PIERCE
LAND
CLEARING
Pads, cut and fill, drives and rock work around Canyon Lake and Comal County. Steep caliche slopes, limestone close to the surface, and lots that were platted long before anybody thought about access.
Canyon Lake is steep and rocky in a way that separates it from the rest of the Hill Country. Caliche and limestone under shallow soil, slopes running down toward the water, and a lot of the buildable land is on the side of a hill rather than on top of one. Cut and fill here is not about moving volume, it is about making a level, stable bench out of a grade.
Benching a pad into a hillside means the cut side has to stay stable and the fill side has to be compacted properly or it will creep. On slopes above the lake that is not a cosmetic issue, it is the difference between a pad that holds and one that moves. We build the fill side in lifts and we do not shortcut it.
Caliche is good material to build on and slow material to dig through, and limestone under it is slower still. That shows up in machine days rather than surprises, provided somebody opened the ground first. We do, before quoting.
The full menu from our excavation and dirt work page, priced and planned for Canyon Lake ground.
Cut and fill is the whole job on most sites around Canyon Lake. Material comes off the high side, goes onto the low side, and gets compacted as it goes rather than pushed into place and hoped over. Balancing a site so nothing has to be hauled in or out is the cheapest version of this work, and where the ground allows it we will tell you.
Grading is what separates a site that drains from one that ponds. We shape positive fall away from every structure, tie it into somewhere the water can actually go, and finish to a surface that reads as landform rather than machine tracks. On comal county getting this wrong shows up the first wet season.
A pad is only as good as what is under it. Subgrade gets prepared, fill goes in compacted lifts to a spec, and the finished elevation is set against the drainage plan rather than the existing dirt. Barn pads, shop pads and house pads around Canyon Lake all get built the same way because the failure mode is the same.
Site prep is where our clearing side and our dirt side meet. Trees down, stumps and root balls out of the building footprint, ground cut to rough grade and handed to a builder ready for survey and permit. Doing both halves with one crew is faster and there is nobody to blame in the middle.
Ranch roads and driveways get built to survive rain, not just to look right on the day. Crown for shedding water, base rock spread and compacted to a real depth, and crossings where the water already wants to run. A road built without those three costs more in the second year than it saved in the first.
Ponds and stock tanks are dirt work with a water problem attached. The dam gets keyed into undisturbed ground and built in compacted lifts, the basin gets cut to depth, and the spillway goes in at the right elevation. Around Canyon Lake we will tell you honestly whether your ground will hold water before you commit.
The iron, the days, and the transport set the base. From there the site speaks: how much cut and fill, what compaction spec, what finish. Our day rates follow the same published logic as our clearing and pond work, so the quote can be sanity-checked against our own website. Photos to 512-400-2693 start the clock on a same-day ballpark.
Around Canyon Lake the number is slope, rock and access, roughly in that order. Steep lots take longer and need more careful fill work, rock changes the machine, and the older subdivisions have narrow winding roads that decide what equipment can get to you at all.
Pictures, a rough scope, and where the property sits. The ballpark comes back the same day, in machine days, off the same published logic as the rest of our site.
We probe, read the soil, check the access, and settle where the dirt should go while standing on it. No plan gets drawn from a satellite photo.
Machines, days, transport, and any rock or haul contingency, all in writing. The number you sign is the number you pay.
The lowboy delivers within a few weeks of a signed quote and the machines stay until the dirt is finished. No vanishing to other jobs mid-build.
Clearing first if the ground needs it, then cuts, compacted fills, and grade, in the order the finished site requires.
The last step is a lap around the work, checked against the quote. Anything short gets fixed before the machines load.
A pond is a dirt job with a water problem attached, and it is the same crew, the same machines and the same compaction standard as a building pad. The difference is that a pad fails slowly and a dam fails all at once.
Everything that matters happens in the dam. It gets keyed in so water cannot slide underneath it, built in compacted lifts rather than pushed up in one pass, and given a bank shallow enough to mow. Ponds almost never fail in the middle. They fail at the dam.
The spillway is the other half. Somewhere for overflow to go that is not across the dam, cut into undisturbed ground at the right elevation.
Around Canyon Lake that question gets answered with test pits, not optimism. If the ground will not hold water on its own we will say so and price the fix, whether that is a clay core, imported select fill or a sealed basin.
Depth beats width every time. Six feet at center is the baseline we build to, and it is why our pond pricing is quoted that way.
Real projects with full write-ups and photos. Every card opens the project page.
Every number on a dirt job comes back to what is under the surface, and the only honest way to know is to open the ground. We dig test holes on the site walk. It costs an hour and it is the difference between a quote you can rely on and a change order later.
Fill placed in one lift and tracked over looks identical to fill placed in compacted lifts, right up until something is built on it. We build to a spec and we are happy to have it tested. The pads that fail in Texas nearly all failed at this step.
Most dirt work that goes wrong went wrong because of water, not dirt. Where it comes from, where it sits and where it leaves are questions we answer before the first cut around Canyon Lake, because retrofitting drainage after concrete is the expensive way to learn it.
We clear the trees and we move the dirt, which means the stumps come out of the pad footprint properly instead of being someone else problem. On a site that needs both, that is usually days off the schedule and one less contractor to coordinate.
From start to finish, the experience was absolutely amazing. The team arrived on time, worked with great attention to detail, and made sure everything was done perfectly. Their professionalism, honesty, and hard work really stood out. The quality of their work exceeded my expectations, and the finished results look incredible.
Emma Lee, Google review
Pierce cleared out land for our new house, they were great, called when they got to property, worked all day, and sent us photos of their beautiful work at the end of the day! So happy with them, we're having them come back to get land graded for new house! Can't wait to see what they do this time, I was in awe of the last job!! Highly recommended if you want it done, and done right!
Mike Delmedico, Google review
I highly recommend Pierce Land Clearing. Jonathan was my operator and was very efficient and didn't waste any time clearing my project. He listened to what I wanted done and got to work. I will use this company again.
John Paul Michna, Google review
Priced by the machine day rather than by guesswork. Dozer and excavator work is $3,000 per day plus transport, with a one day minimum on every machine. What sets your number is how much material moves, whether fill has to be imported, and how steep the lot is and how much caliche and rock is under it. Send photos and we will give you a real figure.
Yes, and it is usually cheaper to have one outfit do both. Trees down, stumps and root balls out of the building footprint, then straight into cut and fill with the same crew. On a site that needs clearing and dirt work, splitting it across two contractors adds days and a blame line in the middle.
Yes. Bring the plan set and we build to it, including compaction spec and finished elevations. If the plan and the ground disagree, which happens in Comal County more than people expect, we will flag it before we start rather than build something that has to be redone.
We build pads in moisture-conditioned compacted lifts to plan elevations. If your engineer requires density testing we build to the spec and support the schedule, and if there is no engineer we build like there was one.
Yes, that is the operation: clearing, grubbing, excavation, grading, and pads under one plan and one invoice. The gaps between contractors are where budgets die, so we removed the gaps.
Most jobs see iron within a few weeks of a signed quote. The machines arrive together, stage on site, and run the job continuously to the finish instead of splitting weeks across other work.
Photos and a rough scope get a same-day ballpark. A site walk gets a written number in machine days that does not move after you sign.
