PIERCE
LAND
CLEARING
Erath County runs on water. We build and rebuild the stock tanks that dairies and cow-calf operations here depend on, and we price them off a published list instead of a handshake.
This is one of the hardest working agricultural counties in Texas, and a stock tank here is not a landscape feature. It is the thing that lets a herd graze a pasture. The ground is sandy loam over limestone with the Cross Timbers running through it, which means the tank you dig has to be built for sand that moves and rock that does not.
Erath County sandy loam grows good grass and passes water. A basin cut only into that loam can seep away its mornings. What holds is the clay below it, or clay brought to the bowl and keyed in properly.
We are straight about what we know and when. We have dug in this county and we know how the ground behaves, so you get a real range on the phone. What no one can do is see through the dirt from a call, and some tanks only show their hand once the basin is open.
Where it needs help the answers are a compacted clay core, bentonite worked into the basin, or a liner on the sites that warrant one. Each is priced the moment we can honestly price it and never presented as a surprise at the end.
Nobody in Erath County needs convincing that water pays. Dairies, cow-calf operations, and hay ground all run on dependable tanks, and the ones that fail here fail for the same two reasons: they were dug too shallow, or the sand was never respected.
A tank built deep enough and sealed where it needs it carries stock through a dry August instead of turning into a mud hole in July. That is not an upgrade. On working ground it is the whole reason to spend the money.
An Erath County tank runs in a set order, and the first number reaches you on the phone.
It starts with photos of the site and a rough idea of size. We answer with a same-day ballpark off the published price list, and if the number works for you, we schedule the site walk. No sales funnel, just a conversation.
Your first number comes over the phone, from having dug tanks in this county rather than from a form. Photos and a pin usually get you a real range the same day. Once you approve the estimate we come walk it, reading the draw, the catchment feeding it, herd access, spillway routing, and what brush has to go ahead of the machines. Anything that moves the number gets said on that walk.
The quote reads like a plan, not a mystery: dig, dam, spillway, and any contingency for rock, each priced in machine days. If clearing is needed first, it is on the same sheet at our published day rates. What is written is what you pay.
Within a few weeks of signing, the lowboy delivers the iron. All we need from you is gate access wide enough for the machines and somewhere to drop the trailer. Everything else is on us.
Most ponds take two to five working days. The sequence never changes: strip and save the topsoil, cut the core trench, raise the dam in thin compacted lifts, shape the basin. Watch as much of it as you like from outside the swing radius.
The build ends with a walkthrough, not an invoice. Dam, spillway, slopes, and dressed banks, checked against the quote with you standing there. Anything off gets fixed before the lowboy is loaded.
Erath County averages about thirty one inches a year and a well sited tank on a real catchment fills over a wet stretch rather than a season. We will not name a date. What we control is the watershed feeding it, and we size that so the tank collects runoff instead of waiting on rain that lands in the bowl.
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 6 feet of depth at center with a 4:1 bank. In Erath County the variable is sealing: whether the cut reaches clay or the basin needs a core. We can usually judge it from the area and the tanks we have built nearby, and where we cannot, you get the number the moment we do.
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.
Every quote we write splits the same honest way. Here is what is inside the number and what gets flagged separately.
Every quote covers the complete pond: watershed-matched siting, staking, saved topsoil, a true core trench, a dam raised in compacted lifts, a shaped spillway, mowable slope finishes, and banks dressed with the topsoil we saved. Transport of the machines is included, as is the final walkthrough.
Sealing is the Erath County variable. If the cut reaches clay the basin seals itself and you run the published list. If it does not, the basin needs a compacted core or bentonite, priced as its own written line the moment we know. Brush clearing rides on the same quote at published day rates.
Real ponds, real day counts, photographed on site.
Pond aerial, Whitney
Half acre pond, Lampasas
Stock tank holding water, MarionFull process, statewide services, and the build standard: our Texas pond construction page.
A tank a herd uses has a different job from a pond somebody looks at. It needs depth against evaporation, bank grades cattle can use without breaking down, and a dam that holds when the rain finally comes hard. We build for that when that is what you need.
