I've gotten bids as low as $9.50 per foot. Any know where I can do better i would appreciate the info.

Thank you.

I just had a sidewalk installed. Buddy did it at cost and it was still high. Concrete prices are insane right now.

$9.50/sf turn-key is reasonable. Could prove challenging to beat and cheaper doesn't mean better. A lot of factors to price aren't listed within your question, but, for starters, how many SF is the slab and is it for a house, or a shed/shop/parking pad, or patio?

I do not have the engineered foundation plans but know its 5,553 sq. Ft. 3000 psi post tension slab for a two story home. Im in Magnolia/Montgomery county. There are 4 Redimix plants that i know of within a few miles of my build. One is Diamond and another PV. Any tips on how to secure the most competitive bid would be greatly appreciated!!

Send me an email at username with no space at g m a i l . c o m

Would be happy to take a look. We pour in the area and us PV a decent amount. Would need the engineered foundation plans to properly bid it.

If your price is $9.50/sf for that type of slab, and turn key, then that is a whale of a deal. I would expect $14/SF right now on something like that.

$10/sqft would make me quite happy right now for our build. I'm not self-building but my budget is higher for that and I keep savings...

Based on volume and my timing of last pours, I have not paid those prices but my builder friend just did. Digging, some haul off, rebar, cables, pre stress, final stress, concrete, and pump truck.

What region you work in? I have some big pours coming in 2023.

MS08 said:

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Based on volume and my timing of last pours, I have not paid those prices but my builder friend just did. Digging, some haul off, rebar, cables, pre stress, final stress, concrete, and pump truck.

What region you work in? I have some big pours coming in 2023.

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Houston area, primarily on the north side. We only do residential work, no commercial.

Yea, when you add in pump truck(s) that can push the price up. Rebar, post-tension materials, stressing, forming up, digging trenches are usually included. We generally require an engineered pad for our projects.

I know guys in DFW that do residential and commercial and happy to refer those guys if in North Texas.

I'm in CS and the recent contractor I used was out of Conroe/Houston area - they follow a lot of the volume residential builders. My work is medium density residential: 9-11 units/acre range. I have a 12 acre site coming up so that's why I was asking.

winmck said:

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I just had a sidewalk installed. Buddy did it at cost and it was still high. Concrete prices are insane right now.

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You're in Houston, right? I've been looking for bids for a new driveway apron. Is your buddy in the business?

About to pour a 700sf patio slab and then a new driveway as well. Will post pricing of that soon. I'm thinking patio will be 8-10k

Small job, but I am paying $10.80/sf for a 350 sq ft pour.

fka ftc said:

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If you know people paying $14/sf turnkey for slabs then send them my way. Holy smokes.

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In the construction industry. In the Hill Country, a slab for any kind of structure - metal building, house -- is $12 to $15.

hillcountryag86 said:

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fka ftc said:

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If you know people paying $14/sf turnkey for slabs then send them my way. Holy smokes.

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In the construction industry. In the Hill Country, a slab for any kind of structure - metal building, house -- is $12 to $15.

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Topo could have a lot to do with that. Plus, easier to dig beams in gumbo / clay vs hard ass rock and limestone.

We range up in that area for one-offs in outlier location. In a subdivision, we can be around $7 or so, But there are so many variables its hard to give an average. Even in a production neighborhood, my preference would be a separate price per plan.

Also, engineers do not pay for the slab, so at times they do things that are wildly inefficient and costly. We often go back to the engineer and propose changes to make it more efficient.

Poured a simple 40' x 60' for a barn a year and a half ago. All three bids were $12. Poured my house last year - 6000 sq feet. Wanted it engineered. Final bill was $18.

We support quite a bit of Bandera, Kerr, Medina, Gillespie, Real counties and just don't hear many projects under $13 / $14.

Perhaps as things slow down those numbers will drop some.

