Gene Sarazen Drive Lots Deserve Genuinely Custom Design
Each of Sarazen’s Corner’s 21 estate lots carries wooded setbacks, creek adjacency on one side, and golf-course sightlines on the other. A pool that ignores those conditions ends up fighting the property rather than working with it. Sandals Luxury Pools opens every project with a thorough site read, mapping topography, mature tree drip lines, existing drainage patterns, and the specific privacy corridor a Duncan Creek-adjacent lot provides. The result is a custom pool blueprint drawn around your actual yard, not a catalog shape dropped onto a survey plat. Nearby clients in Hoschton and the broader Chateau Elan corridor have relied on this site-first methodology for over a decade.
Your Dream Pool Awaits
How Gunite Construction Performs on Wooded Creek Lots
Creek-adjacent parcels like those along Gene Sarazen Drive can carry elevated soil moisture and subtle grade variation, particularly closer to Duncan Creek. Gunite pool construction handles those conditions well because the shotcrete shell is formed in place against the ground rather than lowered in as a prefabricated unit, giving engineers precise control over shell thickness, reinforcement placement, and drainage management from the excavation phase forward. Sandals follows a six-step build sequence, from form and excavation through shotcrete, tile and stone setting, deck and pebble finish, fill and startup, and final clean-up, so structural integrity is verified at every stage before the next begins.
Chateau Elan HOA Approval and Gwinnett County Permits
Sarazen’s Corner properties sit within the Chateau Elan Estates community, which means any exterior modification requires Architectural Review Committee approval before ground breaks. Separately, Gwinnett County Planning and Development requires a Swimming Pool Location Plan verifying rear-yard setbacks, easement clearances, and, for homes on septic systems, an Environmental Health sign-off confirming the pool placement maintains at least the required distance from the tank and drain field. Sandals Luxury Pools manages both tracks concurrently, preparing the location plan documentation and coordinating the HOA submission so the two approval processes run in parallel rather than sequentially, reducing the delay between signed contract and first excavation day.
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Spillover Spas and Water Features for Evening Entertainers
Sarazen’s Corner homeowners frequently host against a backdrop of wooded creek views and fairway glimpses, making the visual quality of the pool surround as important as the water itself. Sandals designs spillover spas that flow into the main pool with a clean hydraulic arc rather than a trickle, creating audible and visual movement after dark that suits the natural setting. Beyond the spa, the team offers natural waterfalls, sheer descents, deck jets, and fire-and-water bowls, all specifiable in a single design session. Because every feature is built by the same crew under one contract, water lines, lighting conduit, and automation wiring are roughed in during shell construction rather than added as afterthoughts.
Our extensive pool installation process ensures that you save time, money, and the headache of hiring multiple contractors. This approach works well, regardless of the project size. Take a look at the process!
Outdoor Kitchens and Hardscapes Sized for Estate Lots
A Sarazen’s Corner lot offering more than an acre of buildable area gives the design team room to create a full outdoor living environment rather than a pool with a narrow strip of coping. Sandals builds outdoor kitchens, outdoor fireplaces, fire pits, retaining walls, and custom patios as integrated components of the same project. Material selections, including natural stone, brick, and architectural accents, are chosen to complement the European and craftsman architectural styles common throughout Chateau Elan, so the hardscape reads as a designed extension of the home rather than a contractor add-on bolted to the perimeter. Financing through Lyon Financial makes a full-scope project budget more manageable from the outset.
Pool Maintenance and Seasonal Care After Your Build
North Georgia’s swim season stretches well beyond summer, and a properly maintained pool inside a gated community like Chateau Elan stays cleaner and performs longer with scheduled professional attention. Sandals provides pool cleaning services, pool maintenance, repair, inspection, and both seasonal opening and closing services throughout the area. Having the same contractor who built the pool handle its care means any equipment quirk or surface issue is diagnosed by someone with direct knowledge of the shell, plumbing layout, and automation system rather than a technician seeing the pool for the first time. Clients near Braselton can schedule routine visits without long service windows.
