PIERCE
LAND
CLEARING
Round Rock sits on the seam. East of town is blackland clay that holds water on its own. West of town is limestone close to grade. Which side your property is on decides most of the quote.
That depends which side of town you are on, and it is the first thing we work out. Round Rock straddles the Balcones escarpment, so the ground changes character across a few miles.
East of Round Rock, out toward Hutto and Taylor, you are on deep Blackland Prairie. That clay is the best pond ground in Central Texas. Cut and compacted as the basin is dug, it seals on its own with no liner and no bentonite.
If your property is on that side of town the pond is a straightforward dig, and the chart prices hold up with very little added to them. The main thing to manage is timing, because blackland has to be worked dry to compact properly.
West of Round Rock the Edwards limestone comes up close to grade and the soil over it gets thin. Rock does not seal. A basin cut into fractured limestone can lose water as fast as it takes it, and no amount of optimism changes that.
Which is why we dig a test pit before quoting rather than after. If there is workable clay on the property we use it to cap the basin. If there is not, the honest answer is a liner or a different site, and you will hear that from us before you have spent anything.
Most people have never had a pond built and do not know what the week looks like. Here is the whole thing, from the first phone call to the day it starts holding water.
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.
We walk the ground with you, find where water already collects, and dig a test pit. Around Round Rock that pit matters more than anywhere else we work, because it tells us whether you are on clay that seals or rock that will not.
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.
Then you wait on weather. Clay has to be worked dry to compact properly, so we book around the forecast rather than through it. That is the frustrating part, and it is what decides whether the dam holds.
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 six feet of depth at centre with a 4:1 bank. East of Round Rock a sealing line item is rarely needed. West of it, on shallow limestone, the test pit decides whether the job is a straightforward dig or one that needs a clay cap or a liner, and we price that honestly rather than discovering it halfway through.
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.
What moves the number on a Round Rock job: whether the test pit finds workable clay or rock, how far a lowboy can get in, whether the site needs clearing first, how far the spoil travels, and whether you want the dirt spread, stockpiled or shaped into a pad.
Real ponds, real day counts, photographed on site.
Pond dirt work, Bertram
Banks graded to mow, Liberty Hill
Shaping the basin, Liberty HillFull process, statewide services, and the build standard: our Texas pond construction page.
Round Rock has built out hard, and the properties that call us are the ones the subdivisions have not swallowed: acreage out toward Hutto, Coupland, Liberty Hill and the county line. A pond is one of the few improvements that raises what a place is worth and what it can do at the same time.
A pond site is almost always the brushiest part of a property, because low ground grows brush and cedar fills anything nobody mows. We clear land as our main trade and build ponds with the same crew, so the clearing and the dig are one mobilisation, one crew, one bill.
On ground that changes as fast as it does here, a price given over the phone is a guess. We dig before we quote. That single hole tells us whether the basin will seal itself, whether we can win enough clay on site to cap it, or whether rock means rethinking the site. It costs you nothing and it is the difference between a real number and a hopeful one.
Central Texas can drop five inches in an afternoon and Williamson County sheds it fast off both clay and rock. A pond here needs a spillway cut to grade and a dam wide enough it cannot be overtopped. None of that is visible once the water is in, and it is what decides whether the pond survives its first wet decade.
A new pond looks raw. Bare banks, water the colour of whatever came out of the hole, and a season before it settles. Get grass established before the first big rain and it clears faster and stops feeding silt back into itself.
Every pond starts filling in the day it is finished. Grass cover on the watershed, stock fenced off the approach, and a small forebay to catch sediment before the main basin will buy you decades.
If cattle drink from it, keep them off the dam. Hoof traffic on a dam face is the commonest way a sound pond becomes a leaking one. A fenced pond with a gravity trough below outlasts an open one by years.
You learn what a pond is worth in the third hot August. Six feet gets low, warm and green. Nine feet holds a cold layer at the bottom and comes through it. Everyone we know who went deeper is glad they did.
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.
Bare banks wash. We seed and mat the disturbed ground with a mix suited to Central Texas so the first storm does not put your dam back into the basin.
Moving water stays cleaner. An aerator or fountain keeps oxygen through the column, holds algae back through summer, and is the difference between water you swim in and water you look at.
A dock or a hardened approach turns a pond into somewhere you go. We can shape and compact the ground for one while the machines are still on site, which is far cheaper than bringing them back.
Fish want structure and depth before they want stocking. We leave brush piles, a drop off and a shelf while the basin is open, so the pond is built to hold fish before you put any in.
Absolutely outstanding quality work by Pierce Land Clearing. Two days into the clearing the operator became ill and with no delays a new operator was dispatched to complete the job on schedule. Without a doubt, would use them again.
Sheila Mills, Google review
I called them after having bad service with another company. Preston explained the cost of everything up front. He answered all my questions and concerns. I emailed a Google map of the area and he got back with me within hours.
Dustin Crumbliss, Google review
These guys are the rockstars of the land clearing business. Arrived early, carefully listened to my wishes, and then went to town. So fast, efficient, and professional.
tim pham, Google review
Dirt crews talk in shorthand. These are the six terms that matter most on a pond build.
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.
The key cut through the dam footprint, backfilled with compacted clay, that stops water tracking under the dam. On the limestone side of Round Rock, winning enough clay to build one is sometimes the whole question.
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.
We build ponds either side of the escarpment across Williamson County. A few of the places we work close to Round Rock:
Pricing starts at $12,300 for a quarter acre at six feet with a 4:1 bank and runs to $39,500 for two acres, with an $8,000 minimum. East of town those numbers usually stand. West of town, if the test pit finds rock, sealing or a liner is a real line item and we will show it to you before you commit.
It depends which side of the escarpment you are on, which is why we dig a test pit before quoting. East of town, on blackland, almost always yes. West of town, on shallow limestone, sometimes only with a clay cap or a liner. You will get a straight answer either way.
We tell you, and we price the options rather than pushing on and hoping. Sometimes there is enough clay elsewhere on the property to cap the basin. Sometimes moving the pond a hundred yards solves it. Sometimes a liner is the honest answer. What we will not do is dig a hole that cannot hold water and hand you a bill.
Usually some of it. Low ground grows brush and cedar takes anything unmowed. Because land clearing is our main trade, the brush and the basin are one trip and one bill rather than two contractors and two transport charges.
On your own rural land, generally no, and agricultural water storage is exempt from most regulation in Texas. That changes if the pond dams a defined watercourse or sits inside the city limit as part of a development. We will tell you which applies before anything starts.
Six feet at centre is where the chart starts and it holds water. Eight feet or more is the recommendation if you want the pond to come through a dry summer. On blackland the extra depth is easy digging. On the limestone side depth is governed by what the rock allows, which the test pit tells us.
Around 35 inches of rain a year, mostly spring and autumn. A chart sized pond on a decent catchment usually fills over one or two wet seasons. Ground that sheds water fast, which is most of Williamson County, fills a pond quicker than sandy country would.
Yes, and around Round Rock it is often the smarter job. Rebuilding the dam with a proper key trench and cutting a spillway sized for the catchment usually costs less than starting again.
Tell us roughly how big you want the water and where you are thinking of putting it. We will walk the ground, dig a test pit to see which side of the seam you are really on, and give you a written number.