Hear from Our Customers
Waycross doesn’t get a short swim season. From April through October and well into the shoulder months on either side your backyard is where the heat gets managed. A pool built right means you’re actually using it, not chasing down a contractor about a crack in the shell or a filtration system that keeps tripping out.
The soil around Waycross is not the red clay you’d find up near Macon or Atlanta. You’re in the Coastal Plain, with deep, layered soils that sit close to the water table in certain parts of Ware County especially the closer you get to the Okefenokee watershed. A builder who hasn’t worked in this environment doesn’t know what they’re walking into until they’re already in your yard. That’s when the surprises start. A builder who has worked here knows how to read the site before the excavator ever shows up.
A properly built gunite pool also does something a fiberglass shell can’t: it lasts. We’re talking 25 to 30-plus years before you’re looking at anything beyond routine resurfacing. In a market where the median home value in Waycross runs in the $150,000 to $195,000 range, a quality pool adds real equity not just a feature, but a documented improvement that shows up when you sell. That’s the kind of return that makes sense for a homeowner who’s thinking long-term.
We founded Deep Waters Pools in 2014 out of Douglas about 45 miles up the road from Waycross because South Georgia families kept getting burned by contractors who took deposits, disappeared, and left half-finished pools sitting in backyards from Coffee County to Ware County. That experience shaped everything we do.
We handle your entire build design, excavation, gunite shell, plumbing, electrical, and deck so there’s never a question about who’s responsible when something needs attention. No rotating cast of subcontractors with their own schedules and their own reasons for not showing up this week.
If you’re in Cherokee Heights, Central Estates, or anywhere else in the Waycross area, you’re in the region we were built to serve. Our familiarity with local soil conditions, the permit process through the City of Waycross, and what it actually takes to build a pool in this part of Georgia that’s not something you pick up from a brochure. We’ve been doing this work in Waycross and Ware County long enough to know what works and what doesn’t.
It starts with a site evaluation before any money changes hands. We assess your property for soil conditions, drainage, utility locations, and access routes for equipment. In parts of Waycross and Ware County where groundwater sits higher due to proximity to the Okefenokee watershed, this step matters more than most builders let on. What we find during the evaluation shapes the design and what gets quoted after it is what you actually pay.
Once the design is finalized, we handle every permit required by the City of Waycross the building permit, the electrical permit, and compliance with the setback requirements under Zoning Section 607. You don’t call the planning office. You don’t track inspection schedules. That’s handled in-house, start to finish.
Construction runs in a clear sequence: excavation, steel reinforcement, gunite shell application, plumbing and filtration installation, electrical, and deck. For a standard residential build, that’s a 6 to 8 week process from ground-breaking to water. The reason that timeline holds is because one team is running the entire job not three separate subcontractors trying to coordinate around each other’s schedules. When you’re ready to swim, you’re not waiting on someone else’s calendar.
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Every pool we build includes the full scope of construction site evaluation, custom design, permit acquisition, excavation, gunite shell, swimming pool plumbing, electrical installation, and pool deck installation. There’s no menu of partial services where you’re responsible for coordinating the parts we don’t handle. The whole build is managed under one roof, by one team, with one point of contact from the first site visit to the day you fill it.
The deck conversation matters more in Waycross’s climate than people expect. South Georgia summers are hard on surfaces intense heat, heavy afternoon storms, and humidity that doesn’t let up. The deck material you choose needs to handle all of it without becoming a slip hazard or a surface that scorches bare feet by noon. Concrete, pavers, and travertine each perform differently in this environment, and the right choice depends on your specific yard, your sun exposure, and how you plan to use the space. That’s a conversation that happens during design, not after the shell is already in the ground.
New pool project management keeping the build on schedule, coordinating inspections, and making sure every phase is completed before the next one starts is built into how we operate. It’s not an add-on. In a city like Waycross, where your neighbors will notice if a construction project drags on through the summer, a tightly managed build isn’t just convenient. It’s the standard.