Yikes I might have to rethink my business plan for my future company in north Houston if I have to compete with that. I work for a company in DFW that does drainage construction, concrete, retaining walls, irrigation, and is flirting with outdoor living and we pay $5-6 to our contractors.

mAgnoliAg said:

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Yikes I might have to rethink my business plan for my future company in north Houston if I have to compete with that. I work for a company in DFW that does drainage construction, concrete, retaining walls, irrigation, and is flirting with outdoor living and we pay $5-6 to our contractors.

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We do not do drainage, retaining walls nor jobs that are really small (driveway repair, patio, etc) - so different businesses.

You don't want the cheapest, you do not need the priciest, but you want competent guys throughout and that costs some money.

mark_spivey said:

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I've gotten bids as low as $9.50 per foot. Any know where I can do better i would appreciate the info.

Thank you.

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As someone who knows the concrete business pretty well, I'd say if you are looking to go $9.50 or lower, you will be paying for repairs in the future. Going lower is a mistake. Don't cheap out on your foundation. If you do, I know some foundation repair guys who would love to bring your square foot cost up to a reasonable amount.

Builder93 said:

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mark_spivey said:

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I've gotten bids as low as $9.50 per foot. Any know where I can do better i would appreciate the info.

Thank you.

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As someone who knows the concrete business pretty well, I'd say if you are looking to go $9.50 or lower, you will be paying for repairs in the future. Going lower is a mistake. Don't cheap out on your foundation. If you do, I know some foundation repair guys who would love to bring your square foot cost up to a reasonable amount.

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I agree, I also know the concrete patio business pretty well as my company did about 100 last year. If a sub bid me at $9.50/SF, I'd be worried about his quality immediately.

TexjbA&M said:

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Builder93 said:

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mark_spivey said:

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I've gotten bids as low as $9.50 per foot. Any know where I can do better i would appreciate the info.

Thank you.

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As someone who knows the concrete business pretty well, I'd say if you are looking to go $9.50 or lower, you will be paying for repairs in the future. Going lower is a mistake. Don't cheap out on your foundation. If you do, I know some foundation repair guys who would love to bring your square foot cost up to a reasonable amount.

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I agree, I also know the concrete patio business pretty well as my company did about 100 last year. If a sub bid me at $9.50/SF, I'd be worried about his quality immediately.

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Patios typically means smaller square footage which means higher costs per square foot.

There is a reason flatwork, driveways and slabs are all priced differently.

Even on slabs, same premise holds true. I won't even touch a job under 1,000sf unless its for a family or friend.

You run into short loads on trucks, lack of overall volume and the concept of a show up fee for the rest of the trades.

Whilst $ per foot can indicate quality, its much more driven by economies of scale.

winmck said:

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I just had a sidewalk installed. Buddy did it at cost and it was still high. Concrete prices are insane right now.

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We buy a lot of concrete; paying $125/cy beginning of last year. now it's $155/cy

We poured 4-5 million sf of slab last year, 6" mostly, at about $5.75/sf, and that's with current ~$160/cy. Last year we were at $5/sf with $125/cy. This does not include subgrade prep though.

I'd say $9.50 is pretty good considering size of job, and assuming they are going to prep/compact?

I paid $7 almost 10 years ago for stamped and stained, a few hundred sf patio in my backyard.

62strat said:

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winmck said:

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I just had a sidewalk installed. Buddy did it at cost and it was still high. Concrete prices are insane right now.

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We buy a lot of concrete; paying $125/cy beginning of last year. now it's $155/cy

We poured 4-5 million sf of slab last year, 6" mostly, at about $5.75/sf, and that's with current ~$160/cy. Last year we were at $5/sf with $125/cy. This does not include subgrade prep though.

I'd say $9.50 is pretty good considering size of job, and assuming they are going to prep/compact?

I paid $7 almost 10 years ago for stamped and stained, a few hundred sf patio in my backyard.

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Seeing roughly same on prices, particularly the increase and ours is primarily slab work.

Ran a quick average of our last 30 slabs for a custom, scattered site neighborhood that came out at $9.45.

Range was $7.85 to $18.70 (if you engineer specs what I call HAM beams - 60", then you get some much higher costs. Anything under was at least $12.00 and several of those we chose not to bid.

