PIERCE
LAND
CLEARING
Caldwell sits between the post oak country and the Brazos bottoms. Two very different soils inside one county, and the pond you get depends on which one you are standing on.
Often yes, and better the closer you get to the river. Burleson County runs from post oak sand in the west to heavy Brazos bottom clay in the east.
The eastern side of Burleson County, running down toward the Brazos, carries heavy alluvial clay laid down by the river over a very long time. It is some of the best pond soil in this part of Texas. Compacted as the basin is cut, it seals itself completely.
On that ground there is normally no sealing line item at all, the chart prices stand, and the main thing to get right is where the pond sits relative to how the bottom floods. Older tanks down there have been holding water for generations without anybody doing anything clever.
Move west and north from Caldwell and the ground lightens into Post Oak Savannah: sandy loam over a clay subsoil. Sand will not seal a basin, so out there the question becomes how deep you have to dig before you reach clay worth building on.
It is the same county and a completely different job. That is why we dig a test pit before quoting rather than assuming. Where the clay is shallow the work is straightforward; where the sand runs deep, capping the basin is a real cost and you will see it in writing.
Most people have never had a tank built and do not know what the week looks like. Here is the whole thing, from the first call to the day it starts holding water.
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.
We walk the ground with you, find where water already collects, and dig a test pit. In Burleson County that pit is establishing which half of the county your ground behaves like, bottom clay or post oak sand.
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.
Then you wait on weather. Clay has to be worked dry to compact into a proper seal, and in bottom ground that window can be narrow. We book around the forecast rather than through 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 six feet of depth at centre with a 4:1 bank. Around Caldwell the test pit is establishing which half of the county your ground behaves like. Toward the Brazos there is normally no sealing line item at all. Out in the post oak sand the basin has to reach the clay, and if it cannot, a cap gets priced up front.
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.
What moves the number on a Caldwell job: whether you are on bottom clay or post oak sand, how deep the clay sits if you are on sand, how far a lowboy can get in, how much brush has to come out, and whether the site needs extra freeboard for the bottoms.
Real ponds, real day counts, photographed on site.
Lined pond from the air, Manor
Blackland pond work, Paige
Prairie water, standing fullFull process, statewide services, and the build standard: our Texas pond construction page.
Burleson County is cattle, hay and row crop country, and the tanks we build here are almost all working water. What people want is something that holds through a dry August, keeps stock out of a creek bottom, and takes the runoff that has been cutting a channel across a good field.
Yaupon and brush fill the post oak understory to the west, and the bottoms grow it thicker still. The low ground where a tank wants to sit is always the worst of it. We clear land as our main trade and build ponds with the same crew, so the brush comes out and the basin gets cut on one mobilisation with one bill.
The honest reason we will not price a Caldwell job over the phone is that this county genuinely changes character across it. Bottom clay behaves one way and post oak sand another, and the pit settles it in an hour. That is also why an old tank on your place is worth showing us: it is proof of what your ground does.
Around 39 inches a year here, which is generous. On the bottom clay that runs off and fills a tank quickly. Out on the sand a lot of it soaks in instead, so the catchment above the tank matters more than the rainfall figure does. We size the watershed on the walk either way.
A new tank looks raw. Bare banks, cloudy water, a season before it settles. Get grass established before the first big rain and it clears faster and stops feeding silt back into itself.
Every tank starts filling in the day it is finished, and field runoff carries a lot. Grass cover on the watershed, stock fenced off the approach and a forebay ahead of the main basin will buy you decades.
Hoof traffic on a dam face is the commonest way a sound tank becomes a leaking one. A fenced tank with a gravity trough below costs a little more up front and outlasts an open one by years.
You learn what a tank is worth in the third hot August. Six feet gets low and warm. Nine feet keeps a cold layer at the bottom and keeps water in front of stock. Everyone we know who went deeper is glad they did.
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 wash, and field catchments deliver plenty to wash them with. We seed and mat the disturbed ground with a mix suited to this country so the first storm does not put your dam back into the tank.
Moving water stays cleaner. An aerator keeps oxygen through the whole column and holds algae back through a hot summer, which matters on water stock are drinking.
A hardened approach keeps stock watering without breaking the banks down, and gives you somewhere to back a trailer. We shape and compact it while the machines are still on site.
Fish want structure and depth before stocking. We leave brush piles, a drop off and a shelf while the basin is open, so the tank is built to hold fish before you put any in.
Absolutely outstanding quality work by Pierce Land Clearing. Two days into the clearing the operator became ill and with no delays a new operator was dispatched to complete the job on schedule. Without a doubt, would use them again.
Sheila Mills, Google review
I called them after having bad service with another company. Preston explained the cost of everything up front. He answered all my questions and concerns. I emailed a Google map of the area and he got back with me within hours.
Dustin Crumbliss, Google review
These guys are the rockstars of the land clearing business. Arrived early, carefully listened to my wishes, and then went to town. So fast, efficient, and professional.
tim pham, Google review
The site walk comes with vocabulary. Here is what the crew means when they say it.
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.
The key cut through the dam footprint, backfilled with compacted clay, that stops water tracking under the dam. On bottom clay it is straightforward; on the sandy side it is the thing that decides whether the tank holds.
Pricing starts at $12,300 for a quarter acre at six feet with a 4:1 bank and runs to $39,500 for two acres, with an $8,000 minimum. On the Brazos side those numbers stand as they are. Out on the post oak sand, sealing can be a line item and you will see it itemised before committing.
It depends which part. Toward the Brazos, on heavy bottom clay, almost always and very well. West of Caldwell, on post oak sand, only if the basin reaches the clay beneath. The test pit settles it, and we dig it before quoting.
Mainly siting. Bottom clay is excellent pond ground, but the bottoms flood, and a tank in the flow path silts up fast and takes a beating. We walk it and usually site the pond just off the main path so it catches runoff without taking the full force.
Usually. Yaupon and brush fill the understory and the bottoms grow it thickest, which is exactly where the tank wants to be. Clearing land is our main trade, so the brush and the basin happen on one trip with one crew and one bill.
On your own rural land, generally no, and agricultural water storage is exempt from most regulation in Texas. It changes if the tank dams a defined watercourse or sits in the Brazos floodplain, which here is a real question. We will tell you what applies before anything starts.
Six feet at centre is the chart minimum and it holds on the bottom clay. Eight or nine is what we recommend anywhere in this county if you want water in front of stock through a dry August. The extra depth is cheap while the machine is already there.
Around 39 inches a year here. On the bottom clay that runs off and fills a tank quickly, often inside one wet season. On the sandy side more of it soaks in, so the catchment above the tank does the work. We size it on the walk.
Yes, and in this county it is often the better job. Rebuilt with a proper key trench in the dam, a sealed basin and a spillway sized for the catchment, it usually costs less than a new build, on ground that has already proved it holds.
Tell us roughly how big you want the water and where you are thinking of putting it. We will walk the ground, dig a test pit and give you a written number with the transport already in it.