We build pools in Kinston, North Carolina, roughly twenty-five miles south of Greenville straight down NC 11 in Lenoir County. Kinston sits on the Neuse River, which is the longest river contained entirely within North Carolina. The town has a long history, a downtown that has been steadily coming back, and a flood record that anyone building here needs to understand.
Two record floods in seventeen years
During Hurricane Floyd in September 1999 the Neuse at Kinston crested at 27.71 feet, then a record, after taking a full week for water to work down from the upper reaches of the basin. The National Weather Service describes disastrous flooding at 27 feet. In October 2016, Hurricane Matthew broke that record, cresting around 28.30 feet. Florence followed in 2018.
That history shaped the town physically. Substantial areas along the river went through flood buyouts and were returned to open ground. It also means flood mapping in Kinston is unusually well understood and unusually consequential, and it is the first thing we check before designing anything.
Neuse basin groundwater
The slow crest at Kinston in 1999 tells you something important about this basin. Water arriving here has travelled a long way through flat Coastal Plain country, and the ground it passes through is saturated for extended periods. Groundwater in the low areas near the river stays high.
Everything we build in this ground gets the same treatment: a hydrostatic relief valve in the pool floor, clean stone rather than native sand for backfill, a dewatering standpipe alongside the shell, and on the wettest lots a raised bond beam so the structure sits less deep into the water table. Well points during excavation where the hole would otherwise fill overnight.
Away from the river, on the higher ground west and south of town, conditions improve substantially and pool construction is more straightforward. The variation across Kinston is large enough that the site walk is not a formality.
Housing stock and access
Kinston has a lot of pre-1970 housing, much of it on older street grids with mature canopy. That is lovely to live in and awkward to build behind. A one-piece fiberglass shell needs a clear delivery route and crane room, and on many of these lots it does not exist. Gunite arrives through a hose and can be built where nothing can be delivered. Vinyl liner panels come in by hand.
There is also a stock of older inground pools here from the sixties, seventies and eighties, and renovation is a large part of what we do in Kinston. The recurring items: liner replacement where the steel wall panels also need repair at the base, replaster on gunite shells, decks that have settled because the original backfill was never compacted in lifts, and equipment that is one and sometimes two generations out of date. See renovation and remodeling.
Two safety items we find on nearly every old Kinston pool
Drain covers that predate the federal Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act standard, and bonding that is partial or absent. Article 680 of the electrical code requires an equipotential bonding grid tying the shell steel or wall panels, deck reinforcement, ladders, rails and equipment together with solid copper. Pools constructed before inspection was routine frequently do not have it. Both items are inexpensive to correct while a pool is already open for other work, and both are genuinely important.
Storm season rule: never drain a pool ahead of a hurricane. In the Neuse floodplain this is the single most reliable way to destroy one. Water weight is what holds the shell in the ground.
What we build
New custom pool design and construction, integrated spas, decks on properly compacted base, and equipment upgrades that on an older Kinston pool are often the highest-return work available.
Permits come through the City of Kinston or Lenoir County. State requirements do not vary anywhere in North Carolina: the 48-inch barrier with self-closing, self-latching gates, compliant drain covers, and the Article 680 bonding grid. Projects costing $40,000 or more require a general contractor license under General Statute 87-1, a threshold that rose from $30,000 on October 1, 2023. No travel charge to Kinston — we are up and down NC 11 through Ayden and Grifton constantly.
What we build
Nearby towns
Questions people ask before they build
Can I build a pool in Kinston if I am near the river?
It depends on where the mapped flood zone falls on your parcel. Some areas carry additional requirements and some carry real restrictions, and after the buyout programs following Floyd and Matthew the mapping here is well documented. We check it before doing any design work.
How high is the water table in Kinston?
It varies a lot across the city. Low areas near the Neuse stay saturated for extended periods, which is why the crest in 1999 took a week to arrive from upstream. Higher ground west and south of town drains much better. That variation is large enough that the answer for your specific lot has to come from a site visit rather than a map.
My pool was built in the 1970s. What should I be worried about?
Two safety items above everything else: whether the main drain cover meets the current federal standard, and whether the electrical bonding grid is complete. Both are common gaps on pools of that era and both are inexpensive to correct during other work. After that, the usual list of finish, deck and equipment.
Should I drain my pool if a hurricane is forecast?
No. An empty pool in saturated ground floats out of the ground, and in the Neuse floodplain the ground will be saturated. Leave the pool full, shut down and protect the equipment where you can, and secure anything loose around the deck.