PIERCE
LAND
CLEARING
Gonzales County is post oak sand over clay. That combination is the reason a pond here has to be sited on what the test pit finds rather than on what the surface looks like.
It depends how deep the sand goes. Gonzales sits in Post Oak Savannah country, where sandy loam sits over a clay subsoil, and finding that clay is the whole job.
Post Oak Savannah country runs sandy on the surface. Sandy loam drains, which is exactly what you want under a pasture and exactly what you do not want under a pond. A basin cut only into the sand layer will lose water no matter how neatly it is shaped.
This is the honest bit. If somebody quotes a Gonzales County pond without digging first, they are guessing. The sand can be eighteen inches deep on one part of your place and six feet on another, and that difference is worth thousands.
The good news is that under that sand there is normally a clay subsoil, and it is often good clay. Where we can cut the basin down into it, the pond seals the same way a blackland pond does and the chart prices stand.
That is what the test pit is looking for: how deep the sand runs, how thick the clay is under it, and whether there is enough of it to line the basin and build the dam from. Once we know that, the number is real rather than hopeful.
Most people have never had a pond built and do not know what the week looks like. Here is the whole thing, from the first call to the day it starts holding water.
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.
We walk the ground with you, find where water already collects, and dig a test pit. In Gonzales County that pit is the whole quote: how deep the sand runs and how good the clay is underneath it.
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.
Then you wait on weather. Clay has to be worked dry to compact into a proper seal, and when you are hauling clay up out of a subsoil that discipline matters even more.
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 six feet of depth at centre with a 4:1 bank. Around Gonzales the test pit is doing real work: sand will not seal, but the clay under it usually will. Where the basin can be cut into that clay the chart prices stand. Where the sand runs deep, sealing becomes a line item and you see it before you commit.
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.
What moves the number on a Gonzales job: how deep the sand runs before you reach clay, whether the basin needs a clay cap hauled in, how far a lowboy can get in, how much brush has to come out first, and how far the spoil travels.
Real ponds, real day counts, photographed on site.
Blackland pond work, Paige
A new pond taking on water
Stock tank holding water, MarionFull process, statewide services, and the build standard: our Texas pond construction page.
Gonzales County is cattle country and always has been. The ponds we build here are mostly working water: tanks that mean stock are not walking a mile to the creek, and that hold through a summer when the creeks stop running. That is a different brief from an amenity pond and it puts depth and reliability ahead of looks.
Mesquite, huisache and yaupon take any ground that stops being grazed, and the low corner where a pond wants to go is always the worst of it. We clear land as our main trade and build ponds with the same crew, so the brush comes out and the basin gets cut on one trip with one bill.
On sand over clay the surface tells you very little. The pit tells us how deep the sand runs, how good the clay is beneath it, and whether we can win enough of that clay to build the dam as well as line the basin. On this ground that hour of digging is the difference between a pond and an expensive sand trap.
Six feet at centre is where the chart starts. In this country, where a hot summer can shut the creeks down completely, the ponds that matter are the deep ones. Eight or nine feet keeps a cold layer at the bottom and keeps water in front of your stock when everything else has gone.
A new tank looks raw. Bare banks, cloudy water, a season before it settles. Get grass established before the first big rain and it clears faster and stops feeding silt back into itself.
On sandy country the first dry stretch tells you the truth. A steady drop beyond normal evaporation is worth a call. Caught early it is usually a small repair; left a season it becomes draining and starting over.
Keep cattle off the dam. Hoof traffic on a dam face is the commonest way a sound tank becomes a leaking one, and on sandy ground it happens faster. A fenced tank with a gravity trough below outlasts an open one by years.
In this county the creeks stop running in a hard year, and that is when a deep tank earns everything it cost. Six feet gets low and warm. Nine feet keeps water in front of your stock. That is the whole argument.
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.
Bare banks wash, and sandy banks wash fastest of all. We seed and mat the disturbed ground with a mix suited to this country so the first storm does not put your dam back into the tank.
Moving water stays cleaner. An aerator or fountain keeps oxygen through the column and holds algae back through a long South Texas summer.
A hardened approach or a dock turns a tank into somewhere you use rather than just somewhere stock drink. We shape and compact for it while the machines are still on site.
Fish want structure and depth before stocking. We leave brush piles, a drop off and a shelf while the basin is open, so the tank is built to hold fish before you put any in.
My experience was the best hands down. I liked the direct upfront pricing and how it was stated clearly what would be done. The operator Jonathan went above and beyond to take care of our property and listened to what was important to us.
James Lout, Google review
Jonathon came out and did a great job. Had 8 to 10 large piles of brush that he was able to mulch in a couple of hours. He walked the property with me so I could point out more areas I wanted cleaned up.
Freddy Huser, Google review
My wife and I bought 3 acres that we needed cedars cleared from. A good friend of mine recommended Pierce so I decided to give them a try. Taylor was communicative and responded quickly from the first call.
Chad Womack, Google review
Dirt crews talk in shorthand. These are the six terms that matter most on a pond build.
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.
The key cut through the dam footprint, taken down into the clay subsoil and backfilled with compacted clay so water cannot track under the dam. On sand over clay it is the single thing that decides whether a tank holds.
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.
We build ponds across Gonzales County and the post oak country around it. A few of the places we work close to Gonzales:
Pricing starts at $12,300 for a quarter acre at six feet with a 4:1 bank and runs to $39,500 for two acres, with an $8,000 minimum. Where the basin can be cut into the clay under the sand those numbers stand. Where the sand runs deep, sealing is a line item and you see it before committing.
It depends on how deep the sand goes on your particular piece. Sandy loam on the surface will not hold, but there is normally a clay subsoil beneath it that will. The test pit is how we find out, and we dig it before quoting rather than after.
Then we say so and price the options honestly: move the pond to where the clay is shallower, haul clay from elsewhere on the property to cap the basin, or line it. What we will not do is cut a basin into sand and let you find out over the next dry month.
Usually. Mesquite, huisache and yaupon take over any ungrazed ground and that is exactly where the pond wants to be. Clearing land is our main trade, so the brush and the basin happen on one trip with one crew and one bill.
On your own rural land, generally no, and agricultural water storage is exempt from most regulation in Texas. It changes if the pond dams a defined watercourse or sits in a floodplain. We will tell you which applies to your site before anything starts.
Deeper than the chart minimum if you can. Six feet holds water, but in a Gonzales County August a six foot tank gets low and warm. Eight or nine keeps a cold layer at the bottom and keeps water in front of stock through a dry spell.
Around 35 inches a year, mostly spring and autumn. On sandy ground more of the rain soaks in rather than running off, so a pond here can fill more slowly than the same pond on blackland. We size the catchment on the walk so the answer is about your ground.
Yes, and in this county there are a lot of generational tanks worth saving. Rebuilding the dam with a proper key trench and cutting a spillway sized for the catchment usually costs less than a new build and gives you a tank that behaves like new.
Tell us roughly how big you want the water and where you are thinking of putting it. We will walk the ground, dig a test pit to find where the clay is, and give you a written number.