PIERCE
LAND
CLEARING
Our quarter acre Gatesville build went in over two days, and the basin shaping, the cut, and the dam work are all photographed on this page. Leon River country builds good water when the method is right.
Coryell County runs limestone uplands into Leon River clay valleys, and our documented build here shows exactly how that seam gets worked.
The high pastures toward the Fort Cavazos line run shallow soil over limestone, and up there the pond answer is the head of a draw, where runoff and soil both concentrate. Ledge gets the hammer-by-the-day honesty when it appears, and moving downslope usually beats hammering.
The uplands do offer one gift: fast, clean runoff that fills valley ponds in a hurry.
The Leon and its creeks laid down the clay this county builds water on, and our two day documented build ran it: dig, core, lifts, spillway, done. Valley builds price off the published list and hold the way the photos above suggest.
If your tract touches a creek bottom, your pond likely wants to live just above it.
Coryell County runs on stock water. Here is the whole arc of a Gatesville tank build, no steps hidden, no numbers vague.
The first step costs nothing: photos, a rough size, your location. We come back same day with a range from the published list, and the site walk gets scheduled only if that range makes sense to you.
A Gatesville walk is ranch appraisal work: read the draw for the limestone ledge that runs this county, judge the clay content, read the watershed toward the Leon, and factor the cattle that will use the water. The verdict lands on the spot, where the tank sits, how it seals, what it costs in machine days, and it is the same straight answer whether the ranch is forty acres or four thousand.
We put the whole build on paper in machine days, dig, dam, and spillway, with rock or liner contingencies called out up front where you can see them. The number you sign is the number you pay.
Once the quote is signed we get you on the calendar, typically a few weeks out. The machines arrive together, stage near the site, and stay until the job is finished, no disappearing mid-build.
Count on two to five working days of iron time for a typical pond. Every build follows the same discipline: saved topsoil, a real core trench, a dam raised in compacted lifts, and slopes cut so they can be mowed, not just admired.
Last step: a slow lap around the pond together. You check the dam, the spillway cut, the slope finish, and the dressed topsoil against the quote. We load the machines only when you are satisfied.
Coryell tanks fill on a few real storms a season, the ones that put the Leon River up. A tank sized to its draw catches its share of every one. Grass the dam first, before the storms find bare dirt, glance at the spillway after each event, and let the county’s water do what it has done for every generation that ranched here before you.
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 |
Our documented Gatesville build is the county reference: quarter acre, two days, list priced. Upland sites carry a rock variable; valley clay builds as photographed above.
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.
The quote has two halves: what every build includes, and the site-specific items we flag before work starts.
One price, one finished pond: siting matched to the water the land actually sheds, staking, saved topsoil, core trench, a dam packed up in lifts, a proper spillway, slopes you can mow, and banks dressed to grass. Machine transport and the walkthrough are never extras.
Hammer time when the dig finds the limestone that built the courthouse, flagged and billed by the day, never smuggled into an invoice. Clay or bentonite work when a basin runs thin, priced at design. Cedar and mesquite clearing at published day rates, and spoil stays on the ranch in nearly every Gatesville build we have done.
Real ponds, real day counts, photographed on site.
The Gatesville build: shaping the basin
The Gatesville build: the cut
The Gatesville build: dam work
Lampasas, 40 min south: half acre, 5 days
Crawford, 30 min east: taking waterFull process, statewide services, and the build standard: our Texas pond construction page.
The three Gatesville photos above are the same build at three stages: the excavator benching the basin, the deep cut against clean clay walls, and the dam going together. That progression is the whole craft, and we publish it because most pond builders around here would rather show you the finished glamour shot than the compaction that makes it hold.
Coryell is cattle county, and a two day, list-priced quarter acre tank is working infrastructure at a working price: August water for the herd, a fishing hole for the kids, and one less reason to haul water when the creeks quit. The 5:1 stock bank option adds a little dirt, and the calculator above shows exactly how much.
