Concrete Cost Calculator

HomeMath works out the volume first, waste included, then prices it two ways. Ready-mix is the order rounded up to the next quarter yard (quarter cubic meter in metric) × your price per yard, plus the delivery fee; bagged is the whole bags × your price per bag. Labor per square foot and other costs are added to both, and the cost per square foot is the total divided by the slab's area. HomeMath knows no local prices: the fields start with round example numbers for you to replace, and the answers below quote published ranges to check them against (read October 2026).

The published rules it uses: US customary units; metric conversion; premixed bag yields; published price ranges. Their sources, and how HomeMath tests every result, are on the about page.

Take a 12 × 16 ft patio, 4 inches thick, at the example prices.

1. Volume: 12 × 16 × 4/12 = 64.0 cu ft, or 2.37 cu yd.
2. With 10% waste: 2.61 cu yd, ordered as 2.75 yd.
3. Ready-mix: 2.75 × $150 + $100 = $513.
4. Bags: 70.4 cu ft ÷ 0.60 = 118 bags of 80 lb, × $6.50 = $767.
5. Per square foot: $513 ÷ 192 sq ft = $2.67 for ready-mix, $3.99 for bags.

The materials cost of 4 in pads at the example prices, with 10% waste. Type your own prices in the calculator to redo the table for your area.

For small pours, bags; for large ones, ready-mix. A truck brings a fixed fee and a quarter-yard step, while bags cost the same per cubic foot however much you buy. At the example prices ($150 a yard plus a $100 fee, or $6.50 per 80 lb bag), bags stay cheaper up to a 7 × 7 ft pad ($195 against $213), and from 8 × 8 ft ready-mix wins ($250 against $260).

The fee decides small orders: the 8 × 10 ft pad costs $188 in ready-mix with no fee and $288 with it, against $319 in bags. A short-load fee is what many ready-mix suppliers add when an order is below their minimum load: Fixr puts a short-load delivery at $15–$17 per cubic yard, and our guide to how many yards a cement truck carries explains when it applies. Put it in the delivery fee field. Your crossover moves with your prices, so type them in.

Published US ranges, each with its source and the date the source gives. They are national figures, not quotes: a local plant or contractor can be above or below them.

A ready-mix price per yard is for the concrete alone: Concrete Network lists the delivery fee as a separate cost, a short-load fee applies when the order is below the supplier's minimum, and Fixr notes that some suppliers want at least 3 cubic yards from residential customers. The installed prices per square foot cover materials and labor.

How has the price of ready-mix changed over the years?

National averages per cubic yard from the NRMCA (National Ready Mixed Concrete Association), as Concrete Network lists them: from $75 in 2008 to $180 in 2024.

A cubic yard of ready-mix costs $160–$195 before delivery, which is $5.93–$7.22 per cubic foot. Delivered, an order is that price times the yards, plus the supplier's delivery fee and any short-load fee below its minimum:

Bags compare by price ÷ yield. At the example $6.50 for an 80 lb bag (0.60 cu ft), concrete in bags is $10.83 per cubic foot, or $293 for a yard's worth; type your store's bag price for your own figure. Cement is only the binder in concrete (Portland cement mixed with sand, gravel and water), so the calculator prices the concrete you pour, not the cement in it.

The patio is Concrete Network's typical 288 sq ft patio and the driveway its average two-car driveway. A driveway or garage floor poured 5 or 6 in thick takes 25% or 50% more concrete than at 4 in; enter your own thickness in the calculator.

Installed prices add labor, base, forms and finishing. For a patio or a driveway use the concrete patio cost calculator or the concrete driveway cost calculator; for plain against stamped, the concrete slab price calculator.

A price per yard becomes a price per square foot through the thickness: one cubic yard covers 81 sq ft at 4 in, 64.8 sq ft at 5 in and 54 sq ft at 6 in. The table gives the concrete alone per square foot, before waste and delivery; read the row nearest your quote.

That is why a quote per square foot only compares at the same thickness: a 6 in slab holds 50% more concrete per square foot than a 4 in one.

Switch the units to metric and the cost calculator takes the size in meters and centimeters, the ready-mix price per cubic meter and labor per square meter. It orders in quarter cubic meters and gives each total per m². The price fields start with round example numbers here too: $200 a cubic meter and the same $100 fee. The published US ranges in metric units:

A 3 × 4 m pad 10 cm thick needs 1.32 m³ with 10% waste, ordered as 1.50 m³: $400 in ready-mix, or $507 as 78 bags of 80 lb (36 kg), which is $33.33 and $42.25 per m² of its 12 m². To price kilogram bags instead, pick "Your bag" and type its weight, the yield in liters on its label and its price.

Add what you pay others. Enter the labor price per square foot from a contractor's quote, and the rest (forms, rebar or mesh, gravel, a pump, tool rental, a permit) as Other costs. With $4 per sq ft of labor and $250 of other costs, the 12 × 16 ft patio comes to $1,531 with ready-mix, or $7.97 per sq ft. Those two figures are examples too; Inch Calculator puts labor at $2–$5 per sq ft.

Many suppliers have a minimum load and charge a short-load fee below it; some add charges for distance, waiting time or weekend deliveries. Put the total of those in the delivery field. Before you book, ask:

• What is the price per yard for the mix you need, and the minimum order?
• What is the short-load fee, and up to what order size does it apply?
• How long can the truck wait on site before waiting time is charged?
• Can the truck reach the pour, or do you need a pump or a wheelbarrow crew?

Only when the ready-mix truck can't get close enough to pour from its chute. Concrete Network names fenced backyards, enclosed buildings and high-rises as such cases, and notes that pumping can also be the most economical way because it is fast. The two kinds:

• Line pump: a portable trailer pump that pushes concrete through a hose, suited to tight sites such as a fenced backyard.
• Boom pump: a truck with a folding arm that places concrete from one spot, for anything from slabs to large buildings.

Fixr puts the rental of a tow-behind pump at $150–$200 an hour (updated January 2025). Ask a pumping contractor for its minimum hours and setup charge, and add the total in Other costs. A wheelbarrow crew is the other way to move concrete from the truck: it costs labor instead of a pump.

• Strength: mixes are sold by their compressive strength in psi; a higher-strength mix holds more cement and costs more per yard.
• Additives: fibers, air entrainment for freeze-thaw areas, accelerators for cold weather and retarders for hot weather are often priced on top.
• Color: integral color is added per yard at the plant.
• Distance and timing: long hauls, Saturday deliveries and waiting time on site can add charges.

Bags vary less: the shelf price is the price, and the choice is mostly between standard, high-strength and fast-setting mixes. Compare them by price ÷ yield, the cost of one cubic foot.

• Order once, and enough. A second short load to finish a slab brings a second fee; the waste allowance is cheaper.
• Fill the truck's step. If your order rounds up to the next quarter yard anyway, a small extra pad or post footing poured the same day uses concrete you are paying for.
• Get the base right. A level, compacted base keeps the slab at its planned thickness, and every extra half inch on a 4 in slab is 1/8 more concrete.
• Compare by the same thickness and finish, whether you price bags, a truck or a contractor.

• Removing the old surface and digging out the soil
• The gravel base, compacted
• Forms, and wire mesh or rebar
• The concrete and its delivery, and a pump where the truck can't reach
• Placing, finishing, control joints and curing
• The crew's labor, insurance and margin

Ask for those as separate lines. Then you can compare quotes like for like, and check the concrete line against this calculator's yards.