PIERCE
LAND
CLEARING
Round Top is rolling post oak country full of weekend places and restored farmsteads. Ponds here are the view from the porch, and they still have to be built for sandy ground.
It depends how deep the sand runs. Fayette County is Post Oak Savannah, sandy loam over a clay subsoil, so the basin has to reach that clay to hold.
Fayette County is Post Oak Savannah, which means sandy loam on top of a clay subsoil. The sand is what makes this country roll the way it does and what makes it drain so well after rain. It is also what will let a pond basin empty itself if the dig stops in the wrong layer.
How deep that sand runs varies from one property to the next and sometimes from one end of a paddock to the other. A quote given without a test pit is a guess, and around here it is a guess with several thousand dollars riding on it.
Where we can cut the basin down into the clay subsoil, the pond seals itself and the chart prices hold. Where the sand runs deep, we win clay from a better part of the property and cap the basin with it. Either way the answer comes out of the pit rather than out of optimism.
And because most Round Top ponds are meant to be looked at, we design for that at the same time: sited on the view from the house, banks graded so they mow, a shelf and enough depth to keep the water clear rather than green by July.
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 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, work out the view you want it sited on, and dig a test pit. On Fayette County sand that pit is the basis of the whole quote.
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 into a proper seal, and on a capped basin that discipline decides whether you get a pond or a slow leak.
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. Around Round Top the test pit is doing the real work: where the clay is within reach the chart prices stand, and where the sand is deep the basin needs a clay cap. Both are priced in writing before a machine moves.
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 Top job: how deep the sand runs before clay, whether clay has to be hauled from elsewhere on the property, how far a lowboy can get in, how much yaupon has to come out, and whether you want the spoil shaped into a berm rather than carted off.
Real ponds, real day counts, photographed on site.
A new pond taking on water
Blackland pond work, Paige
Banks graded to mow, Liberty HillFull process, statewide services, and the build standard: our Texas pond construction page.
A lot of the acreage around Round Top belongs to people who came out from Houston or Austin, restored something, and care a great deal about how the place looks. That changes the pond brief. It is sited for the view rather than for the cattle, the banks have to mow cleanly, and green water in July is not acceptable. All of that is decided at the dig, not afterwards.
Yaupon fills the post oak understory here and the low draws are the worst of it, which is exactly where the pond wants to go. We clear land as our main trade and build ponds with the same crew, so the understory comes out and the basin gets cut on one mobilisation with one bill and one set of tracks across your pasture.
On sand over clay the surface tells you very little. The pit tells us how deep the sand runs, how good the clay beneath is, and whether there is enough of it to seal the floor and build the dam. On this ground that hour decides whether you get the pond you pictured or an expensive dry hollow.
If you want to see into it, that starts with depth and shape rather than a bottle of something. Eight feet or more at centre keeps a cold layer at the bottom, a proper shelf gives you somewhere to stand and stops the edges going to weed, and aeration keeps it moving through a Fayette County August. Retrofitting any of that later is far dearer than doing it while the machines are here.
A new pond looks raw, and on a place people visit at weekends that is worth planning for. Bare banks, cloudy water, a season before it settles. Grass established before the first big rain makes the difference.
Clear water comes from depth, shape and movement rather than from a treatment. Eight feet or more at centre, a proper shelf, banks that do not slump and some aeration. Decide it before the machines leave, because adding it later costs several times as much.
Every pond starts filling in the day it is finished. Grass cover on the watershed, stock or vehicles kept off the approach, and a small forebay ahead of the main basin will buy you decades.
You learn what a pond is worth in the third hot August. Six feet gets low, warm and green. Nine feet keeps a cold layer at the bottom and still looks like the reason you built it.
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, and sandy banks wash fastest. We seed and mat the disturbed ground with a mix suited to post oak country so the first storm does not undo the shaping.
Moving water stays cleaner, and on a pond you look at from the porch that is most of the point. An aerator or fountain keeps oxygen through the column and holds algae back.
A dock or a hardened bank turns a pond into somewhere you use rather than something you look at. We shape and compact for one while the machines are still on site.
Fish want structure and depth before 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.
Hiring them to clear a piece of land on which we eventually want to build our future home was one of the best decisions I have made. First and foremost, the quality of their work is excellent. Second, these guys do not skimp.
Charles Schroeder, Google review
A great investment for our property. Showed up exactly when Preston said he would, worked hard all day long without a break with a beast of a machine. He had a very good understanding of what I wanted to do, and did it. The results are fantastic.
Karl Wendler, Google review
These guys are great! We booked a date and they showed up on time and went straight to work. Taylor, the owner, answered all of my text messages promptly. I have five acres of very dense elm and oak trees.
alan baldree, Google review
Dirt crews talk in shorthand. These are the six terms that matter most on a pond build.
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.
The key cut through the dam footprint, taken down into clay and backfilled with compacted clay so water cannot track under the dam. On sand over clay it is what decides whether the pond holds at all.
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.
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. Where the basin reaches clay those numbers stand. Where the sand runs deep, a clay cap is a real line item and you will see it itemised before committing.
It depends how deep the sandy loam runs on your place. The clay subsoil underneath usually seals well; the sand above it will not. The test pit is how we find out, and we dig it before quoting rather than after.
Yes, but it is designed in rather than added on. Depth is most of it, eight feet or more at centre. A shelf, banks that do not slump, grass established on the watershed and some aeration do the rest. A wide shallow pond on sandy ground will be green by July whatever you pour into it.
Usually. Yaupon fills the post oak understory and the low draws where a pond wants to sit are always the thickest. Because clearing is our main trade, the understory and the basin happen on one trip with one crew and one bill.
On your own rural land, generally no, and agricultural water storage is exempt from most regulation in Texas. It changes if the pond dams a defined watercourse or sits in a floodplain. We will tell you what applies to your site before anything starts.
A quarter acre pond is two to three days on site, an acre five or six, two acres nine or ten. Any clearing is on top and we quote it separately so you can see exactly what you are paying for.
Round Top gets around 39 inches a year, the most of anywhere we regularly build. That helps, but sandy ground soaks up more than it sheds, so what fills your pond is the catchment above it. We size that on the walk rather than quoting the rainfall figure at you.
Yes, and on the restored places around here there is often one worth saving. Rebuilt with a proper key trench in the dam, a sealed basin and a spillway sized for the catchment, it usually costs less than a new build, and it sits on ground that has already proved it holds water.
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, and give you a written number that reflects what is actually under your pasture.