PIERCE
LAND
CLEARING
Horseshoe Bay sits on the granite of the Llano Uplift beside Lake LBJ. Decomposed granite drains like a sieve, so out here a pond is a sealing job first and a digging job second.
Not on its own, usually. This is the Llano Uplift, and the sandy decomposed granite that makes the country beautiful is close to the worst thing you can put under a pond basin. It is a solvable problem, and it has to be priced before anyone digs.
Horseshoe Bay is lake country, and people out here already understand what water does to a place. A pond on the acreage behind the house holds its value in a way it never does out on a working section, and there is usually enough fall in the ground for a proper bank and a view of the water from the porch.
Because the sealing question is known in advance rather than discovered, a granite country pond is a straightforward job. We quote the bentonite or the liner from the start, build the basin to hold it, and the pond behaves from the first fill. What ruins ponds out here is pretending the ground is something it is not.
Decomposed granite is coarse and gritty and water runs straight through it. There is no compacting your way out of it, which is why the Llano Uplift is full of tanks that filled once and never again. On this ground the honest answer is a sealed basin, either bentonite worked into the subgrade or a proper liner.
Sometimes there is workable clay in a low seam on the property and we can win the sealing material off your own ground, which is far cheaper than hauling it in. A test pit tells us in an afternoon. Either way the sealing sits on the quote as a real number before you sign anything.
Most people have never had a pond built and do not know what the week actually looks like. Here is the whole thing, from the first call to the day it starts holding water.
Text or call with pictures of the spot and what you have in mind. Because the price list is published, we can give you an honest range on the first call, then put a boot on the ground to firm it up.
We walk the ground with you, find where the fall already takes runoff, and dig a test pit to see what is under the surface. On Horseshoe Bay granite that pit is mostly about clay: whether the property has any, and where it is.
You get one page with real numbers on it. Excavation, dam construction, spillway, transport, and any flagged contingency, all in plain terms. No allowances that balloon later, no asterisks doing heavy lifting.
Mobilization is usually measured in weeks, not months. The dozer and excavator arrive on a lowboy, we stage at the site, and from that morning the build runs continuously until the pond is done.
The dig itself runs two to five days on most builds. Topsoil is saved for the banks, the core trench goes in first, and the dam is built the slow, right way, in compacted layers rather than one loose push. You will see the pond take shape daily.
We do not leave until you have walked the finished pond with us. The dam, the spillway, the bank grades, the topsoil dressing, all of it inspected against what was promised, and corrected on the spot if it falls short.
Then you wait on rain, and out here that is the longest part. Llano County gets its water in storms rather than steadily, so a new pond can sit low for months and then come up in one afternoon. A sealed basin holds what it catches, which is the whole point of doing it properly.
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. On Horseshoe Bay granite you should assume a sealing line item, and the test pit decides whether that is bentonite, hauled clay or a liner. Access on the built up side of town and how far the spoil has to be carried are the other two variables.
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.
We would rather explain the number before you sign than after. This is the whole anatomy of a pond quote.
The number includes the pond, whole and finished: design against the watershed, staking, topsoil stripped and banked, core trench, compacted-lift dam, cut spillway, finish-graded slopes, and dressed banks. Getting the iron to your gate and the closing walkthrough are in there too.
What moves the number on a Horseshoe Bay job: how much sealing the test pit calls for, whether there is usable clay on the property or it has to be hauled in, gate access for a lowboy, and whether the site needs clearing first.
Real ponds, real day counts, photographed on site.
Bentonite sealing a pond basin
Basin at dusk, Whitney
Finished pond, Liberty HillFull process, statewide services, and the build standard: our Texas pond construction page.
Most of what we build around Horseshoe Bay is on the acreage outside the fairways, out toward Sunrise Beach, Kingsland and the Llano road. It is granite ranchette country: enough room for real water, enough fall for a proper dam, and owners who want the pond to look like it belongs rather than like a hole in a field.
The low ground where a pond wants to sit is normally thick with cedar and mesquite and prickly pear. Clearing is our main trade and we build ponds with the same crew, so the brush comes out and the basin gets cut on one mobilisation and one bill.
