PIERCE
LAND
CLEARING
Our half acre Lampasas build ran five days, dam graded and photographed, and it sits on this page next to the price it started from. Ranch country deserves pond pricing that talks like that.
Limestone benches up top, honest clay in the creek valleys, and spring seeps that locals have trusted for a century. Good pond country, if you read it right.
The plateau pastures north and west of town run shallow soil over layered limestone. Upland tanks are possible where soil pockets sit deep enough, but the honest upland answer is often a smaller tank pushed to the head of a draw, where runoff concentrates and the soil does too.
Solid ledge, when we find it, is hammer work flagged by the day, same as everywhere we work.
Down in the Sulphur Creek and School Creek valleys the clay runs deep and red, and that is where our half acre build lives: five days, dam in compacted lifts, spillway cut, holding. Valley builds here run the published list as written.
If your tract touches a valley, your pond probably wants to live there.
Stock country deserves a straight process. Here is a Lampasas County pond build, step by step, no mystery anywhere in it.
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 Lampasas walk reads limestone ground with a rancher’s eye. We read the ledge under the draw, judge how much clay the soil carries, and look at the watershed the way the county’s creeks would: how fast does this ground shed a storm toward Sulphur Creek, and how much of it can we keep. The verdict comes standing in the pasture: site, size, seal, and cost in machine days.
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.
Lampasas County ponds fill on a handful of real storms a year, the same ones that put the river up. A tank matched to its watershed makes the most of every one. Your part while waiting: grass the dam before the first gully washer, glance at the spillway after storms, and let the draw work. It has been moving water to the river for ten thousand years; it will fill your pond.
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 |
The half acre reference build on this page priced from $19,200 on the published list and ran its five days on schedule. Upland limestone sites carry a rock variable; valley clay sites build as listed.
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 meets solid limestone, flagged as a day-rate contingency up front. Clay or bentonite work when the basin needs sealing help, priced at design instead of mid-build. Cedar and mesquite clearing at our published day rates, and dirt stays on the ranch in almost every Lampasas build, shaped into the site.
Real ponds, real day counts, photographed on site.
The Lampasas build: half acre, 5 days
Grading the dam, Lampasas
Basin at dusk, Whitney
Burnet, 30 min south: 4 days
The finished product: water that staysFull process, statewide services, and the build standard: our Texas pond construction page.
Our documented build here was a half acre for a reason: it is the ranch sweet spot. Big enough to carry cattle and fish through a dry year, small enough that five machine days finishes it, and deep enough at 8 feet that the plateau sun does not win. Most Lampasas County tracts we walk end up in the same conversation.
The expansion work pictured above is the other half of Lampasas pond life: tanks dug forty years ago that silted shallow or started small. Pushing an old tank deeper and wider on equipment day rates is often the best water-per-dollar move on the ranch, and we quote it after looking at the existing dam, not before.
Lampasas was built on springs, and some draws here still seep year round. A pond that captures a seep can stay full when rain ponds drop, but seep sites need care: the dam keys deeper and the spillway earns its keep. We flag a live seep as the asset it is and build accordingly.
Most Lampasas ponds are working tanks, and a working tank is judged in August of a dry year. That standard drives the build: depth that outlasts evaporation, approaches cattle can use without caving the banks, and a dam indifferent to hooves and weather. If the fishery comes too, wonderful, but the tank pays its way in stock water first.
Lampasas limestone country usually carries enough clay to seal a pond, but not always where you want the pond. The site walk finds out. When the basin runs thin we key clay from elsewhere on the property into the floor and core trench, and when the property has none to lend, bentonite gets priced in from the start rather than discovered at the end.
A hot summer pulls feet of water off open ponds out here, and shallow tanks give it up fastest. Eight feet or better at center holds cool water for fish, keeps the herd watered late into summer, and starves weed shallows. When the budget forces a choice, we shrink the footprint before we ever shave the depth.
Grass the dam immediately, matting on the steep faces. Let the spillway take its first storms and reseed any bare rills. After the pond holds water a few months, stock minnows and bluegill, then bass the following season into a pantry that can feed them. That is the entire program, and it makes a forty year tank.
Lampasas tank sites start brushy more often than not. We handle that as the Lampasas clearing crew we have always been: cedar and mesquite grubbed or mulched clean, oaks protected at the root zone, saved topsoil dressed back over the finished grades. The result reads as improved ranch land, not disturbed ground.
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.
Every build closes with seed and matting on the dam, because Lampasas storms do not schedule around new dirt. Grass established before the first hard rain is the difference between a dam that knits and a dam that rills.
Moving water is healthy water. A bottom diffuser keeps oxygen through the column in the hot months, protecting fish and keeping algae down, and the stock drink cleaner for it. Fountains suit the headquarters pond; diffusers suit the back pasture.
A simple fixed pier turns a tank into the grandkids’ favorite spot on the ranch. Plan it during the dig, while we can shape the shelf and grade the approach with iron already on site, and it goes in level over honest depth.
Stocking in food chain order, forage first and bass a season later, turns ranch water into a private fishery. No lease fees, no boat ramp, just an evening bite at the tank that out-fishes the drive to Stillhouse.
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.
The Lampasas County word for a pond, and the standard we build to: water for the herd first, everything else after.
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.
The plateau ring around Lampasas, and the crews already on it.
Yes: the half acre, five day build photographed on this page, dam graded in compacted lifts, priced off the same list you can read above. It is the reference for every Lampasas quote we write.
From $19,200 on the published list at 6 foot center depth and a 4:1 bank, which is exactly what the reference build started from. The calculator above runs your own size and depth.
Usually rebuild: pushing an old tank deeper and wider on equipment day rates beats new dirt when the dam bones are good. We look at the existing dam first, and the expansion work pictured above is what that looks like.
Where soil pockets allow, yes, and often the answer is a smaller tank at the head of a draw where soil and runoff concentrate. Ledge, if hit, is hammer time flagged by the day.
A live seep is an asset: it tops the pond off when rain does not. Seep sites get a deeper core trench and a serious spillway, and we build them glad to have the water.
One trip: mesquite and cedar off the draw, tank in, dam grassed. Crews already run 281 and 190 weekly.
Send photos and acreage. The half acre build on this page is the reference, and your quote reads just as plainly.