Creek proximity means the pool location plan submitted to Gwinnett County Planning and Development must account for stream buffer setbacks, drainage easements, and potentially elevated soil moisture near the bank. Sandals conducts a thorough site assessment before design begins, mapping the buffer line and grading toward the creek so excavation does not compromise the bank. The gunite shell is then positioned and reinforced to suit those specific site conditions.
Can Sandals handle the Chateau Elan ARC submission alongside the Gwinnett County permit application?
Yes, and managing both at once is standard practice for Sarazen’s Corner projects. The Chateau Elan Architectural Review Committee and Gwinnett County Planning and Development run on separate timelines and require different documentation. Sandals prepares the ARC package, which typically includes design renderings and material specifications, while simultaneously filing the Swimming Pool Location Plan with the county, keeping the overall schedule from doubling due to sequential processing.
Infinity-edge, or negative-edge, pools are particularly well-suited to lots with meaningful grade change and a visual horizon to anchor. Sarazen’s Corner properties overlooking the Woodlands championship course provide exactly that sightline. Sandals engineers the catch basin and recirculation system into the original shell plan, ensuring the overflow functions quietly and efficiently rather than creating noise or splash near the golf-side property line.
Gwinnett County Environmental Health must review and approve the pool’s proposed location before a building permit can be issued for homes served by a private septic system. The county requires the pool to be placed at least ten feet from the septic tank and its drain field. Sandals obtains site survey information early in the design process so the pool footprint is drafted around those constraints from the start, avoiding late redesigns after the location plan is submitted.
From the point permits and ARC approval are in hand, most custom gunite builds in this area run roughly twelve to sixteen weeks through final startup, depending on design complexity, finish selections, and weather during shotcrete and deck curing. Projects that include a spillover spa, outdoor kitchen, retaining wall, and water features generally sit toward the longer end of that range. Sandals provides a project timeline at the contract stage so scheduling around Chateau Elan events or seasonal plans is straightforward.
A site walkthrough with a Sandals designer is the right first step. The team maps your lot boundaries, existing tree locations, the Duncan Creek buffer line, and any easements that shape where a pool, spa, and hardscape can realistically go. From that single visit, Sandals can present a conceptual layout and preliminary scope, giving you a clear picture of what is achievable before any formal design or permitting fees are committed.
Within a golf-course community like Chateau Elan, where resort-style living is the primary draw, a well-executed private pool and outdoor living area positions a home at the upper end of the Sarazen’s Corner resale range. Buyers shopping at the price point these 21 estate lots command typically expect a finished outdoor environment, and properties that already deliver it tend to move faster than those offering only the potential. A cohesive Sandals build, pool, spa, kitchen, and stonework, adds measurable appeal to that buyer profile.
Pool heater installation is a standard offering, and it makes meaningful sense for this area. Braselton’s climate allows comfortable swimming well into October and again from late February onward with a properly sized heater. Gas and heat-pump options are available; the right choice depends on your utility setup and how often you expect to use the pool outside peak summer. Sandals sizes and specifies the heater during the design phase so plumbing and electrical rough-ins are handled during original construction rather than as a retrofit.
For a property used heavily for evening entertaining, pool lighting and pool automation arguably deliver more visible return than almost any other upgrade. Programmable LED color lighting makes the pool the centerpiece of an outdoor gathering after dark, while automation lets you adjust temperature, jets, water features, and lighting from a phone before guests arrive. Both are far simpler to integrate during the original build, when conduit and wiring are already roughed in through the shell and deck.
A pool inspection is the right starting point. Sandals evaluates the shell for structural cracks, checks plumbing integrity, inspects the equipment pad, and assesses the finish and coping condition. From that report, the team presents a clear repair-versus-renovation recommendation with honest cost framing for both paths, so you are making a decision grounded in the actual condition of the pool rather than a guess. Many resale shells in this community are sound structurally and benefit most from resurfacing, new coping, and equipment upgrades rather than full reconstruction.