Yes pool construction within Waycross city limits requires a building permit through the City of Waycross Community Development and Improvement department, along with a separate electrical permit for all pool-related wiring. Your pool also has to comply with setback requirements under Zoning Section 607, which governs accessory structures. The city doesn’t post its zoning map online, so homeowners who try to research this on their own usually end up calling the planning office directly and working through it piece by piece.
We handle all of this in-house. That means the building permit, the electrical permit, inspection scheduling, and the final certificate of occupancy before the water goes in. You don’t manage any of it. The pool you receive at the end is fully permitted, fully inspected, and documented which matters when you eventually sell your home and a buyer’s inspector asks for the paperwork.
For a standard residential gunite pool, the construction timeline runs 6 to 8 weeks from excavation to water. That’s not a best-case estimate it’s the result of running the entire build with one coordinated team rather than scheduling around multiple subcontractors who each have their own availability and their own delays.
The planning phase site evaluation, design, and permitting happens before construction starts, so by the time the excavator arrives, everything is already in order. If you’re planning to swim by summer, the window to start that process is January through March. Homeowners who start in the fall or early winter tend to get priority scheduling and more attention during the build, since the peak construction rush hasn’t started yet. In a market with Waycross’s long swim season, every week of delay costs you real pool time which is exactly why the timeline matters.
Waycross sits in Georgia’s Coastal Plain, where the soils are classified as Ultisols deep, layered, clay-rich soils that behave very differently from the red clay found in Georgia’s Piedmont region. In parts of Ware County, particularly in areas closer to the Okefenokee watershed, the water table can sit higher than expected depending on the specific lot and its drainage characteristics. That affects excavation, shell construction, and how hydrostatic pressure is managed once the pool is in the ground.
A pool built without accounting for local groundwater conditions can develop structural problems that don’t show up until year two or three and by then, the contractor is long gone. We assess these conditions during the site evaluation, before design is finalized and before a dollar is spent on construction. That’s not a precaution. It’s just how building in this environment has to work.
Fiberglass pools are pre-manufactured shells. They come in fixed shapes and sizes determined by the manufacturer, and they get set into your yard whether or not that shape fits your property, your drainage situation, or how your family actually uses a pool. Gunite is built in place steel reinforcement, then a concrete mix applied under pressure in exactly the shape, depth, and configuration your specific yard and your specific needs require.
In Waycross’s climate, where pool use runs close to nine months a year, the difference in longevity matters. A properly built gunite pool lasts 25 to 30-plus years before needing anything beyond routine resurfacing. Fiberglass shells typically run 15 to 25 years before significant repairs or replacement become necessary. For a Waycross homeowner making a long-term investment in a property where the median home value is in the $150,000 to $195,000 range, building something that lasts and holds its value is the financially sound choice.
A mid-range custom inground gunite pool typically runs $55,000 to $100,000 depending on size, features, and site conditions. Larger or more complex builds with custom water features, upgraded decking, or specialty finishes can exceed that range. That’s not a number to gloss over, and any builder who won’t give you a straight answer about cost before you’ve signed anything is worth being skeptical of.
In Waycross, where the median household income sits around $38,000, this is a significant investment and that’s exactly why the permitting, the site evaluation, and the in-house project management matter as much as they do. A pool built correctly, with proper documentation, adds an estimated 5 to 8% to your home’s value in a warm-climate market like South Georgia. On a $175,000 Waycross home, that’s real equity. A pool built by a contractor who cut corners on materials or skipped inspections is not an asset it’s a problem that surfaces the next time someone looks at your property records.
Yes. We serve the broader Waycross area, including properties throughout Ware County and the surrounding rural communities that look to Waycross as their regional hub. Whether your property is within Waycross city limits or out in the county, the permitting process, the soil conditions, and the construction approach are handled the same way assessed for your specific site before anything is designed or quoted.
Ware County properties outside city limits fall under county jurisdiction rather than the City of Waycross’s planning office, which can change the specific permit requirements and setback rules that apply. We’re familiar with both processes and manage whichever applies to your property. If you’re in Waresboro, out along one of the county roads, or anywhere else in the Ware County area, the site evaluation is the starting point and it happens before any financial commitment is made on your end.
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