PIERCE
LAND
CLEARING
We build ponds and stock tanks across Kendall County, on Glen Rose limestone where holding water is an engineering question before it is a landscaping one. We answer that from experience on this ground rather than optimism, and we tell you the moment we know more.
Kendall County is Glen Rose limestone with thin, stony soil over it and Cibolo Creek cutting through the middle. Some of it holds water without help. A good deal of it will not. The difference is a clay seam nobody can see from the surface, so what we go on is having dug in this ground before and knowing what the ponds we have built nearby did once they were open.
Glen Rose limestone is layered and jointed, and the soil over it around Boerne is often less than a foot deep. Cut a basin into that without knowing what is beneath it and you may have built an expensive recharge feature rather than a pond.
What we bring instead of a promise is the experience of having dug in this ground before. We know how the local limestone behaves and what the ponds we have built nearby did once they were open. If your site holds on its own clay you are close to chart price. If it does not, the fix is a hauled and keyed clay blanket, a bentonite treatment worked into the basin, or a synthetic liner on sites that justify it.
Whichever it is, it appears on the quote as a line item before you agree to anything. The failure mode we see most often on this ground is somebody else digging first, discovering the leak after the first rain, and coming back with a change order.
Kendall County terrain is steep enough to deliver real runoff to a well sited basin, so a Boerne pond that is placed on the right draw fills far faster than flat country does. Siting is most of the work, and it is free if it happens before the machines arrive.
Much of what we build here serves places rather than herds: Cordillera and the ranchettes west toward Comfort, properties where the pond is the view from the house and the reason the back forty gets used. That changes bank shape, where we put the deep end, and how the edge meets the oaks.
Working ground still exists out here too, and a stock tank that holds through a Kendall County August is worth more than any improvement you can put on a barn.
A Kendall County pond runs in a fixed order, and the first step decides whether the rest is worth doing.
It starts with photos of the site and a rough idea of size. We answer with a same-day ballpark off the published price list, and if the number works for you, we schedule the site walk. No sales funnel, just a conversation.
Your first number comes over the phone, from having built water in this county rather than from a form. Once you approve the estimate we come walk it with you. On this ground we are reading depth to limestone, whether a clay seam exists and how continuous it is, and where runoff actually comes from when it rains hard. We also look at what needs clearing and whether a loaded truck can reach the spot. You get a straight answer from that walk, including the unwelcome one when a site needs sealing or is not worth building on.
The quote reads like a plan, not a mystery: dig, dam, spillway, and any contingency for rock, each priced in machine days. If clearing is needed first, it is on the same sheet at our published day rates. What is written is what you pay.
Within a few weeks of signing, the lowboy delivers the iron. All we need from you is gate access wide enough for the machines and somewhere to drop the trailer. Everything else is on us.
Most ponds take two to five working days. The sequence never changes: strip and save the topsoil, cut the core trench, raise the dam in thin compacted lifts, shape the basin. Watch as much of it as you like from outside the swing radius.
The build ends with a walkthrough, not an invoice. Dam, spillway, slopes, and dressed banks, checked against the quote with you standing there. Anything off gets fixed before the lowboy is loaded.
Kendall County terrain sheds water fast, so a well sited pond here can fill in a single wet stretch rather than over a season. We will not give you a date, because Hill Country rain arrives in feast or famine. What we control is the catchment, and we size the watershed feeding your basin so it is collecting real runoff rather than waiting on rain that lands directly in it.
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 |
Prices are based on 6 feet of depth at center with a 4:1 bank. Around Boerne the two variables that move a quote are rock, meaning how much of the basin is excavation in competent limestone rather than soil, and sealing, meaning whether the site needs clay hauled in or a bentonite treatment to hold a pool. Rock we can usually judge from the area and the jobs we have done nearby. Sealing sometimes only shows itself once the basin is open. Either way you get the number as soon as we honestly have it, in writing, and never buried in a final invoice.
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.
Every quote we write splits the same honest way. Here is what is inside the number and what gets flagged separately.
Every quote covers the complete pond: watershed-matched siting, staking, saved topsoil, a true core trench, a dam raised in compacted lifts, a shaped spillway, mowable slope finishes, and banks dressed with the topsoil we saved. Transport of the machines is included, as is the final walkthrough.
Two things move a Boerne number, and we price each one the moment we can honestly price it. Rock: how much of the basin is excavation in competent Glen Rose limestone instead of soil, which is slower and harder on equipment. Sealing: whether the site holds on its own clay or needs a hauled clay blanket, a bentonite treatment, or a liner. Each becomes a line item the moment we can price it honestly, whether that is before the dig, during it, or after on a site that is genuinely questionable.
Real ponds, real day counts, photographed on site. These were built north of here on the same limestone, and the labels name where each one actually is.
Dam work on a Burnet County build
Half acre pond, Lampasas
Dam graded on limestone ground, LampasasFull process, statewide services, and the build standard: our Texas pond construction page.
Most Kendall County pond sites need cedar and brush off the basin and the dam footprint before anything can dig, and on this ground that is often the larger job. We do both, so there is one mobilization, one schedule, and one bill instead of a clearing contractor and a dirt contractor blaming each other for the delay.
