PIERCE
LAND
CLEARING
Wilson County is sand country. The Carrizo outcrop runs across it and the Post Oak Savannah sits on top, which means loose, well drained ground that grows good grass and loses water fast. A pond here is won or lost on whether you find clay, and where.
Rock country and sand country fail in opposite ways. Limestone leaks through a seam. Sand leaks everywhere at once, evenly, quietly, and it will empty a beautifully built pond in a season. But sand country almost always has clay in it somewhere, and finding it is the job.
Most of Wilson County is sandy loam, deep and loose, sitting over the Carrizo sand. It drains beautifully, which is exactly why the peanut and watermelon ground out here was so good and exactly why it will not hold a pond by itself.
You can usually tell before we get there. If the driveway turns to loose sand rather than slick mud after rain, if fence posts go in easy, if the cutbank on a creek is pale and crumbly, you are on sand.
Dug straight into that with no plan, a pond fills after a storm and is gone weeks later. Nothing is wrong with the dam. The whole basin is the leak.
Sand country is layered. There is very often a clay horizon under the sand, and the first thing we do on a Wilson County site is find out whether it is there and how far down. If it is reachable, the pond gets built into it and holds on its own material.
That single question changes the price more than the size of the pond does. Digging down to native clay is dirt work you were already paying for. Hauling clay in because there is none is a different bill.
If there is no clay within reach we say so and we talk about bentonite instead. What we will not do is dig it and hope, which on this ground is the same as digging a hole and filling it in slowly.
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 |
On Wilson County sand the published prices hold when we can reach native clay and build the basin into it. When there is none within digging depth, add either hauled clay or bentonite and the number moves. We find out which one you are before we quote, because guessing on this ground is how people end up with a dry hole and a paid invoice.
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.
Real ponds, real day counts, photographed on site.
Quarter acre dig on sandy ground, Bastrop
Full pond on sandy country, Bastrop
What holding water looks like a year onFull process, statewide services, and the build standard: our Texas pond construction page.
On sand you cannot read a site from the surface. Two tracts either side of the same county road can sit on completely different profiles. So we open test holes, look at what comes up, and find the clay if it is there. It takes an hour and it is the difference between a real quote and a hopeful one.
This is still a working county. Cattle, hay, hunting, and increasingly people buying twenty or forty acres out of a larger place. The pond usually has to earn its keep, watering stock or holding runoff off a hay meadow, and that means it gets sited where the water already collects rather than where the view is best.
Down toward the river the profile changes. There is more silt and clay in the bottoms, which is good news for holding water and bad news for how wet it stays. Bottom ground can be unworkable for weeks after a real rain, and if we are building down there the schedule has to allow for that instead of pretending it will not happen.
A 4:1 bank is our pricing standard and on sandy ground it is not a preference, it is structural. Sand will not stand up at a steep angle once it is saturated. It slumps, and a slumped bank silts up the pond you just paid for. Anyone quoting steeper banks on this ground is either saving themselves dirt work or has not built here.
There are a lot of old tanks in Wilson County that have stopped holding. We chase leaks, rebuild dams and spillways, and enlarge ponds that came out too small. We do not do dredging, cleanouts or silt removal. On this ground the honest answer is often that the tank never sealed properly in the first place and needs sealing rather than digging out.
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
Pierce Land Clearing did an amazing job clearing our lot in Liberty Hill. It was wonderful working with them and I would highly recommend them for getting your job done right.
Devandar Reddy, Google review
Yes, if it is built into clay or sealed. Sand on its own will not hold, and it does not fail dramatically, it just goes down steadily until the pond is a damp spot. The fix is either digging down into a clay layer if one is within reach or working bentonite into the basin. We find out which before quoting.
We open test holes and look. There is no way to read it off the surface reliably, and neighboring tracts can be completely different. It takes about an hour and it is the single most useful thing anyone can do before spending money on a pond out here.
A quarter acre starts at $12,300 and a full acre at $27,000, at six feet deep with a 4:1 bank. Those numbers hold when we can build into native clay. If the basin needs hauled clay or bentonite that is a separate line and we show it separately. Minimum job is $8,000.
Yes, and most of what we build in Wilson County is exactly that. Stock water gets a flatter access slope on one side so cattle can drink without caving the bank, and the rest kept steeper to hold depth and cut evaporation.
Yes, all of Wilson County and the counties around it, including Guadalupe, Gonzales, Karnes, Atascosa and Bexar.
The first question is whether there is clay under your sand and how deep it sits. Tell us where the place is and we will come open a test hole before anybody talks about price.