A sealed pond is built differently from the first cut. The subgrade gets shaped and proof rolled, the bentonite gets worked in and compacted rather than dusted over the top, and the banks get built so the seal is not left exposed above the waterline. Sealing a pond after it has failed costs more than building it sealed and works less well.
Llano County averages about 27 inches, less than anywhere else we build regularly, and August is brutal. Six feet at centre is the chart baseline. Eight or nine keeps a cold layer at the bottom, cuts evaporation and holds algae back. On a sealed pond the extra depth also keeps the waterline well above the part of the seal that dries out.
A new pond looks raw. Bare banks, water the colour of the ground it came out of, and a season before it settles. Get grass established on the banks before the first big storm and it clears faster and stops washing material straight back into the basin.
On a sealed basin the vulnerable part is the ring of seal just above the summer waterline. It dries, cracks and tends to fail there first. Extra depth keeps the water higher for longer, and a skim of topsoil over the upper seal protects it. Both are cheap while the machine is still on site.
Granite country sheds grit as well as water. A small forebay ahead of the main basin catches sand before it reaches the pond, and it can be cleaned out with a tractor rather than an excavator.
You find out what a pond is worth in the third hot August. Six feet gets low, warm and green. Nine feet keeps a cold layer at the bottom and comes through it. On the driest ground we work, depth is the best money you can spend.
When the dirt work is done you can keep the same crew on the finish work. These four add-ons turn a new basin into a finished pond.
Bare banks wash, and granite banks wash as sand. We seed and mat the disturbed ground with a mix suited to Central Texas so the first storm does not put your bank into the basin.
Moving water stays cleaner. An aerator keeps oxygen through the whole column and holds algae back through a hot summer, which matters more on a pond that gets low.
A hardened approach gives you somewhere to back a trailer and a clean way down to the water without breaking the banks down. We shape and compact it while the machines are still on site.
Fish want structure and depth before stocking. While the basin is open we shape a drop off and a shelf, and on a sealed pond we set the structure clear of the seal so nothing sits against it.
Taylor knows his business and was very respectful of our property. His 3 days of service advanced our land clearing plan beyond our expectation. We will have him back yearly to keep our brush management in check.
Michael McCollum, Google review
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
Learn these six and you can grade any pond quote you are handed, including ours.
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 Horseshoe Bay granite the borrow question matters more than usual, because the basin often gives you gritty material that will build a dam but will never seal one, so the clay for the core has to come from a seam on the place or off a truck.
One acre of water a foot deep, about 326,000 gallons. The unit that decides whether a stock pond needs a state permit.
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. On granite country ground you should expect a sealing line on top of that, sized from the test pit and written on the quote before you sign.
Not without help. Granite grit drains freely and no amount of compaction changes that. What works is a sealed basin: bentonite worked into a shaped subgrade, clay won from a seam on your own place or hauled in, or a liner. We dig a test pit first so the answer is measured rather than guessed.
It depends on the basin size and whether there is usable clay on your property. It is a real number and it goes on the quote from the start. What we will not do is quote as though the ground will seal itself and then hand you a change order.
Sometimes, and sometimes the honest answer is no. There has to be room for the basin, the bank and somewhere for the spoil, and there has to be gate access a lowboy can get through. We will tell you on the walk rather than after a deposit.
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, and property inside a subdivision may have its own rules. We will tell you which applies before anything starts.
Six feet at centre is where the chart starts. Eight or nine is what we recommend out here, because Llano County gets the least rain of anywhere we work regularly and a shallow pond spends August looking like a puddle.
Around 27 inches a year, most of it in spring and autumn storms. Granite country sheds rain quickly, so a decent catchment fills faster than the acreage suggests, but there is less rain to catch than east of here. Most chart sized ponds fill over one or two wet seasons.
Often. Around here a leaking pond is nearly always the ground rather than the dam: it was dug in granite grit and never sealed. We drain it, shape and proof roll the subgrade, seal it properly and rebuild the banks. It is real work, and it is still cheaper than starting again somewhere else on the same property.
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 and give you a written number with the sealing already in it rather than added later.