Kendall County gets around thirty three inches a year and loses a great deal of it to evaporation in a Hill Country summer. Six feet at center is where our pricing starts. Eight or more is what we recommend here whenever the budget allows, because deeper water stays cooler, grows fewer weeds, and is still there in a dry year when the shallow ponds up the road are mud.
Parts of Kendall County sit over the Edwards recharge zone, and rules about what can be done over it are worth knowing before a machine moves dirt rather than after. We flag whether your site is affected when we quote and tell you what to verify with the county and the state. We would rather raise it early than have you find out late.
Every dam we build gets keyed into competent material, compacted in lifts rather than pushed into place, and fitted with an emergency spillway sized for what this country actually does with a hard rain. Cibolo Creek drains fast. A dam built for gentle weather is a dam you rebuild.
Dependable water is the difference between running stock through a dry Kendall County August and hauling it. Depth buys that, which is why we push past the six foot entry point wherever the budget allows.
Surface water is the strongest single improvement on a wildlife property here. Sited well it concentrates game, supports a wildlife management valuation, and holds animals on your ground instead of the neighbor.
A great many Boerne ponds exist because somebody wanted water in front of the house. That is a legitimate reason and we design for it: bank shape, where the deep end goes, how the edge meets the oaks, where the evening light lands. Decided before the machines arrive, those cost nothing extra.
Reliable surface water on Hill Country limestone is scarce, and buyers in this county know the difference between a pond and a wet weather hole. It is a permanent improvement in a market where acreage with a view is not.
A pond is dirt work first, but it does not have to end there. One call covers everything from grass on the dam to fish in the water.
Bare banks on thin limestone soil wash the first time it storms, so we seed and stabilize what we disturb, matching the mix to shallow ground rather than throwing out generic pasture seed.
Aeration earns its keep in Hill Country heat. Moving water stays cooler, holds oxygen through August, and resists the bloom that turns a clear pond green by midsummer. Conduit is far cheaper roughed in while the basin is open.
Docks and hardened access get planned before the basin closes so footings sit on competent material. On limestone sites there is often good rock exactly where you want to anchor, which is worth using.
Stocking comes after the pond is holding and the water has settled. We will tell you what actually thrives in Hill Country water and how long to wait before putting fish into a new basin.
Hiring them to clear a piece of land on which we eventually want to build our future home was one of the best decisions I have made. First and foremost, the quality of their work is excellent. Second, these guys do not skimp.
Charles Schroeder, Google review
A great investment for our property. Showed up exactly when Preston said he would, worked hard all day long without a break with a beast of a machine. He had a very good understanding of what I wanted to do, and did it. The results are fantastic.
Karl Wendler, Google review
These guys are great! We booked a date and they showed up on time and went straight to work. Taylor, the owner, answered all of my text messages promptly. I have five acres of very dense elm and oak trees.
alan baldree, Google review
The site walk comes with vocabulary. Here is what the crew means when they say it.
Every acre of ground that sheds rain toward your pond. It, not the hole, decides how fast you get water.
The water level at the bottom of the spillway, the highest the pond is designed to hold day to day.
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.
We build ponds across the Hill Country and Central Texas.
A quarter acre pond starts at $12,300, a half acre at $19,200, and a full acre at $27,000, based on six feet of depth at center with a 4:1 bank. Minimum job is $8,000. In Kendall County the two things that move that number are rock and sealing, and each is quoted the moment we can honestly price it rather than estimated.
Some Boerne sites will and some will not, and nobody can tell you which from the road, ourselves included. What we go on is having dug this limestone before and knowing what the ponds we built nearby did once they were open. If your ground holds on its own clay you are near chart price. If it does not, we price a clay liner, a bentonite treatment, or a synthetic liner as soon as we know.
Parts of Kendall County are, and it is worth establishing before you dig rather than after. We flag it when we quote and tell you what to confirm with the county and the state. We are pond builders, not your regulatory advisor, so we raise it early and point you at who can answer it definitively.
On this ground we usually do. Excavating competent limestone is slower and harder on machines than moving soil, so the day count rises. We tell you what we found and what it changes before we carry on, rather than presenting it at the end.
Yes, and on most Kendall County sites that is the first real work. Cedar and brush have to come off the basin and dam footprint before a track hoe is useful. One company doing both means one mobilization and a schedule somebody actually owns.
Pricing starts at six feet at center. On this ground we usually recommend eight or more when the budget allows, because Hill Country evaporation is punishing and depth is what carries a pond through a dry summer. The tool on this page shows exactly what the extra depth costs.
A quarter acre pond runs about two to three days and a two acre build nine to ten, with rock adding days we will name up front. Filling depends on rain, and Hill Country rain is feast or famine, so we size the catchment feeding the pond rather than promising you a date.
Frequently, and it is a common Kendall County call. We drain what is left, find where the water is going, and treat it, whether that is keying in a clay blanket, working bentonite into the leak zone, or rebuilding a dam that was never keyed properly. If a site is not worth saving we will say so.
Send photos or a pin on the spot you have in mind and we will come back with a range, usually the same day. If the ground turns out to need sealing, you hear the number as soon as we have it rather than at the end. Free site walk across Kendall County and the surrounding Hill Country.