PIERCE
LAND
CLEARING
Pond builders for the piney woods: home site ponds, stock tanks, and fishing ponds dug, sealed, and dammed right in the sandy country around Coldspring and Lake Livingston.
San Jacinto County grows pines because it is sandy, and sandy country is where pond builders earn their keep. The difference between a pond and an expensive damp hole here is knowing what is under the sand.
The upland sand around Coldspring, Shepherd, and Point Blank drinks water as fast as the sky delivers it. Dig a bowl in it and the pond leaks through the bottom no matter how much rain the pines catch. Every quote we write here starts with the same question: where is the clay?
We test the basin before we promise anything. Sometimes the clay layer sits a few feet down and the cut reaches it. Sometimes the site needs a compacted clay core or bentonite worked into the basin, and we price that as a flagged line item instead of a surprise.
What Coldspring has that West Texas would kill for is water from the sky. Fifty inches a year means even a modest watershed keeps a well built pond full, creek fed sites fill in weeks not seasons, and a sealed basin barely notices August.
It also means the dam has to be built like it will be tested, because it will. Storm rain out of the pines comes hard, so we cut spillways with real capacity and build dams in compacted lifts that shrug off a tropical remnant.
The same process that built the documented ponds on this page, start to finish, no mystery between the phone call and the water.
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.
We walk the site with you, read the draws and the watershed, probe for the clay under the sand, and flag anything that changes the number: sealing, big pines in the footprint, spillway routing. You get straight answers standing on the spot where the dam goes.
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.
In this county, not long. Fifty inch rainfall and pine country runoff fill most new basins over one wet season, and creek fed sites can fill in weeks. Grass goes in on the dam right away so the first big rain finds it armored.
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 |
Chart prices are for a 6 foot deep pond at 4:1 banks. San Jacinto County sand can add tested sealing as a flagged line item, and the site walk settles that before anyone signs anything.
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 San Jacinto County variable: if the basin needs a compacted clay core or bentonite, it is tested first and priced as its own line. Clearing the pines and brush off the footprint is quoted at our published day rates on the same sheet. Rock is almost never the problem here; sand is, and we price it honestly.
Real ponds, real day counts, photographed on site.
Third acre pond built in 2 days, Elgin
Half acre pond, Lampasas
Quarter acre pond holding water, BastropFull process, statewide services, and the build standard: our Texas pond construction page.
Between Lake Livingston, the Trinity bottoms, and the Sam Houston National Forest, everybody around Coldspring lives near water except on their own place. A private pond fixes that: fishing you do not have to trailer a boat for, stock water for the cattle places along 150 and 156, and the single biggest improvement a wooded tract can show an appraiser.
Most Coldspring pond sites start as pine and yaupon thicket, and that is the part most pond outfits subcontract. We are a land clearing company that builds ponds, so the same mobilization clears the site, grinds the stumps out of the footprint, and starts the cut. One crew, one bill, no waiting on somebody else’s schedule.
East Texas ponds rarely die of thirst, they die of weeds. Warm shallow water in this climate grows vegetation wall to wall by July. We shape basins to get past six feet quickly and pinch the shallows down, which starves the weed beds and keeps the water open and fishable.
A pond here will meet a twelve inch storm eventually. Core trench under the dam, compacted lifts, a spillway sized for pine country runoff, and freeboard that assumes the forecast is wrong. That is the standard, and it is why our dams are still there after the storms that take the shortcuts out.
Lake Livingston is minutes away and crowded on Saturday. A stocked pond in the pines is yours on a Tuesday evening, and a well built half acre grows bass worth bragging about within a few seasons.
Cattle places along 150 and 156 still lose shallow tanks to weeds and muck in late summer. A properly deep pond waters the herd through the dry stretch without hauling a drop.
On wooded east Texas tracts, a finished pond is the improvement buyers mention first. It turns an anonymous pine tract into a homesite with a view, and appraisers treat it accordingly.
Living against the Sam Houston National Forest, a pond is thousands of gallons of firefighting water with your name on it, and volunteer departments know where the ponds are.
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.
Dam and banks seeded and blanketed as soon as the shaping is done, because east Texas rain does not wait politely for grass to catch. Erosion control here is not optional trim, it is part of the build.
Aeration earns its keep in warm east Texas water: it keeps the bottom from going stale, cuts the weed pressure, and keeps fish happy through the hottest weeks. We plumb for it during the build so it drops in clean later.
A dock on a piney woods pond is where the place gets used. We set the dam and bank grades with the dock site picked ahead of time, so the water comes up to a plan instead of an afterthought.
Stocking an east Texas pond is nearly foolproof if the depth is right: forage first, bass the next season, and the pond capital corridor has hatcheries within an easy haul. We hand you the depth map the stocking truck wants to see.
This is the second time using this company. Always quick responses and follow through! Their quality of work is the best in the industry.
Sean Chandler, Google review
Huge fan of this family owned business, great people! If I need my land cleared will definitely call them!!
Destiny Laster, Google review
These guys are as good as it gets. Professional, hard working, honest group. We ran into some issues that were completely out of anyone's control. Taylor promised to complete the job as soon as it is possible to do so in a safe manner. Looking forward to working with these guys again.
Maria Hayes, Google review
Six terms you will hear on the site walk, and what they actually mean for your water.
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.
The armored low route storm water takes around the dam instead of over it. The difference between a rain event and a rebuild.
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.
The acres of ground that drain toward your pond. In San Jacinto County a small watershed does big work: fifty inches of annual rain means a few acres of pine slope keeps an acre foot of storage honest.
Coldspring anchors our east Texas pond routing along with the towns below. Every link is a local pond page with its own soil notes and pricing.
The published chart on this page starts at $12,300 for a quarter acre pond at 6 feet of depth on 4:1 banks, and the calculator lets you price your own size and depth. San Jacinto County sand can add tested sealing as a flagged line item. Photos of the site get you a real range the same day.
Yes, if it is built for the sand instead of in spite of it. We find the clay, reach it with the cut when we can, and core or treat the basin when we cannot. What we do not do is dig a hole in loose sand, wish it luck, and leave. Sealing is tested, priced, and put in writing.
That is the best part of hiring a land clearing company to build your pond. The same crew that mulches the yaupon and takes down the pines digs the basin, so the site goes from woods to water in one mobilization instead of two contractors pointing at each other.
With fifty inches of rain a year, a surprisingly small watershed keeps a pond full here. As a working rule a few acres of catchment per acre foot of storage is comfortable in this county, and we read the draws and the drainage on the site walk before recommending a size.
All the time. Half the ponds around Coldspring and Shepherd are decades old, silted to half depth, and ringed with brush. We drain, dredge the muck, reshape the banks, rebuild the dam if it needs it, and hand back a pond that acts new for a fraction of a new dig.
On most rural San Jacinto County land, no. Texas exempts normal farm and ranch ponds from state permitting, and the county has no pond permit of its own. Sites near the Trinity or inside a floodplain deserve a check first, and we flag that on the walk when it applies.
Six feet is where our pricing starts and it makes an honest pond here, but eight feet or more at center is what we recommend when the ground allows. The extra depth is weed and temperature insurance: cool water for bass, less vegetation, and a pond that looks right in September.
Most Coldspring ponds run two to five working days once the iron is on site, exactly like the chart says. Clearing ahead of the dig adds a day or two depending on the thicket. The wait for water is short in this county; a wet fall fills most new basins by spring.
Photos, a rough size, and your road gets you a real range the same day. We are in the east Texas pines regularly, and the site walk is free.