PIERCE
LAND
CLEARING
Schertz sits on the Guadalupe County side of the San Antonio metro, where blackland runs out into brush country. That clay is good pond ground and it is the reason ponds here are straightforward.
Usually yes, and without a liner. Schertz sits on the tail of the Blackland Prairie as it runs south into brush country, and that clay compacts into its own seal.
Schertz sits where the Blackland Prairie runs south into the mesquite and huisache country. The soil still carries the prairie clay, and that clay is what makes a pond work. Compacted as the basin is cut and the dam raised, it seals itself: no liner, no bentonite, no surprise line item.
It is worth knowing because forty minutes north of here, up in the Comal limestone, the same pond can cost thousands more to make hold. On this ground the working assumption is that it will, confirmed in the test pit before anybody commits.
The harder question around Schertz is usually access rather than soil. This is a city that has grown together with Cibolo, Selma and Universal City, and the acreage left is often behind a subdivision, down a shared drive, or hemmed in by easements a lowboy was never meant to negotiate.
So the walk covers the route in as carefully as the pond site. Where a big machine cannot get, a smaller one usually can, and knowing that up front is what stops a job stalling on the morning it starts.
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.
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.
We walk the ground with you, find the low spot water already runs to, check how a lowboy gets in, and dig a test pit. On Schertz clay that pit is normally good news and it is where the quote stops being a guess.
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.
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. Around Schertz a sealing line item is rarely needed, which keeps these builds close to the chart. Access is the more common variable, because a lot of the remaining acreage here is hemmed in by development.
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.
What moves the number on a Schertz job: how far a lowboy can get in and what it has to cross, whether the site needs clearing first, how far the spoil has to be carried, and whether you want the dirt spread, stockpiled or shaped into a pad.
Real ponds, real day counts, photographed on site.
A new pond taking on water
Pond build on Manor blackland
Stock tank holding water, MarionFull process, statewide services, and the build standard: our Texas pond construction page.
Already have a pond that will not hold water? Start with why a pond will not hold water, see what a rehab involves and what one cost, and if the soil is the problem the bentonite calculator gives you the load count before anyone comes out.
Schertz has built out hard, and what is left in real acreage sits toward Marion and the county line. The people holding it tend to be holding it deliberately. A pond is the improvement that makes that decision pay: it is permanent, it is useful, and on this clay it is one of the cheaper ways to add something real to a property.
Mesquite and huisache take any ground that stops being grazed here, and the low corner where a pond wants to sit is always the worst of it. We clear land as our main trade and build ponds with the same crew, so the brush comes out and the basin gets cut on one mobilisation with one bill.
The chart starts at six feet at centre and six feet holds on this ground. But south of Austin the summers are longer and the rainfall is thinner, around 32 inches rather than 35. If the pond has to still look like a pond in August, eight or nine feet at centre is the difference, and it is cheap while the machine is already in the hole.
This country gets its rain in bursts, and Cibolo Creek and the draws feeding it prove it regularly. A pond here needs a spillway cut to grade and a dam wide enough it cannot be overtopped. That work is invisible once the water is in and it is what decides whether the pond is still there in thirty years.
A new pond looks raw. Bare banks, water the colour of the clay it came out of, and a season before it settles. Get grass on the banks 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 ahead of 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.
South of Austin the summers run long. Six feet gets low, warm and green by August. Nine feet keeps a cold layer at the bottom and comes through it. Everyone we know who went deeper is glad they did.
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. We seed and mat the disturbed ground with a mix suited to South Central Texas so the first storm does not put your dam back into the basin.
Moving water stays cleaner, and it matters more in a long hot summer. An aerator or fountain keeps oxygen through the column and holds algae back.
A dock or a hardened approach turns a pond into somewhere you go. We shape and compact for one while the machines are still on site, which is far cheaper than bringing them back.
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.
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.
The key cut through the dam footprint, backfilled with compacted clay, that stops water tracking under the dam instead of sitting behind it. On Guadalupe County clay it is the most important part of the build.
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.
We build ponds across Guadalupe County and the country either side of it. A few of the places we work close to Schertz:
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. On Guadalupe County clay those numbers usually stand, because there is rarely sealing to add. Access and any clearing are the more common variables.
Usually yes. You are on the southern tail of the Blackland Prairie, and that clay compacts into its own seal as the basin is cut. Ponds here rarely need a liner. We still dig a test pit before quoting, because the ground answers better than a soil map does.
It is the most common one around Schertz. A lowboy needs room and a surface that will carry it, and a lot of the remaining land here is behind development. We walk the route in as part of the site visit. Where a big machine cannot reach, a smaller one usually can, at a slightly slower pace.
Often. Mesquite and huisache take over anything ungrazed and the pond site is always the thickest part. Because clearing is our main trade, the brush 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 inside the Schertz city limit as part of a development. We will tell you what applies before anything starts.
Six feet at centre is where the chart starts. This far south the summers are long and the rain is thinner, so eight or nine feet is the sensible target if you want water through August. On this clay the extra depth is straightforward digging.
Around 32 inches a year here, mostly spring and autumn, which is thinner than Austin gets. A chart sized pond on a decent catchment usually fills over one or two wet seasons. We size the watershed on the walk so the answer is about your ground rather than a regional average.
Yes, and around Marion and the county line there are plenty worth saving. Rebuilding the dam with a proper key trench and cutting a spillway sized for the catchment usually costs less than a new build.
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 with the transport already in it.