PIERCE
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CLEARING
Ponds, stock tanks and dams built across Bastrop County. Published pricing from $12,300, dirt crews that build ponds every week, and an honest answer on whether your ground will hold water.
Cedar Creek sits on the western edge of the Lost Pines where post oak sand starts running into the Colorado bottoms, and which side of that line your place falls on decides the whole build. Up in the sand a pond needs a clay core and usually a sealed basin. Down toward the river the clay is already there and the job is shaping and compacting it properly rather than importing anything.
Post oak sand drains, which is exactly what you do not want under a pond. Water finds the coarse layer and leaves.
That is why we open test pits before quoting. Finding clay at four feet changes the price in your favour. Finding sand all the way down means a clay core and probably a sealed basin, and it is better to know that before a machine shows up.
A dam gets built with a clay core keyed into undisturbed ground, compacted in lifts. That is the part that holds water, not the outside of the dam.
If the basin itself will not hold, sodium bentonite gets worked into the bottom and compacted. It is an added cost and we quote it separately, but on sand it is the difference between a pond and a low spot.
A pond is a dirt job with a water problem attached. Here is how one actually runs from the first call to the day it holds a pool.
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 property with you and dig test pits where the pond is going. Around Cedar Creek that is the step that decides the price, because whether there is clay under the sand changes the whole build. We would rather find out standing on the spot than halfway through.
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.
Rain fills ponds, not machines. In Bastrop County a new pond usually catches its first real water the season after it is built and reaches full pool across one or two wet seasons. Anybody who promises you a filled pond on a date is telling you what you want to hear.
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 |
Sand is the variable around Cedar Creek. If test pits show the basin will not hold on its own, sealing is quoted separately and we will tell you before you commit, not after.
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.
Basin sealing with sodium bentonite, imported select fill if there is no clay on the place, and rock if a shelf turns up unexpectedly. All quoted separately and always before the work, never after.
Real ponds, real day counts, photographed on site.
Excavator digging a quarter acre pond near Bastrop, TX
Finishing a quarter acre pond near Bastrop, TX
Pond construction on blackland clay near Manor, TXFull process, statewide services, and the build standard: our Texas pond construction page.
Everything that matters happens in the dam. It gets keyed into undisturbed ground so water cannot slide underneath it, built in compacted lifts rather than pushed up in one go, and given a bank shallow enough to mow and safe enough to walk. A pond that fails almost never fails in the middle. It fails at the dam.
A shallow pond grows algae, loses water to evaporation and warms up until nothing wants to live in it. Six feet at center is the baseline we build to and it is why our pricing is quoted that way. If you want fish, deeper is better than wider nearly every time.
Every pond needs somewhere for the overflow to go that is not across the dam. An emergency spillway cut into undisturbed ground at the right elevation is what keeps a wet spring from taking your dam out. It is the cheapest insurance on the whole build.
Very little, if it was built right. Watch the dam after heavy rain for seepage or slumping, keep trees off it because roots make channels, and expect it to want attention somewhere between year fifteen and year thirty depending on what drains into it.
Expect the water to be cloudy and the banks to look raw. Both fix themselves. Get grass established on the dam as fast as you can, because bare dirt on a new dam is the one thing that will cost you real money if a hard rain arrives before roots do.
Wait until the pond has held a stable pool through a season before you put fish in it. Around Cedar Creek most owners go bluegill and minnows first, then bass the following year once there is something for them to eat. Your county extension office will give you a stocking rate for the acreage.
Most green water is nutrient, not dirt. Keep fertiliser and livestock runoff out of the catchment where you can, leave a grass buffer above the waterline, and give it time. Aeration helps a pond that stratifies in summer, and it is worth doing before chemicals are.
Seepage on the downstream face of the dam, a spillway that is cutting deeper each year, or a tank that has lost noticeable depth to silt. All three are fixable and all three get worse and more expensive the longer they run.
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.
Grass on a new dam is not cosmetic, it is what stops the first hard rain taking material off it. We seed and mat the dam and the disturbed ground around the basin as part of finishing.
Aeration matters most on ponds deeper than they are wide, which is most of ours. It keeps the water from stratifying in an August and is far cheaper than treating a pond that has already gone bad.
Docks and access points get planned before the dirt work finishes, because it is much easier to shape a bank for a dock while the machines are still on site than to come back for it.
Stocking is worth doing properly. We will tell you when the pond is ready and point you at the county extension rates rather than guessing at a number for you.
We had a great experience with Pierce Land Clearing. Customer service was great and the heavy equipment operator was awesome. He was easy to work with and accommodated our requests. Pierce Land Clearing had the best prices and worked with your schedule. They are the best in the area. Highly recommend!
Liz Sanchez, Google review
Preston, Dustin, and Steven just wrapped up an amazing job on an 800-acre commercial property. They were professional, dependable, hardworking, and transparent. I would highly recommend their services to anyone.
Nick Rodriguez, Google review
Pierce Land Clearing is a great family-owned and run business. They are very professional and provide timely, reasonable quotes. We have about 5.5 acres. In 2 days, they cleared most cedar, standing dead trees and mulched all at once with their large forestry machine. They also brought their rock crusher which actually pulverizes rocks. Amazing job!
Maggie Oehlke, Google review
The site walk comes with vocabulary. Here is what the crew means when they say it.
Four feet of run for every foot of drop. Gentler banks are safer and easier to mow; steeper banks get more depth from less dirt.
The dry dam height above full pool, the safety margin that keeps a big storm inside the pond.
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.
Published on this page rather than hidden behind a form. Pricing starts at $12,300 and is based on 6 feet of depth at center with a 4:1 bank. The number moves with size, how far the spoil has to travel, and whether the basin needs sealing. Send us the spot and the size you want and we will give you a real figure.
Out here, often yes. Post oak sand does not hold water on its own. Most ponds around Cedar Creek need a clay core in the dam, and on the sandiest tracts a sealed basin as well, usually sodium bentonite worked into the bottom. We dig test pits before quoting so you are not guessing.
Most quarter acre ponds are a two to four day build once machines are on site. Half acre runs longer. Weather is the variable nobody controls: we do not shape a basin in saturated ground because it will not compact, and a pond built on mud is a pond that seeps.
That is rain, not us. A pond in Bastrop County typically catches its first real water in the season after it is built and reaches full pool over one to two wet seasons. Anyone promising you a full pond on a schedule is guessing.
On private land you own, a stock pond generally needs no permit in Texas, and agricultural water use is broadly exempt. It changes if you are damming a defined watercourse, working in a floodplain, or impounding above certain volumes. We will tell you when a call to the county or the river authority is worth making before a machine moves.
Yes, and around Cedar Creek that is a good share of what we do. A pond that will not hold gets the basin sealed and the dam rebuilt with a proper key trench. If you want more water we can enlarge it while the machines are on site. Rehabilitating an existing tank is normally cheaper than cutting a new one in a new spot.
Where the water already wants to go. The best pond site is usually a natural draw with a catchment above it, not the flat spot nearest the house. We walk it with you before quoting, because moving a pond two hundred yards can be the difference between one that fills and one that never does.
It stays on the property unless you want it gone. Spoil from the basin normally builds the dam, and what is left gets spread and shaped so it reads as landform rather than a pile. Hauling it off is possible and it costs extra, so we would rather find somewhere useful for it on the place.
Tell us the spot and the size you have in mind and we will give you a real number, including whether the ground will hold it.