Tract builder at around 2,000sf now running higher single digits. See that coming down a bit in 2nd half 2023.

Bumping this one. Not a slab, but a driveway. Have 2 bids so far, and difficult to compare apples to apples. Fort Worth. Looking for a gut check.

~1500sf Demo & haul off (4", likely wire mesh - not rebar - based on previous work & damage)
~450sf extension (grass currently in place)
~27ft 6"x<24" turn down wall
Will use a pump truck
4" broom finished 3500psi #3@18"

On a 1950sf pour + the turndown wall, my math says this is ~26 yards of concrete. One guy told me he's paying $180/yd (seems high based on this thread). One guy is coming out to ~$12/ft and the other ~$13/ft. One guy does not show tax as a separate charge, the other does (and he's taxing the full amount, but I believe only the materials should be taxed, if at all).

Both seem pretty fair, especially with the wall portion & pump. I typically pay $4-5/sf for demo & $8/sf for 4" decking but I am a pool contractor so smaller pours typically with an on-site batch truck.

mosdefn14 said:

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Bumping this one. Not a slab, but a driveway. Have 2 bids so far, and difficult to compare apples to apples. Fort Worth. Looking for a gut check.

~1500sf Demo & haul off (4", likely wire mesh - not rebar - based on previous work & damage)
~450sf extension (grass currently in place)
~27ft 6"x<24" turn down wall
Will use a pump truck
4" broom finished 3500psi #3@18"

On a 1950sf pour + the turndown wall, my math says this is ~26 yards of concrete. One guy told me he's paying $180/yd (seems high based on this thread). One guy is coming out to ~$12/ft and the other ~$13/ft. One guy does not show tax as a separate charge, the other does (and he's taxing the full amount, but I believe only the materials should be taxed, if at all).

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He's wrong on tax. Should only be materials in Texas.

mosdefn14 said:

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Bumping this one. Not a slab, but a driveway. Have 2 bids so far, and difficult to compare apples to apples. Fort Worth. Looking for a gut check.

~1500sf Demo & haul off (4", likely wire mesh - not rebar - based on previous work & damage)
~450sf extension (grass currently in place)
~27ft 6"x<24" turn down wall
Will use a pump truck
4" broom finished 3500psi #3@18"

On a 1950sf pour + the turndown wall, my math says this is ~26 yards of concrete. One guy told me he's paying $180/yd (seems high based on this thread). One guy is coming out to ~$12/ft and the other ~$13/ft. One guy does not show tax as a separate charge, the other does (and he's taxing the full amount, but I believe only the materials should be taxed, if at all).

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Pump for <3 concrete trucks? You don't need that. That is ~$500-$1000.

And no one should tax labor.

$180 is not far off from CO springs.. it's at $170 there, and that's bulk (5-10kcy at a time)
In Denver it's ~$160-$165.

new slab is 8-10 range.. so you're only paying $2-$4 for demo.. that ain't bad. I assume you mean $12 or $13/ 'SF'.

Thanks for the input.

- Yes, my $12-$13 figure was all in /sf (my calculations, not theirs)
- Both guys said a pump would be the way to do it. It's a long, somewhat winding rear entry driveway with a very narrow gap between corner of house and a gate. Also not replacing all the way to the street.

Curious if the guy is adding tax on their as a way to increase profit under the guise of "government says I have to" not expecting anyone to ask otherwise, or if he really doesn't know. That guy mostly does commercial, so wanting to give him the benefit of the doubt.

I'm hoping we have some F61 posters in Fort Worth that might want to look at the project before I move forward.

My company in commercial construction charges taxes on labor and material. No residential and no new construction so I think that may have more to do with it.

idAg09 said:

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My company in commercial construction charges taxes on labor and material. No residential and no new construction so I think that may have more to do with it.

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a use tax or a sales tax?

62strat said:

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idAg09 said:

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My company in commercial construction charges taxes on labor and material. No residential and no new construction so I think that may have more to do with it.

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a use tax or a sales tax?

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I don't know. 8.25% in Texas