PIERCE
LAND
CLEARING
The oak country between Burnet and Liberty Hill is quietly filling with people who want five acres and a tank on it. We are already here: pond dirt work photographed in Bertram itself, documented builds on both sides of town.
Bertram sits in the sandy loam oak country on the granite-limestone seam, and the pond conversation here is about finding the clay under the sand.
Bertram ground grows post oaks like a crop because the sandy loam drains, and what is good for oaks is thirsty for ponds. A basin cut in pure loam will take water in all summer and give it straight back.
The pond dirt work photographed above is from Bertram ground itself, and finding the seal is what the site walk is for.
The draws that feed toward the San Gabriel headwaters carry clay lenses under the loam, and a pond sited on one holds beautifully. Where the lens runs thin, sodium bentonite worked into the basin closes it up, priced as a line item you see before we start.
Between the two, nearly every Bertram tract has a pond in it somewhere.
Small town, straightforward process. Here is how a Bertram pond goes from a phone call to a tank holding water.
Text or call with pictures of the spot and what you have in mind. Because the price list is published, we can give you an honest range on the first call, then put a boot on the ground to firm it up.
Around Bertram the walk sorts granite sand from honest clay, because Oatmeal Creek country carries both. We read the draw, feel what the soil does in your hand, and follow the watershed feeding the spot. It is a short, unhurried visit that ends with a straight answer: where the pond wants to sit, what the ground will and will not do, and what the whole thing costs in machine days.
You get one page with real numbers on it. Excavation, dam construction, spillway, transport, and any flagged contingency, all in plain terms. No allowances that balloon later, no asterisks doing heavy lifting.
Mobilization is usually measured in weeks, not months. The dozer and excavator arrive on a lowboy, we stage at the site, and from that morning the build runs continuously until the pond is done.
The dig itself runs two to five days on most builds. Topsoil is saved for the banks, the core trench goes in first, and the dam is built the slow, right way, in compacted layers rather than one loose push. You will see the pond take shape daily.
We do not leave until you have walked the finished pond with us. The dam, the spillway, the bank grades, the topsoil dressing, all of it inspected against what was promised, and corrected on the spot if it falls short.
Bertram ponds fill on the same fronts that green up the oat fields, a few serious storms a season. A basin sized to its draw catches them and holds; the work in between is yours and it is small. Grass on the dam before the first big rain, a look at the spillway after each storm, and patience while the watershed does what it has always done.
Published, not hidden behind a form. Prices and build times are based on 6 feet of depth at center with a 4:1 bank.
| Pond Size | Starting Price at 6 ft depth, 4:1 bank | Build Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1/4 acre | from $12,300 | 2 to 3 days |
| 1/2 acre | from $19,200 | 3 to 4 days |
| 3/4 acre | from $23,300 | 4 to 5 days |
| 1 acre | from $27,000 | 5 to 6 days |
| 1 1/4 acre | from $30,400 | 6 to 7 days |
| 1 1/2 acre | from $33,800 | 7 to 8 days |
| 1 3/4 acre | from $36,800 | 8 to 9 days |
| 2 acre | from $39,500 | 9 to 10 days |
Bertram builds run the published list once the seal question is answered. Bentonite, when the basin needs it, is a flagged materials line. Rock is rarer here than in Burnet proper but gets the same by-the-day honesty when it appears.
Size it, tell us what to do with the dirt, then draw the pond right on a photo of your land. Your estimate comes back by email, along with a preview of the finished water.
We would rather explain the number before you sign than after. This is the whole anatomy of a pond quote.
The number includes the pond, whole and finished: design against the watershed, staking, topsoil stripped and banked, core trench, compacted-lift dam, cut spillway, finish-graded slopes, and dressed banks. Getting the iron to your gate and the closing walkthrough are in there too.
Hammer time if the dig finds granite that will not rip, flagged before we start and billed by the day. Clay borrow or bentonite when a sandy vein crosses the basin, decided at design. Cedar clearing at published day rates when the site needs it, and the spoil almost always stays right on the property, shaped into the landscape.
Real ponds, real day counts, photographed on site.
Pond dirt work, Bertram
Burnet, 15 min west: 4 days
Liberty Hill, 15 min east: 2 days
Bentonite, the sandy loam answer
The finished product: water that staysFull process, statewide services, and the build standard: our Texas pond construction page.
Bertram still runs cattle, and a stock tank here is equipment, not decoration. That means placement where the pasture drains, a 5:1 wade-in bank that does not bog calves, and depth that carries the herd through a dry August. We build tanks that work for a living, and the fancy stuff is optional.
Fifteen minutes west sits our four day Burnet build; fifteen minutes east, our two day Liberty Hill build with its finished-and-full photo. Bertram quotes get written between two proofs, on ground we have already moved, which is about as un-theoretical as pond pricing gets.
