PIERCE
LAND
CLEARING
Schulenburg is working Fayette County: hay meadows, cattle and painted churches. Ponds here are stock water first, and the ground under them is sand over clay.
Usually, if the basin reaches the clay. This is Post Oak Savannah with sandy loam over a clay subsoil, and a good deal of heavier ground mixed through it as you move south.
Schulenburg gets around 40 inches a year, which is the highest of any country we regularly build in. That matters more than people expect. A tank here fills faster, refills more often, and recovers from a dry spell quicker than the same tank would sixty miles west.
It also means the catchment above your tank works harder, so a modest watershed still delivers. When we size the pond we are usually confident about fill time rather than hedging it, which is not something we can say everywhere.
The soil here is Post Oak Savannah: sandy loam over a clay subsoil, with heavier ground mixed in as you move south toward the Lavaca country. Sand drains, so a basin that stops in that layer will not hold whatever the rainfall does.
The test pit tells us how deep the sand runs and how good the clay beneath it is. Where the clay is within reach the job is straightforward and the chart prices stand. Where it is not, we cap the basin with clay won elsewhere on the property, and that gets priced up front.
Most people have never had a tank 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 where water already collects, and dig a test pit. On Fayette County sand that pit tells us how deep the sand runs and whether the clay beneath is worth building on.
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 into a proper seal. With the rainfall this county gets, picking the window matters more here than most places.
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 Schulenburg the test pit tells us how deep the sand runs. Where the clay is within reach the chart prices stand, and where it is not the basin needs a cap. You see either number before anything starts.
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 Schulenburg 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 down the road, how much brush has to come out, and whether the site needs a forebay.
Real ponds, real day counts, photographed on site.
Blackland pond work, Paige
A new pond taking on water
Stock tank holding water, MarionFull process, statewide services, and the build standard: our Texas pond construction page.
Fayette County around Schulenburg is working ground and has stayed that way. The tanks we build here are stock water and hay meadow drainage rather than features: something that keeps cattle out of a creek bottom, that holds through August, and that takes runoff which was cutting a channel across a good meadow.
Yaupon and brush fill the post oak understory and the draws grow it thickest, which is exactly where the tank wants to sit. 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.
On sand over clay the surface tells you almost nothing. The pit tells us the depth to clay, how good that clay is, and whether there is enough of it to seal the floor and build the dam from. On this ground it is not a formality, it is the difference between a tank and a soak away.
Sandy ground moves material, and a tank on a hay meadow catchment will take sediment every time it rains hard. Grass cover on the watershed, stock fenced off the approach and a small forebay to catch the worst of it before the main basin are what keep a tank at depth for decades instead of years.
A new tank looks raw. Bare banks, cloudy water, a season before it settles. Get grass established before the first big rain and it clears faster and stops feeding sand and silt back into itself.
Sandy ground moves material and a hay meadow catchment delivers it. A forebay ahead of the main basin, grass cover upstream and stock fenced off the approach are what keep a tank at depth for decades rather than years.
Hoof traffic on a dam face is the commonest way a sound tank becomes a leaking one, and on sandy ground it happens faster. A fenced tank with a gravity trough below outlasts an open one by years.
Even with good rainfall a hard August draws a shallow tank down. Six feet gets low and warm. Nine feet keeps a cold layer at the bottom and keeps water in front of stock.
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, 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 put your dam back into the tank.
Moving water stays cleaner. An aerator keeps oxygen through the whole column and holds algae back through a hot summer, which matters on water stock are drinking.
A hardened approach keeps stock watering without breaking the banks down and gives you somewhere to back a trailer. We shape and compact it 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 tank is built to hold fish before you put any in.
Pierce Land Clearing did an amazing job. Our property was covered in extremely thick cedar. They came out and cleared it for us and transformed our land. They are friendly and knowledgeable.
Rob Rindone, Google review
This company is simply the best. They are very professional, did the work they said they would do, it looks great, far beyond our expectations. They were on time and worked a full day. It is probably the best experience we have ever had with a contractor.
D’Layne Rhynsburger, Google review
From the moment I saw this forestry machine on their website, I not only believed it would get the job done but I desperately wanted one. To say it got the job done is a gross understatement. Cedar trees have no chance!
David McFadden, Google review
Six terms you will hear on the site walk, and what they actually mean for your water.
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.
Where the dam dirt comes from. On a well designed pond it is the basin itself, so every yard dug does double duty.
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.
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, itemised before you commit.
Usually, provided the basin gets down into the clay subsoil. The sandy loam on top will not seal on its own. The test pit tells us how deep it runs and how good the clay is beneath, and we dig it before quoting.
Genuinely, yes. Around 40 inches a year is the most of any country we regularly work, so tanks fill faster and recover from a dry spell quicker. It does not change whether the basin seals, but it does mean a modest catchment still does the job.
Usually. Yaupon and brush fill the post oak understory and the draws are the thickest of it, which is where the tank wants to go. Clearing is our main trade, so the brush and the basin are one trip 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 tank dams a defined watercourse or sits in a floodplain. We will tell you which applies before anything starts.
Six feet at centre is the chart minimum and with this rainfall it will hold. Eight or nine is still worth it if you want water in front of stock through a dry August, and the extra depth is cheap while the machine is already in the hole.
With around 40 inches a year most chart sized tanks here fill inside a single wet season if the catchment is reasonable. We size the watershed on the walk so you get a specific answer rather than an average.
Yes, and in this county there are plenty of generational tanks worth saving. A rebuilt dam with a proper key trench and 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.