PIERCE
LAND
CLEARING
Ponds, stock tanks and dams built across Hamilton County. Published pricing from $12,300, dirt crews that build ponds every week, and an honest answer on whether your ground will hold water.
Hico sits on the Bosque in cedar and limestone country, and rock is the first question on every pond here. Soil over the uplands can be thin enough that a basin runs into rock before it reaches depth, which changes the machine and the day count. The creek bottoms are the opposite: good clay, easy digging, and usually the right place to put a pond anyway because that is where the water already wants to go.
The clay around Hico 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.
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 property with you and dig test pits where the pond is going. Around Hico 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.
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.
Rain fills ponds, not machines. In Hamilton 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 Hico. 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.
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.
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.
Dozer grading the dam on a half acre pond build near Lampasas, TX
Half acre pond build near Lampasas, TX
Excavator shaping a pond basin near Gatesville, 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 Hico 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.
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.
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 have used Pierce Land Clearing to clear out property that I own on two different occasions. Each time two different operators but same result: amazing work!!! It is impressive what their forestry mulchers can accomplish so quickly.
mike humphries, Google review
I have been working with Pierce on projects for roughly a year and he has been top notch in all aspects. Taylor is a great communicator and very thorough in his work. Any issue we have had has always been resolved quickly and with all parties in mind.
joshua crispell, Google review
Would recommend A++! Everyone throughout the entire process was a pleasure to work with. Job was done as scheduled and we are very pleased with the results! Our 5 acres never looked better!
Michael Lyons, 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.
Every acre of ground that sheds rain toward your pond. It, not the hole, decides how fast you get water.
We build ponds across Hamilton 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 Hico 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 Hamilton 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 Hico 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.