PIERCE
LAND
CLEARING
Pond builders for the lake county itself: private fishing ponds, stock tanks, and dams built in the piney woods around Livingston, Onalaska, and Goodrich.
The county that holds Lake Livingston has no shortage of water. What it has is a sealing question on every upland site, and the answer decides the quote.
The sandy ridges between Livingston, Corrigan, and the forest grow pine like a business plan and pass water straight through. Uphill sites need the clay found before the first bucket moves: sometimes it is four feet down and the cut reaches it, sometimes the basin needs a compacted core or bentonite.
Either way it gets tested, not guessed. The sealing plan is a written line on the quote, and the pond holds water because the ground was read first.
Drop into the creek country toward the Trinity and Polk County hands you pond ground for free: tight clay that packs into a self sealing basin and dam. Pair that with fifty inches of rain and a modest watershed, and a well sited pond here fills in months and never really worries again.
The same rain demands storm discipline: core trench, compacted lifts, and a spillway sized for a piney woods gully washer. We build for the storm that shows up every few years, not the average Tuesday.
No mystery, no sales funnel: this is the sequence every Polk County build follows, from the first photos to the first rain that matters.
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.
On the walk we probe the basin site, read the draws, check where the spillway wants to discharge, and talk through what stays and what goes around the water. Sand depth and clay depth get answered with a test hole, not a shrug.
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.
This is the fast corner of Texas for fill: fifty inches of rain a year finds a correctly sited basin quickly. Most new ponds here catch their first serious water within weeks of the first real storm and stand full within a season.
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 |
Chart prices are for a 6 foot deep pond at 4:1 banks. Upland Polk County sand can add tested sealing as a flagged line item; bottomland clay sites usually run the chart clean.
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.
Upland sites carry the sealing question, tested and priced in writing when the basin needs a clay core or bentonite. Clearing the pine and yaupon off the footprint rides on the same quote at published day rates. Rock is a non-issue in most of this county, and we do not pad for ghosts.
Real ponds, real day counts, photographed on site.
Pond build in progress, Whitney
Pond expansion, Lampasas
Finished pond, BastropFull process, statewide services, and the build standard: our Texas pond construction page.
Because the lake is a production and a pond is a habit. Trailer, ramp, boat traffic, wind: that is a Saturday project. A stocked pond behind the house is Tuesday evening fishing, swimming without a current, and stock water that does not depend on a public shoreline.
Polk County fills with people trading a city lot for ten wooded acres. The pond is usually the first real improvement they order, and the smart ones order it before the house goes in, while the machines have clean access and the spoil has somewhere useful to go.
Pond sites here start as pine, sweetgum, and yaupon thicket. Our clearing crews and our pond crews are the same people, so the mulching, the stump grinding in the footprint, and the cut happen in one continuous mobilization.
Shallow warm water in this climate grows vegetation curb to curb. Basins here get past six feet fast, shallows get pinched, and the pond stays open, cool underneath, and fishable through the long summer.
The lake is for weekends. The pond is for the hour before dark, no trailer, no ramp line, no wind chop, and in three seasons the bass are worth photographing.
On wooded retirement acreage, a finished pond is what turns pines into a homestead. It is the first thing guests walk to and the first line the listing agent writes.
The small cattle and horse places along 190 and 146 need tanks that survive August. Depth built right means the herd waters at home all summer.
A pond in the pines becomes the neighborhood: deer at dusk, wood ducks by the second winter, and a feeder corn budget that finally pays off. Hunters notice what water does to a lease.
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.
Dams and banks get seeded and blanketed immediately, because east Texas rain arrives like an opinion. Erosion control is part of the build here, not an accessory.
Aeration keeps warm piney woods water healthy: circulation against the stale bottom layer, fewer weeds, better fish. The plumbing goes in during construction so the unit is a plug-in later.
If a dock is in the plan, say so before the dig: we set bank grades and dock site depth during shaping, and the finished pond receives the dock instead of fighting it.
Stocking follows a simple east Texas script: forage first, predators later, patience in between. You get the depth map and a straight recommendation on where to buy.
I cannot tell you how pleased I am with the work these guys did on my place. I have some very steep slopes and a lot of oaks and cedars. They used great judgement, not turning it into a field, using heavy machinery at a very fair price.
Ivan Allen, Google review
I would highly recommend Pierce Land Clearing. I mentioned to Bobby, our operator, that he was an artist. He took an overgrown piece of land and turned it into a beautiful landscape. He saw my vision and made it happen.
Monica Walker, Google review
We are really happy with the work Pierce Land Clearing did for us! They were quick to respond to our initial inquiry, gave a free estimate on the work we wanted done, and completed the work quickly. All the machine operators were very nice.
Jennifer Burrough, Google review
Learn these six and you can grade any pond quote you are handed, including ours.
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 a well designed pond it is the basin itself, so every yard dug does double duty.
One acre of water a foot deep, about 326,000 gallons. The unit that decides whether a stock pond needs a state permit.
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.
Livingston anchors the Polk County end of our east Texas pond routing. Every town below is a local pond page with its own soil notes and pricing.
The published chart starts at $12,300 for a quarter acre at 6 feet of depth on 4:1 banks, and the calculator above runs your own numbers. Upland sand sites can add tested sealing as a flagged line item. Photos get you a real range the same day.
If it is built for the sand, yes. We probe for the clay layer first: reach it with the cut when it is close, core or treat the basin when it is not, and put the sealing plan in writing. No basin gets dug on hope.
That is our home game. We are a land clearing company that builds ponds, so the thicket, the stumps in the footprint, and the dig are one crew and one bill. Wooded Polk County sites usually add just a day or two of clearing ahead of the cut.
Faster than almost anywhere in Texas. Fifty inches of rain and pine country runoff fill most correctly sited basins over a single wet season, and draw fed bottomland sites can fill with a few good storms.
Constantly. Half the tanks in Polk County are generational: silted, brush ringed, dam slumping. Drain, dredge, reshape, rebuild the dam where needed, and the tank comes back deeper than its owners remember it ever being.
Usually not on rural land. Normal farm and ranch ponds are exempt from state permitting and the county adds none of its own. Trinity floodplain ground and sites near the lake deserve a check first, and we flag that on the walk.
Chart pricing starts at 6 feet, which makes an honest pond. Where the ground allows we recommend eight or more at center: cooler water for fish, less weed pressure, and a better looking pond in late summer. The calculator shows exactly what deeper costs.
Two to five working days of digging for most sizes, per the chart. Clearing adds a day or two on wooded sites. You are welcome to watch every bucket of it from outside the swing radius.
Photos, a rough size, and your road gets a real range the same day. We route through Polk County regularly, and the site walk is free.