PIERCE
LAND
CLEARING
Wimberley is steep, rocky and takes water seriously, which anyone who has been here through a flood already knows. The lots are hillside, the limestone is shallow, and where the water goes matters as much as where the house sits. We mill surface rock in place with an FAE STC/SSL rock mill and shape fall while the machine is on site.
A rotating head with carbide teeth works the surface down in passes. Rock, caliche and the soil around them go through together and come back as a graded mix you can spread and compact. There is no digging out, no breaking into pieces somebody then has to move, and no truck involved.
Crushing is a processing trade. Rock goes into a crusher and comes out as sized aggregate to sell, spread or haul. Milling never separates the rock from the ground it came from. If what you need is base material delivered and spread, that is a different outfit and we will tell you so rather than take the job.
Grinding rock and soil together in place is exactly what stabilization means before anybody adds a chemical to it. The result is a blended, compactable subgrade instead of topsoil sitting on ledge. We do it mechanically with the head. We do not do lime or cement treatment, and if your engineer has specified either, you want a stabilization contractor rather than us.
This is the part people underestimate. No haul-off trucks down your road, no disposal, no gate torn up by loaded tandems, and no trips billed by the load. The rock you paid to have dealt with ends up as the surface you wanted in the first place.
A Wimberley lot that hits ledge is not a lost lot. Milling takes the high rock down and blends it into the base, so the slab crew gets a level surface that compacts instead of a change order and a week of delay.
Hillside drives get milled to a surface that grips rather than rolls. On a Wimberley grade, loose rock is a maintenance bill and a milled, bound surface is not.
Rock trails get milled wide enough to drive and smooth enough to want to. The milled fines bind rather than roll, so the trail holds through a wet spring instead of turning into a creek bed.
Surface rock is why a field will not take a drill or hold a stand. Milling the top rock in opens the ground so water and roots get down into it, which is the same reason we get called back for pasture reclamation after the clearing is done.
A milled, compacted surface sheds water in a direction you chose. A rock field sheds it wherever the rock decides. Milling lets us shape fall into a pad or a drive rather than fight water later with rock you cannot move.
Most of this ground comes to us under brush. Our Wimberley clearing crew takes the timber off and the rock head follows on the same mobilization, one transport instead of two.
This valley has a flood record and everybody local knows it. A milled surface lets us put fall where we want it rather than wherever a rock field decides, and that is worth doing properly the first time.
Wimberley combines the two things that make pads difficult: not much soil and a lot of slope. Milling handles the first so the benching can deal with the second.
Ground that has not been worked is heavy in cedar. Clearing first is how the rock head gets to see what it is dealing with, and it is the same crew on the same trip.
The machine, the days, and transport. Rock is slower than brush and how much slower depends on how hard it is and how deep you need it, which is why the quote reads in days rather than acres. Our published price page carries the rates the quote is built from, so you can check the logic yourself.
Grade and access first, then hardness. A hillside job takes longer than flat ground of the same size because the machine works to the contour. Photos texted to 512-400-2693 get a same-day ballpark.
We do not publish somebody else transport rates, so take this as the shape of the argument rather than a number. Digging rock out means an excavator, a loader, trucks, a place to put it, and then base material bought and brought back in. Milling replaces all of that with one machine and no trips. The fewer moving parts, the fewer lines on the invoice.
We do not sell, buy or deliver milled material, and we do not do lime or cement stabilization. If your plans call for either, we will point you at somebody who does it properly rather than learn on your job.
Quote first, walk after you approve it. Same order as every trade we run.
Photos of the ground and your rough location. You get an honest ballpark in machine days the same day.
Machine days on paper: the machine, the rock head, the days, transport. Priced from ground we have already milled nearby.
Once you approve the estimate we walk it together: access, staging, where the material should end up, and what has to come off first.
The lowboy brings the machine and the rock head. We stage where you tell us and work around gates and stock.
The head takes the surface down in passes. You are welcome on site, outside the stay-back distance, and it is loud enough that we mean it.
A slow lap around the finished surface together, against the quote. Fixed on the spot if anything misses.
Photographs from our own rock jobs. Written project pages for this trade are being built; these are the machines and the ground in the meantime.
Milled to grade beside the house, rock worked into the surface
A lane milled through mature trees, the rock left as a driving surface
An RT-120 working a rock windrow beside a finished house
A milled two track, open country beyond
Working under the canopy, the ground left smooth enough to drive
The STC/SSL rock mill up close, and the reason for the stay-back stickerCleared lots of cedars for trails for us on our 14 acres. Cannot wait to have them come back with the machine for rock pulverizing on the rock trails.
Heather Wilson, Google review
Pierce Land Clearing is a great family-owned and run business. They are very professional and provide timely, reasonable quotes. We have about 5.5 acres. In 2 days, they cleared most cedar, standing dead trees and mulched all at once with their large forestry machine. They also brought their rock crusher which actually pulverizes rocks. Amazing job!
Maggie Oehlke, Google review
We cleared 5 acres last year near Lampasas ourselves over 6 days with far less cedars than Pierce Land Clearing did in just one single day on a 4 acre parcel near Kerrville. They worked with us to reschedule due to weather no problem.
A.Ron Carmichael, Google review
A rotating head with carbide teeth grinds surface rock, caliche and the soil around them down in passes, in place. What comes back is a graded mix you can spread and compact. Nothing is dug out, nothing is hauled off, and no material is brought in.
No. Crushing processes rock into sized aggregate to sell, spread or haul. Milling never separates the rock from the ground it came from. We mill.
No. We do not sell, buy or deliver millings, grindings or asphalt material of any kind. Everything we mill stays on the property it came from. If you are looking to buy material, you want an aggregate supplier.
Mechanically, yes. Grinding rock and soil together in place is what stabilization means before anyone adds a chemical, and the result is a blended subgrade you can compact. We do not do lime or cement treatment. If your engineer specified either, you want a stabilization contractor.
It can. A milled and compacted surface sheds water in a direction you chose, and we shape that fall while the head is on site. We are not hydrologists, so on a serious flood plain question you want an engineer as well.
That is most of what we do here. Milling takes the high rock down so a bench can be cut and compacted, and drainage gets shaped at the same time.
It depends on the rock and the machine. The head works the surface down in passes rather than one cut, so the honest answer comes from the first pass on your ground. The quote says how many days that is expected to take.
That is one of the most common reasons we get called. The milled fines bind better than loose rock and hold a crown, so a drive that used to wash out becomes one you can maintain with a box blade.
It can, because a milled and compacted surface sheds water in a direction you chose rather than wherever the rock decides. We shape fall into pads and drives while the head is on site, which is cheaper than fighting water afterwards.
ASV compact track loaders running an FAE STC/SSL skid steer rock mill. That is a dedicated rock head, separate from our forestry mulching heads and built for stone.
Priced in machine days: the machine, the days, and transport. Send photos to 512-400-2693 for a same-day ballpark, then a written number before anyone mobilizes.
Photos and a rough scope get a same-day ballpark in machine days. Rock is quoted on its own terms, in writing, before anyone starts.