PIERCE
LAND
CLEARING
Highland Lakes country understands what water does for land value better than anywhere in Texas. We build the private supply: ponds and tanks in granite country, with the hammer honesty that this ground demands.
Marble Falls sits on the Llano Uplift, the granite heart of Texas. When our price list says granite means hammer time, this is the town it was written about.
West and north of town the decomposed granite runs shallow over the real thing, the same stone that built the Capitol. Solid granite does not negotiate with an excavator bucket: it takes a hydraulic hammer, billed by the day, or it takes moving the pond.
On most tracts we can find the site that misses the ledge, and that walk is the difference between a quote and a gamble.
The draws running toward the Colorado carry decomposed granite loam over clay lenses, and that is where Marble Falls ponds live. Our Burnet build, twenty five minutes up 281 on the same geology, went from grass to finished quarter acre pond in four days.
Sandy granite soils can drink water, so basins here get sealed with bentonite when the clay runs thin.
Granite country around the Highland Lakes builds different. Here is the full arc of a Marble Falls pond, first call to full 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.
A Marble Falls site walk is a conversation with the Llano Uplift. We read for solid granite that will not rip, map the decomposed granite that drinks water instead of holding it, and hunt the property for real clay. Some sites near the lakes carry enough soil to seal, plenty do not, and the difference decides the whole design. You get the verdict on the spot, along with what it means in machine days and dollars.
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.
Ponds around Marble Falls fill the way the lakes do, on storm inflow. Thirty inches of rain a year sounds thin until you watch how fast granite country sheds a storm into a draw. Grass the dam early, let the spillway take its first storms, and give the watershed a season. Sized right, the pond finds full pool and holds it.
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 list assumes diggable ground. In the Uplift that assumption gets verified on the walk: solid granite is hammer work billed by the day, decomposed granite digs fine but may want bentonite in the basin. Both get flagged in the quote, never discovered after.
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 hammer time is a live possibility in the Uplift, billed by the day and flagged as a contingency before we dig. Clay borrow or bentonite when the basin runs to decomposed granite, priced at design instead of appearing on an invoice. Cedar and brush clearing at published day rates, and long spoil hauls only when dirt truly cannot stay on the property, which is rare.
Real ponds, real day counts, photographed on site.
Stock tank holding water, Marion
Pond filling, Crawford
Lampasas, 40 min north: 5 days
Bentonite for thirsty granite soils
The finished product: water that staysFull process, statewide services, and the build standard: our Texas pond construction page.
Marble Falls knows the lakes rise and fall on LCRA math and drought years. A pond on your own tract answers to your own watershed: stock water, wildlife draw, and a full view in the years the lake pulls back. For the ranchettes off 1431 and 962 that will never touch lake frontage, it is the affordable version of the thing everyone moved here for.
Decomposed granite tells you what is under it if you look: bare pink domes and float rock mean ledge is close; deep loam draws with post oaks mean digging room. We read that on the walk, because a two day pond and a two week hammer job can sit a hundred yards apart out here.
Our documented Burnet build sits on this same Uplift geology, quarter acre in four days, dam compacted in lifts, holding water. When we quote Marble Falls, that build is the reference: same rock, same machines, same crew, twenty five minutes away.
Grus, the coarse granite sand the Uplift is made of, does not hold water, and a pond built in it without a seal will say so within a season. Our answer is engineering, not optimism: clay keyed into the core trench and floor when the property owns clay, bentonite blended in when it does not. Around Marble Falls the seal is the pond, and we build it like it.
The lakes rise on floods and so do private ponds out here. A basin matched to its watershed catches the runoff of two or three real storms and rides full; one dug too big for its draw waits years and blames the builder. We size against the watershed first, then shape the prettiest pond that number allows.
Highland Lakes summers pull feet of water off open ponds. Depth is the whole answer: eight feet or more at center keeps cool water under fish, keeps stock watered late into August, and starves the shallows weeds need. A deep, small pond beats a wide, shallow one every dry year of its life.
Grass the dam before the first storm, then let the pond hold water a few months. Stock forage first, minnows and bluegill, then bass the next season, and the food chain builds itself in the right order. Folks here know Lake LBJ fishing; a pond stocked patiently gives you a private version forty steps out the back.
Granite country oaks earn their keep in shade and value, and we build around them, haul paths off the root zones, iron off the drip lines. The cedar comes out clean because we are a Marble Falls clearing crew first. The site we hand back is graded, dressed, and ready to grass, like the pond grew there.
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.
Decomposed granite slopes rill the first time a storm finds them bare, so seeding and matting go on the dam as the closing act of the build. Grass roots do for a granite country dam what rebar does for concrete, and they are a lot cheaper installed early.
Deep ponds stratify in the Highland Lakes heat. A bottom diffuser keeps the column turning and the oxygen where fish need it, and a fountain adds motion that reads from the porch. Power run and placement get planned during the build, not bolted on after.
Lake people know what a good dock is worth. Plan it on the site walk and we will shape the shoreline and set the depth shelf while the basin is dry, so your fixed or floating dock lands level over honest water instead of mud.
Stocking runs forage first, bluegill and minnows, then bass a season later, the order that turns water into a fishery. It is the difference between a pond you fish weekly and one you tell excuses about, and it costs nothing but patience.
I truly appreciate the integrity of this company and very competitive pricing. Very timely, and communication and payment options were great! I highly recommend this company and we will use them again.
David Scoggins, Google review
They did a phenomenal job cleaning up my 80 acres in Bellville of tree damage from the straight wind storm. Steve surveyed the property and gave me a quote that week, and Dustin worked diligently for 9 days to complete the project. Throughout, I got frequent updates. Outstanding team, outstanding job.
Doug Abbott, Google review
One word: FANTASTIC!! Thank you Pierce Land Clearing and special thanks to Dustin. We are so pleased!!
Dawn Buscho, Google review
Six terms you will hear on the site walk, and what they actually mean for your water.
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.
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 Highland Lakes ring, and the crews already in it.
Then the quote already told you what happens: hammer time billed by the day, listed as a contingency with a cap conversation up front. More often, the site walk finds the spot that misses the ledge, and that walk is free.
The published list, quarter acre from $12,300, plus the granite question answered honestly on your specific tract. Run the calculator above for size and depth, then let us walk the ground before anyone commits.
By itself, unreliably: it drains like coarse sand. The build finds the clay lenses in the draws, cores the dam into them, and adds bentonite where the basin needs help. Our Burnet build on the same geology is the proof, 25 minutes away.
For daily living, mostly yes: a half acre pond with depth stays full and fishable on your own land while the lake does whatever LCRA needs it to do. It is also the cheaper of the two by an order of magnitude.
The Burnet reference build ran four days for a quarter acre in Uplift ground. Marble Falls builds price and schedule off that reality, not off soft dirt optimism.
Yes, one mobilization: cedar and brush off the draw, pond in, dam grassed. Our clearing crews already run 281 and 71 every week.
Send photos and a rough size. We will read the granite honestly and quote you a pond, not a gamble.