Erath County has generations of tanks already in the ground, and plenty of them are silted in, leaking, or sitting behind a dam that was pushed up rather than keyed in. Rebuilding an existing tank properly is often cheaper than a new one and we will tell you honestly which makes more sense.
Brush has usually taken the draw before anyone gets around to the tank. We clear it and dig it, one mobilization and one bill, instead of a clearing contractor and a dirt contractor arguing over the schedule.
Pricing starts at six feet at center and on working ground we push for eight or more where the budget reaches. In a county this dependent on grazing, a tank that goes dry in a bad year has failed at the only job it had.
A pasture without dependable water is a pasture you can only use part of the year. A tank that holds is what turns acreage into carrying capacity, and in this county that is measured in real money.
Everyone here remembers the summers that broke the shallow tanks. Depth is the insurance, and it costs far less to build in at the start than to come back and deepen later.
Water works for game as hard as it works for cattle. Sited well a tank supports a wildlife management valuation and keeps deer and turkey on your place rather than the neighbor.
Erath County buyers look at water before they look at the house. Tanks that hold are the difference between a working place and a pretty one.
A pond is dirt work first, but it does not have to end there. One call covers everything from grass on the dam to fish in the water.
Bare banks on sandy loam move the first time it storms, so we seed and stabilize what we disturb with a mix that suits grazing ground rather than a lawn.
Aeration keeps a tank cooler and cleaner through a Texas August and cuts the algae that turns a good tank green by July. Conduit roughed in while the basin is open costs a fraction of trenching later.
Hardened access points and crossings keep stock from breaking the bank down and silting in the tank you just paid for. Planned before the basin closes, they cost very little.
Stocking waits until the tank is holding and the water has settled. We will tell you what does well here and how long to leave a new basin alone.
Outstanding company. Cleared out around 9 acres of mesquites and prickly pears and some broken down oak trees. The operators are very good at what they do and very courteous. I have some more projects coming up and for sure I know who to call.
ROBERT CARRASCO, Google review
I am so glad I found them to help me clear our land. We were tired of paying thousands of dollars to rent wood chippers, tractors, shredders, and chain saws, and still not being done with the project.
Charles Town, Google review
We were extremely pleased with the results on the land clearing that was done to our property. I had called around to several other companies for bids and PLC was the most reasonable, responsive, and customer oriented.
A Arevalo, Google review
The site walk comes with vocabulary. Here is what the crew means when they say it.
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.
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.
A quarter acre tank starts at $12,300, a half acre at $19,200, and a full acre at $27,000, based on six feet of depth at center with a 4:1 bank. Minimum job is $8,000. Sealing is the Erath County variable and it is priced the moment we know.
If it is built for the sand, yes. The clay is usually down there, and when the cut reaches it the basin seals itself. When it does not, the basin gets a compacted core or bentonite, priced as its own written line. What we will not do is dig a bowl in loose loam and wish it luck.
Frequently, and it is often the better spend. We rebuild the dam properly with a keyed trench and compaction in lifts, and fix whatever was leaking. We will tell you straight when a rebuild is not worth it.
Deeper than most of the old ones here. Pricing starts at six feet at center and we recommend eight or more on grazing ground. The tanks that fail in an Erath County drought are almost always the shallow ones.
Yes, and usually that is the first real work. The draw is normally grown over before anyone gets to the tank. One company clearing and digging means one schedule and one bill.
Yes, and it matters more than people think. A flatter bank on the access side lets stock water without breaking the edge down and silting your new tank in within a few seasons. Tell us it is a working tank and we build it as one.
Two to three days for a quarter acre, nine to ten for two acres. Rock adds days and we name it up front. You get a day count with the quote.
Yes. Photos, an aerial, or a pin get most Erath County quotes a real range the same day, because we have already built tanks on this ground.
Send photos or a pin on the draw you have in mind and we will come back with a range, usually the same day. If the ground turns out to need sealing, you hear the number as soon as we have it rather than at the end.