PIERCE
LAND
CLEARING
Eastland County ranch ground runs sandy loam over sandstone with mesquite and post oak on top. We build tanks that hold on it, priced off a published list rather than a windshield estimate.
This is Western Cross Timbers country: sandy loam over sandstone, red clay in the draws, post oak on the ridges and mesquite anywhere the plow and the fire stopped. Sand passes water and clay holds it, and which one your tank site sits on decides most of what the job costs.
The loam that grows good grass here also lets water through. A basin cut only into sand seeps away its mornings and never shows more than a puddle. What holds is the red clay underneath it, reached by the cut or brought to the bowl and keyed in properly.
We are straight about what we know and when we know it. We have dug in Eastland County and the ground around it, so you get a real range on the phone from experience rather than a form. What nobody can do is see through the dirt from a call, and some tanks only show their hand once the basin is open.
Where it needs help the answers are a compacted clay core, bentonite worked into the basin, or a liner on the sites that warrant one. Each is priced the moment we can honestly price it and never appears quietly on a final invoice.
Cross Timbers country is cut with draws that have been moving runoff downhill since long before anybody fenced it. Put the tank where the water already wants to go and you get a real catchment instead of a bowl waiting on rain to land in it. Siting is most of the work and it costs nothing extra when it happens first.
Depth does the rest. Twenty seven inches a year and a hot August mean a shallow tank goes warm and green by July, so our pricing starts at six feet at center and we push for eight or more wherever the budget reaches.
An Eastland County tank runs in a set order, and the first number reaches you on the phone.
Send photos of the spot, a rough size, and your town. You get a ballpark from the published list the same day, and if it sounds right we set a time to walk the property. No pressure loop, no form-and-wait.
Your first number comes over the phone, from having dug on this kind of ground rather than from a form. Photos and a pin usually get you a real range the same day. Once you approve the estimate we come walk it, reading the draw, the catchment feeding it, herd access, spillway routing, and what brush has to go ahead of the machines. Anything that moves the number gets said out loud on that walk.
A real number in machine days: what the dig costs, what the dam costs, what happens if we hit rock, and what the clearing adds if the site is brushed up. The price on paper is the price, and any rock contingency is spelled out instead of buried.
A lowboy shows up with the dozer and excavator, usually within a few weeks of a signed quote. We need a gate the iron fits through and a spot for the trailer, and we handle the rest.
Two to five working days for most ponds. Topsoil gets stripped and saved, the core trench gets cut, the dam goes up in compacted lifts, and the basin takes shape a bench at a time. You are welcome on site every day of it, at a safe distance from the swing radius.
Before the machines load, we walk the pond with you: dam, spillway, slopes, and the topsoil dressed back over the banks. If it does not match what was quoted, that is the moment we make it right.
A tank sited on a real draw in this country fills over a wet stretch rather than a season, because the Cross Timbers sheds runoff into those draws readily. We will not name a date. What we control is the catchment, so we size the watershed feeding your basin rather than hoping rain lands in the bowl.
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. In Eastland County the variable is sealing: whether the cut reaches the red clay or the basin needs a core. We can usually judge it from the area and the tanks we have built nearby, and where we cannot, you get the number the moment we do. Mesquite clearing rides on the same quote at published day rates.
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.
No surprise line items. Here is how the number breaks down on every quote we write.
Siting and design against your watershed, staking, topsoil stripped and saved, the core trench, the dam built in compacted lifts, the spillway cut and shaped, slopes finished to mow, and topsoil dressed back over the banks. Machine transport is in the quote, and so is the walkthrough before we leave.
Sealing is the Eastland County variable. If the cut reaches red clay the basin seals itself and you run the published list. If it does not, the basin needs a compacted core or bentonite, priced as its own written line the moment we know. Mesquite and post oak clearing rides on the same quote at published day rates.
Real ponds, real day counts, photographed on site.
Full pond, Bastrop
Stock tank holding water, Marion
Pond expansion, LampasasFull process, statewide services, and the build standard: our Texas pond construction page.
