PIERCE
LAND
CLEARING
New Braunfels sits right on the Balcones Escarpment, which means two completely different grounds inside one city. Which side you own decides what your pond costs and how it gets built.
The Balcones Escarpment runs straight through this county, and it is the single most useful thing to know before anyone talks price. North and west of the line is thin soil over jointed limestone. South and east it softens into deep alluvial and blackland ground that holds water on its own. The same pond costs different money on either side.
Uphill toward Bulverde, Spring Branch, and the canyon country, the soil thins out over layered limestone. Rock is the variable here: how much of the basin comes out as excavation in competent stone rather than dirt, which is slower work and more day count.
Sealing can be a question on this side too. Some sites hold on a clay seam nobody expected and some do not, and the honest answer is that it is not always visible until the basin is open. What we bring instead of a promise is having dug this ground before and knowing what the ponds we built nearby did.
Where it needs help the fixes are a hauled and keyed clay blanket, bentonite worked into the basin, or a liner. Each is priced the moment we can honestly price it, and it is never presented as a surprise at the end.
Downhill toward Seguin, the Guadalupe bottoms, and the prairie edge, the ground turns to deep alluvial soils and blackland clay. This is some of the easiest pond dirt in Texas. Basins on this side usually run the published list clean with no sealing line at all.
The variable down here is not whether it holds, it is where the water goes in a storm. Both the Guadalupe and the Comal pull real drainage through this county and anything mapped as a channel carries floodplain rules worth checking before a machine moves dirt.
Placement fifty yards off a regulated line is usually just as good a pond and a great deal less paperwork. We flag it when we quote and tell you what to confirm with the county.
A Comal County pond runs in a fixed order, and knowing which side of the escarpment you are on shortcuts most of it.
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.
Your first number comes over the phone. Tell us roughly where the property sits and we can usually place you on one side of the escarpment or the other, which decides most of the price on its own. Photos and a pin get you a real range the same day. Once you approve the estimate we come walk it, reading how the ground lies, where runoff arrives from, what needs clearing, and whether a loaded truck can reach the spot. Anything that moves the number gets said on that walk.
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.
East and south, on the deep soils, a basin fills from ordinary rain over a season and holds it once full. West of the line the terrain sheds harder and a well sited pond can fill in one wet stretch. We will not name a date either way. What we control is the catchment, so we size the watershed feeding your basin rather than hoping for rain in the hole.
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 6 feet of depth at center with a 4:1 bank. East and south of the escarpment most New Braunfels sites run the list clean. North and west, rock and sealing are the variables, and each is priced the moment we can honestly price it rather than guessed at.
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.
On the east and south side, usually nothing: those sites run the published list clean. North and west, two things move the number. Rock: how much of the basin is excavation in competent limestone. Sealing: whether the ground holds on its own clay. Each becomes a line item the moment we can price it honestly.
Real ponds, real day counts, photographed on site.
Stock tank holding water, Marion
Full pond, Bastrop
Half acre pond, LampasasFull process, statewide services, and the build standard: our Texas pond construction page.
It is the first question worth answering and it costs nothing. Tell us roughly where the property sits and we can usually tell you which ground you own and what that means for the number before you have gone to any trouble at all.
Comal County is filling in fast, and a lot of what we build here is on tracts that have been left alone for thirty years. Cedar and brush usually have to come off the basin and dam footprint before anything can dig. We do both, so it is one mobilization and one bill.
Pricing starts at six feet at center. On the limestone side we will usually tell you to go eight or more where the budget reaches, because shallow water on thin soil turns warm and green fast. On the clay side depth is still the difference between a pond and a summer puddle.
Both the Guadalupe and the Comal drain this county and they move fast when it rains hard. Every dam we build is keyed into competent material, compacted in lifts rather than pushed into place, and given an emergency spillway sized for real runoff.
Living near the Guadalupe is not the same as having water you control. A pond on your own ground holds when the river is low and nobody upstream decides when you get to use it.
Comal County is developing fast, and water is the fastest way to keep a place worth owning as the country around it changes. Sited well a pond concentrates game and supports a wildlife management valuation.
Land nobody walks to is land you do not really enjoy. Water changes that, and on a growing county tract it turns the far end of the place into the part people go to.
Comal County buyers are sophisticated about ground. A pond that holds on the limestone side is a genuine differentiator, and on the clay side it is simply expected of a good tract.
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.
Bare banks wash the first time it storms, so we seed and stabilize what we disturb and match the mix to whichever soil you actually have.
Aeration earns its keep in Comal County heat. Moving water stays cooler, holds oxygen through August, and resists the bloom that turns a clear pond green by midsummer. Conduit is far cheaper roughed in while the basin is open.
Docks and hardened water access get planned before the basin closes so footings sit on competent material rather than fill.
Stocking waits until the pond is holding and the water has settled. We will tell you what actually thrives here and how long to leave a new basin alone first.
I could not be more pleased after hiring them to clear cedars off my land. They did exactly what I needed, and my place now looks amazing. I learned having the right equipment is key, and Pierce Land Clearing has it.
chris tiroff, Google review
I think when people undergo such a large project, they have an unrealistic expectation of how it is going to turn out. This was not the case, it turned out to be exactly as I hoped it would. Everybody I have dealt with so far in this company has been great.
Richard Franco, Google review
Preston and all the folks at Pierce were absolutely great to work with. The job was done on schedule and as quoted, and done well. Price was very fair as well. Highly recommend Pierce Land Clearing.
David Madeksho, Google review
Six terms you will hear on the site walk, and what they actually mean for your water.
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.
The water level at the bottom of the spillway, the highest the pond is designed to hold day to day.
A quarter acre pond starts at $12,300, a half acre at $19,200, and a full acre at $27,000, based on six feet of depth at center with a 4:1 bank. Minimum job is $8,000. East and south of the escarpment most sites run that list clean. North and west, rock and sealing are the variables.
Look at your rock and your trees. Thin soil, exposed pale stone, and cedar mean you are on the limestone side. Deep dark soil, mesquite and open prairie mean you are on the good pond dirt. Tell us roughly where the place sits and we can usually settle it on the call.
South and east, usually yes, and that is why those quotes run the list clean. North and west it depends on whether the basin finds clay, and the honest answer is that some sites do not show their hand until the ground is open. If yours needs sealing you hear the number as soon as we have it.
Worth checking before anyone digs. Both rivers carry mapped drainage through this county. Placement just off a regulated line is usually just as good a pond with far less paperwork, and we flag it when we quote and tell you what to confirm with the county.
Yes, and on tracts that have sat a while it is normally the first real work. Cedar and brush have to come off the basin and the dam footprint before a track hoe earns its keep. One company doing both means one schedule.
Pricing starts at six feet at center and we recommend eight or more where the budget allows, especially on the limestone side. Deeper water stays cooler, grows fewer weeds, and is still there in a dry August.
About two to three days for a quarter acre and nine to ten for two acres. Rock on the west side adds days, and we name that up front rather than after.
Yes. Photos, an aerial screenshot, or a pin get most New Braunfels quotes a real range the same day, because we have built water on both sides of this escarpment and know what each one does.
Send photos or a pin and roughly where the property sits. Which side of the escarpment you are on decides most of the number, and we can usually tell you that on the call. Free site walk across Comal County once the estimate works for you.