
For Relee homeowners specifically, the larger lot sizes common to rural Coffee County properties often mean more flexibility in design, which can affect the final number in either direction. More deck space, a larger pool footprint, or added outdoor living features will move the number up. A straightforward build on a well-prepared site with clean access will come in differently than a complex build with significant site challenges. The most honest answer is that you will not know your real number until someone has actually looked at your property and talked through what you want. We do that site evaluation before any design or pricing is finalized so the number you get reflects your actual project, not a guess.
Gunite pneumatically applied concrete is the construction method best suited to the soil and climate conditions found in Coffee County and the surrounding South Georgia region. The Lower Coastal Plain soils in this area tend toward sandy loam compositions with clay subsoil in many locations. Those conditions require a pool shell with structural integrity that can handle soil movement and drainage variation over decades of use. Gunite delivers that.
Beyond structural performance, gunite is the only construction method that allows unlimited shape customization. Unlike fiberglass shells, which come in predetermined shapes and sizes, a gunite pool is built from scratch on your property to fit your specific lot. For a rural Relee homeowner with land to work with, that means a pool designed around your yard’s natural layout not forced into a shape that does not fit. Gunite pools also carry a lifespan of 25 to 30 or more years with proper maintenance, which makes them the most cost-effective option over the full life of the pool.
From excavation to water, a standard residential gunite pool build runs six to eight weeks. Excavation takes one to three days. Gunite application takes one to two days. Plumbing and electrical work run concurrently over one to two weeks. Deck installation takes three to five days. Each phase is sequenced and managed by the same team, which is what keeps the timeline tight.
The six-to-eight-week window assumes a standard build with no significant site complications and normal Coffee County permitting timelines. Permit processing through the county can add time before excavation begins, which is why starting the planning conversation early matters. If you are hoping to be swimming by early summer, the winter months January through March are when most South Georgia homeowners start the process. We handle the Coffee County permit applications as soon as the design is finalized, so that clock starts as early as possible.
This is one of the most important questions you can ask a pool builder before signing anything, and the honest answer depends entirely on how the company is structured. When a pool is built by a general contractor who subcontracts every phase of the work, post-construction accountability gets complicated fast. Each subcontractor points at the others, and the homeowner ends up in the middle with no clear party responsible.
We build every pool with one team managing and executing all phases design, excavation, gunite, plumbing, electrical, and decking. That means if something needs to be addressed after the pool is complete, there is one number to call and one company responsible. We are also based in Douglas, the Coffee County seat, which means we are not a distant operation with no local presence. In a rural community like Relee, where contractor accountability matters and options are more limited than in a major metro, that local presence and single-team structure is a real, practical protection for your investment.
The best time to start the process meaning the design conversation and permit application is late fall through early spring. January, February, and March are peak planning months for South Georgia pool buyers, and for good reason: pools permitted and started in late winter are typically complete and ready to use by early summer, which is when Coffee County temperatures are already pushing well past 90 degrees.
Construction itself can proceed in most Coffee County weather conditions. Hard freezes are rare and brief in this part of South Georgia, so winter construction is generally not a weather obstacle. Summer thunderstorm activity can cause brief delays during the build, but an experienced contractor accounts for that in the schedule. If anything, fall and early winter are underrated times to start: fewer buyers are actively in the market, which can mean better scheduling availability and more focused attention on your project. The South Georgia swim season runs roughly eight to nine months, so a pool completed by May is one you will be using through October and that is a lot of return on the investment.
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