The single most common failure on Cross Timbers ground is a tank dug into loam and left to hope. It leaks from the first day and never fills. Every tank we build here is built for the sand: reach the clay with the cut where it is in range, core the basin where it is not, and put the plan in writing either way.
The draw where your tank belongs is usually the thickest brush on the place. Clearing is often the bigger half of an Eastland County job, and we do both halves, so it is one mobilization and one bill rather than two contractors and a scheduling argument.
A tank stock uses needs depth against the sun, bank grades cattle can reach without breaking the edge down, and a dam keyed into competent material rather than shoved up out of whatever was handy. Tell us it is a working tank and that is what we build.
Eastland County has generations of old tanks silted in or leaking behind dams nobody ever keyed. Rebuilding one properly is frequently cheaper than digging new, and we will tell you honestly when that is the case even though it is the smaller job.
A pasture without dependable water is a pasture you use part of the year. A tank that holds turns acreage into carrying capacity, and on Cross Timbers ground that arithmetic is the whole return.
The tanks that failed the hard summers around here were the shallow ones and the ones dug into sand and left to hope. Depth and honest sealing built in at the start cost far less than fixing a failed tank later.
Water is the strongest improvement you can make on a hunting place in this county. Sited well a tank concentrates deer and turkey and supports a wildlife management valuation.
Eastland County buyers look at water and fences before they look at anything else. A tank holding clean water in September is the best thing a place out here can show.
The build does not have to stop when the water shows up. These come with the same one-crew, one-call approach as the pond itself.
Bare banks on sandy loam move the first time it storms, so we seed and stabilize what we disturb with a mix suited to grazing ground rather than a lawn.
Aeration keeps a tank cooler and cleaner through August and cuts the algae that turns good water green by July. Conduit roughed in while the basin is open costs a fraction of trenching later.
Hardened access points keep stock from breaking the bank down and silting in the tank you just paid for. Planned before the basin closes they cost very little.
Stocking waits until the tank is holding and the water has settled. We will tell you what actually does well here and how long to leave a new basin alone.
Taylor knows his business and was very respectful of our property. His 3 days of service advanced our land clearing plan beyond our expectation. We will have him back yearly to keep our brush management in check.
Michael McCollum, Google review
These guys are fast and efficient. We used them on a project we thought was going to take them days and they got it done in a half day. We will definitely use them again, it was worth every penny.
Bryan Rogers, Google review
Amazing company! I had the pleasure of dealing with a family run and operated company and it really shows. They went above and beyond. I am beyond pleased with the way my land now looks. I had tried a smaller company prior to them and it was a giant mistake.
LD, Google review
Six terms you will hear on the site walk, and what they actually mean for your water.
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.
A keyway cut below grade under the dam and packed with clay, so water cannot travel beneath the structure.
The dam built up in thin layers, each packed tight by the machine before the next goes on. The opposite of a pushed up pile.
A quarter acre tank 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. Sealing is the Eastland County variable and it is priced the moment we know.
If it is built for the sand, yes. The red clay is usually down there, and when the cut reaches it the basin seals itself. When it does not, the basin gets a compacted core or bentonite as its own written line. What we will not do is dig a bowl in loose loam and wish it luck.
Pricing starts at six feet at center and we recommend eight or more here. Twenty seven inches of rain and a hot August mean a shallow tank turns warm and weedy by July and can go to mud in a dry year.
Where the water already goes. The draws through this country have been carrying runoff downhill forever, and siting the basin on a real catchment beats a convenient flat spot every time. We will often suggest moving it, including when that makes the job smaller.
Yes, and usually it is the first real work. The draw is normally the thickest cover on the property. Same quote, same crew, published day rates, one schedule.
Frequently, and it is often the better spend. We seal the basin, rebuild the dam with a proper key trench and compaction in lifts, and fix whatever was leaking. If it is not worth saving we say so.
Two to three days for a quarter acre and nine to ten for two acres. Rock adds days and we name that up front rather than after.
Yes. Photos, an aerial, or a pin get most Eastland County quotes a real range the same day, from experience on this exact kind of ground.
Send photos or a pin on the draw 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 that number as soon as we have it rather than at the end of the job.