Highway 29 is turning into an acreage corridor from Georgetown to Burnet, and Bertram is the middle of it. The tracts selling now are the sandy oak country above, and the buyers all want the same three things: a gate, a barn, and water. We are the third one.
Half the ground around Bertram is decomposed granite that drinks water, the other half is clay that holds it, and plenty of properties own both within a hundred feet. The build turns on which one your basin sits in. Where the clay is thin we borrow it from elsewhere on the place or blend bentonite, and the pond gets engineered to hold before it is asked to.
A pond that matches its watershed fills in a storm season and stays honest year round. One dug for the dream instead of the draw sits low for years. We would rather hand you a half acre that rides full through a Bertram summer than an acre and a half of mud flat with your name on it.
Evaporation out here takes feet off shallow water and barely dents deep water. Eight feet or more at center is the rule we build to: cool refuge for fish, stock water into the driest months, and shallows too small for the weeds to colonize. Depth is bought once and pays every summer.
The dam wants grass immediately, before the first storm finds bare dirt. The water wants its residents in order: minnows and bluegill to establish the forage base, bass a season later. Follow the order and a Bertram pond fishes better than a lease by its third year.
Pond sites here usually start as cedar thicket, and we start as the clearing crew that removes it. Brush grubbed or mulched clean, oaks left standing with their root zones unrutted, and the finished grade dressed with saved topsoil. The pond ends up looking like the land intended it.
When the dirt work is done you can keep the same crew on the finish work. These four add-ons turn a new basin into a finished pond.
Seeding and erosion matting close every build, because a bare dam and a Bertram thunderstorm are a bad pairing. Grass established early is what carries a new dam through its first spring intact and mowable by summer.
A bottom diffuser keeps pond water moving and oxygenated through the hot months, heading off the algae and the fish kills that follow stale water. On a pond near the house, a fountain does the same job with more style.
Mention a dock on the site walk and it costs almost nothing extra to prepare: we shape the shoreline shelf and set the approach grade while the machines are already in the dirt. The dock that follows sits level over real depth.
Stock forage first, minnows and bluegill, then add bass the next season. The order builds a food chain that sustains itself, and a Bertram pond stocked patiently gives you bank fishing that beats a weekend haul to Buchanan.
The team with Pierce Land Clearing were great to work with. Taylor was prompt to respond, took the time to help me understand the process and options and got me scheduled for a date for service. Bobby our operator was incredibly nice.
Daniel W, Google review
Pierce Land Clearing just finished a 2 day job forestry mulching my 10 acre lot. Most of the job consisted of making dead pines and oaks, standing and fallen, disappear.
Grace Dacy, Google review
I cannot say enough good things about my experience working with Pierce Land Clearing. We have a large piece of very heavily wooded and overgrown property and their equipment was able to clear a clean, wide road and open several acres.
Jenna Kelly-Landes, Google review
Learn these six and you can grade any pond quote you are handed, including ours.
The level at the spillway lip, the most water the pond holds day to day. A Bertram tank at full pool through August is the whole goal.
Where the dam dirt comes from. On a well designed pond it is the basin itself, so every yard dug does double duty.
One acre of water a foot deep, about 326,000 gallons. The unit that decides whether a stock pond needs a state permit.
Saving the living top layer before the dig and dressing it back over the banks after, so grass takes the first season.
Clay you can roll into a ribbon in your hand. The soil that seals a pond, and the first thing we look for on the walk.
Texan for a working pond built to water cattle. Usually smaller, always practical, and built with the same dam discipline.
Both documented builds and every neighbor town, minutes away.
Sited on a clay lens, yes, and the draws here have them. Where the lens runs thin, bentonite worked into the basin does the sealing. Pure loam with no help will not hold, which is why we test before we dig, not after.
The published list: quarter acre from $12,300 at 6 feet on a 4:1 bank, with a 5:1 cattle bank costing a bit more dirt, and the calculator shows exactly how much. Bentonite, when needed, is a flagged line item.
Fifteen minutes in either direction: the four day Burnet build west, the two day Liberty Hill build east, both photographed on their own pages. Bertram dirt work is pictured right on this one.
A 5:1 on the watering side. Calves walk in instead of bogging, the bank grasses easier, and the calculator shows the dirt trade against a steeper build.
Ag tanks in Burnet County, essentially never. San Gabriel headwater draws get a floodplain glance on the walk, and that is usually the end of it.
Yes. Clearing crews already work the 29 corridor weekly: cedar out, roots grubbed, tank dug, dam grassed, one bill.
Send photos and a rough size. We will find the clay under your loam and quote the tank between two builds we have already finished.