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Ponds, stock tanks and dams built across McLennan County. Published pricing from $12,300, dirt crews that build ponds every week, and an honest answer on whether your ground will hold water.
Crawford is ranch country west of Waco and it is some of the better pond ground we work. The blackland gives way to thinner soil over limestone as you climb toward Bosque County, and that means two things. The clay for a dam core is usually right there on the place, which keeps cost down. But rock can also come up shallower than expected, and rock is the one thing that turns a straightforward dig into a slower one.
The clay around Crawford generally holds water well once it is shaped and compacted, and the material for the dam core is usually already on the property.
What is not consistent is how deep it runs before rock. Two spots on the same place can be very different, which is why we dig test pits rather than price off a map.
Limestone under thin upland soil is the thing that turns a straightforward dig slow. It does not stop a pond, it changes the machine and the number of days.
Creek bottoms and draws are usually the better answer anyway: deeper soil, easier digging, and it is where the water already wants to collect.
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 Crawford that is the step that decides the price, because how deep the clay runs before rock changes the machine and the day count. 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 McLennan 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 |
Rock is the variable around Crawford. If the basin hits limestone before it reaches depth, that changes the machine and the day count, and we will tell you at the site walk rather than mid build.
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.
Rock excavation if the basin hits limestone before depth, imported clay if the material on site will not core a dam, and long spoil hauls if there is nowhere sensible to put it. All quoted separately and always before the work, never after.
Real ponds, real day counts, photographed on site.
New pond taking on water near Crawford, TX
Dozer shaping a pond basin at dusk near Whitney, TX
Aerial of a freshly shaped pond taking on water near Whitney, 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 Crawford 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.
I highly recommend Pierce Land Clearing. They have the right equipment and professionals with skills required to make your property look wonderful.
Reggie, Google review
We cannot say enough good about the incredible service we received. We have 30 acres we are preparing for our future home that has never been lived on or maintained. Bobby listened to our vision.
Stephanie Cantrell, Google review
I had such a great experience with this team. Not only did they do a marvelous job but they are good people. Taylor is very personable, honest, with an amazing work ethic. His team is hardworking.
Dean Volkman, 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.
We build ponds across McLennan County and the country around it. Pick your town or call and tell us where the place is.
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.
Usually not. The clay around Crawford is generally good enough to hold water once it is shaped and compacted properly, and the material for the dam core is normally right there on the place. We still dig test pits before quoting, because two spots on the same property can behave differently.
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 McLennan 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 Crawford 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.