A lot of Gatesville acreage trades to Fort Cavazos families who want land that feels far from formation and close to home. A pond is the fastest way a bare tract becomes a place, and on Leon clay it happens inside a week, documented two counties over and right here on this page.
Around Gatesville a pond is infrastructure before it is scenery: the tank that keeps the herd out of the creek bottoms and the rotation grazing possible. So the build leans working ranch, cattle approaches graded gentle, depth that outlasts August, dam faces the herd cannot cave. When it doubles as the family fishing hole, that is the bonus, not the spec.
This county sheds storm water with intent, and a tank matched to its watershed rides full most of the year. We size to the draw, cut the spillway for the storm after the storm, and the county’s own hydrology handles the schedule. Oversize the hole and it sulks for years; size it honest and it works from the first wet season.
A dry August with a shallow tank means hauling water, and everyone here has watched a neighbor do it. Eight feet or more at center is the standard: slower evaporation, cool water under the surface, and stock water that outlasts the dry stretch. Footprint is negotiable in a tight budget; depth is not.
Grass the dam before the first storm, reseed any rills, keep trees off the dam forever, and let the spillway do its work. Stock minnows and bluegill once the water steadies, bass a season later. That is the entire manual, and it produces the forty year tanks this county is full of.
Most Coryell tank sites start as cedar brakes. We clear them as the Gatesville clearing crew we already are: grubbed clean so nothing resprouts, oaks and pecans protected, topsoil saved and dressed back. What you get is improved ranch ground with water on it.
Most clients add at least one of these. Planned during the build, they cost less and land better than bolting them on a year later.
Seed and matting finish every dam, because a Coryell storm on bare dirt writes gullies you will mow around for years. Grass established in the first season locks the structure and feeds the first rotation of grazing besides.
A bottom diffuser keeps tank water sweet through the heat, oxygen up, algae down, cattle drinking clean. On the headquarters pond a fountain adds the touch that makes the place feel finished.
A basic fixed pier is the cheapest amenity a working tank can carry, and the grandkids will use it more than the barn. Plan it during the dig and the shelf and grade cost almost nothing extra.
Stocked in order, forage first and bass behind, a Gatesville tank fishes honestly within three years. Closer than Belton Lake, never crowded, and every fish in it grew up on your own rain.
Outstanding company. Cleared out around 9 acres of mesquites and prickly pears and some broken down oak trees. The operators are very good at what they do and very courteous. I have some more projects coming up and for sure I know who to call.
ROBERT CARRASCO, Google review
I am so glad I found them to help me clear our land. We were tired of paying thousands of dollars to rent wood chippers, tractors, shredders, and chain saws, and still not being done with the project.
Charles Town, Google review
We were extremely pleased with the results on the land clearing that was done to our property. I had called around to several other companies for bids and PLC was the most reasonable, responsive, and customer oriented.
A Arevalo, Google review
Dirt crews talk in shorthand. These are the six terms that matter most on a pond build.
One acre of water a foot deep, about 326,000 gallons. The unit that decides whether a Coryell County stock tank needs a state permit, and most do not.
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.
The Leon and Bosque country ring, already on our routes.
Yes, and this page shows it three ways: basin shaping, the cut, and dam work on our quarter acre, two day build. It is the reference every Coryell County quote gets written against.
The published list: quarter acre from $12,300 at 6 feet on a 4:1 bank, which is what the documented build ran. The calculator above handles your own size and depth.
At the head of a draw, usually yes: soil and runoff concentrate there. Flat hilltops over limestone are dry hole territory, and we will say so on the walk rather than after.
The limestone uplands shed rain fast, so a valley pond with honest watershed above it can catch a storm season in a few good events. Sizing to that watershed is part of the design.
A 5:1 wade-in side is the cattle standard: no bogging, easy grassing. The calculator shows the extra dirt against a steeper bank.
Yes: cedar off the draw, tank in, dam grassed, one mobilization. Our clearing crews already work this county, write ups and all.
Send photos and a rough size. The two day Gatesville build above is the reference, and Leon clay builds price straight off the list.