PIERCE
LAND
CLEARING
We clear the site, dig the pond, and build a dam that holds, ready for the first good rain. Documented builds across Central Texas, most quarter to half acre ponds done in 2 to 5 days, priced before a machine loads.
One outfit, dozers and excavators, from raw brush to a full pond. If your project starts with trees in the way, we are the only call you need to make.
Sited on the right soil, cut to honest depth, dam built in compacted lifts with a proper core and spillway. Built to hold water, not just to look finished the day we leave.
Working water for cattle and wildlife: fast builds, solid dams, and placement that catches the runoff your pasture actually produces.
The pond you have, bigger and deeper. Our documented Elgin expansion added a fifth of an acre of water in a single day on site.
Leaky ponds and porous soils sealed with sodium bentonite: spread, worked into the basin, and compacted so the ground finally holds what it catches.
New dams built in compacted lifts, leaking dams rebuilt, and spillways cut so the first big rain passes around your dam instead of through it.
When the soil will not seal, we say so, and build it with a liner instead of selling you a dry hole. The lined build above sits in ground that would never have held on its own.
Real jobs with real day counts. Every card is a pond our crews built, photographed on site.
Quarter acre, Gatesville: 2 days
Quarter acre, Bastrop: 2 days
Quarter acre, Burnet: 4 daysHalf acre, Lampasas: 5 days
Fifth acre, Liberty Hill: 2 days
Third acre, Elgin: 5 daysPond expansion, Elgin: 1 day
The finished product: water that stays
The same eight steps on every build, whether it is a stock tank or a two acre lake. Skip one and you own a dry hole or a washed out dam.
We look at where the water wants to be: the draw, the soil, the trees, and what feeds it.
Test holes where the basin goes. Clay content decides everything downstream of this step.
Basin, dam line, spillway path, and topsoil piles marked before iron moves.
Brush mulched, trees out, roots grubbed, topsoil stripped and saved for the banks.
The dam gets keyed into solid material below grade so water cannot travel under it.
Compacted layer by layer, never pushed up loose. This is the difference that lasts.
Storm water gets a route around the dam, sized for the watershed above it.
Slopes shaped to mow, topsoil back on the banks, ready to grass and ready to fill.
Anyone with an excavator can dig a hole. Whether it holds water comes down to what the ground is made of, and that is decided before the first bucket. We look at the soil where you want the water, find the clay, and site the pond where the ground works with you. When a property genuinely will not seal, we tell you up front and talk bentonite or liners, because a dry pond is the most expensive kind.
The water feature is a byproduct. The engineering is the dam: stripped to good material, keyed in with a core trench, and built up in compacted lifts, not pushed up in one loose pile the way failed dams always were. A spillway gets cut so storm water goes around the structure, and the whole thing is shaped so it mows, walks, and lasts.
A pond only holds what drains to it. Before we cut, we look at the ground above the site, how many acres shed rain toward that draw, and match the pond to the water it will actually receive. Too little watershed and it never fills; too much without a proper spillway and the first spring storm takes the dam. Getting that balance right is design work, and it is free with the quote.
Nearly every failed pond we get called to look at died one of three ways: a dam pushed up loose instead of compacted in lifts, a basin cut in soil that was never going to seal, or a spillway that was an afterthought. All three are avoidable on day one, which is exactly why the process above exists, and why we would rather talk you out of a bad site than charge you to build on one.
Most ponds start as a brush thicket with a low spot in it. Because we are a land clearing company first, the cedar and mesquite come out, the site gets grubbed clean of roots, and the same mobilization digs your pond, builds the dam, and finish grades the banks. One crew, one bill, no gap where two contractors point at each other.
The builds on this page ran 1 to 5 days on site, and that is the honest shape of most pond work: a quarter acre tank is days of machine time, not months. Scope sets the price, we put the number on the table before we mobilize, and if you also need ranch roads or site prep while the iron is on your place, that is the cheapest time you will ever add it.
Worked with me to get my pond exactly how I wanted it. Taylor communicated well and was willing to cut me a fair deal when things were not exactly as expected. Jonathon is an ace with the dozer. The man can move dirt like icing on a cake.
Dennis Pacl, Google review
What a great experience. This company was prompt, and right on budget. They made a pond and tank for me on my ranch. The owner and his team were very professional.
Glenn Gonzales, Google review
The Pierce guys rocked our project out of the park! We had a commercial property that needed some grading and redesign of drainage for future development. They brought in a huge dozer and made light work of our needs.
Chris Neighbors, Google review
Based in Austin, building ponds and stock tanks across the Hill Country, the Brazos Valley, and statewide for the right project. Every town below links to its own local pond page. We clear land in all of them, and we bring the same crews to the water.
Every town above has its own pond construction page with local soil notes, documented builds nearby, and pricing. Not on the list? We travel. See every area we serve →
Ponds are scope priced: size, depth, dam length, soil, and access set the number, and we put it on the table before a machine loads. As real reference points, our documented quarter acre builds ran 2 to 4 days of machine time and our half acre build ran 5, and machine days are what drive the price. Send photos, a rough size, and your location and we will give you a real number, usually the same day.
Most quarter to half acre ponds and stock tanks take 2 to 5 days on site, and that is documented on this page, not estimated. Bigger water, rock, or long dam runs add time, and we tell you the day count with the quote so there are no surprises.
That is the question that separates pond builders from dirt movers. It comes down to soil: clay holds, sand does not, and most Central Texas ground is somewhere in between. We evaluate the soil where you want the water, build the dam in compacted lifts with a proper core, and when the ground genuinely will not seal we will tell you honestly and talk about bentonite or liners, like the lined pond you can see on this page, instead of digging you an expensive dry hole.
Most farm and ranch ponds built for livestock, wildlife, or fish fall under long standing Texas exemptions and need no permit. Larger impoundments and anything sitting on a named stream or in a floodplain can require review. We flag anything that needs attention when we scope the job, before any dirt moves.
Yes, and it is the reason to call us specifically. We are a land clearing company with dirt crews, so the trees come out, the brush gets mulched, the pond gets dug, and the dam gets built in one mobilization by one outfit, instead of you sequencing two contractors who each blame the other when something slips.
Yes. A leaking pond usually comes down to the dam or the soil. We rebuild and recompact dams, expand ponds that were built too small, like the one day pond expansion documented on this page, and seal porous basins with sodium bentonite worked into the soil and compacted, so the ground holds what it catches.
Send photos of the spot, a rough size, and your town. You will usually have a real number the same day, from the crew that can clear the site and build the pond in one trip.