How Much to Charge for Concrete per Square Foot: The Method and a Price Sheet

New concrete contractors often price a job by asking what the last guy charged. Then a tear-out takes a day longer than planned, the pump truck shows up on the bill and the job pays nothing. Here is how to set a price per square foot that pays every time.

Step 1: find your cost per square foot

Take a typical job, a 600 square foot driveway at 4 inches, and add up what it really costs:

• Concrete: 600 square feet at 4 inches is 7.4 cubic yards; order 8. At $175 a yard, $1,400
• Base: 4 inches of compacted gravel, about $400 delivered
• Mesh or fiber, chairs, expansion joint, forms and stakes, sealer, saw blade: about $350
• Rentals: compactor and saw, about $200
• Labor: three people, a day and a half, about 36 hours at $35 loaded, $1,260
• Truck, trailer and fuel for the job: about $150

That is about $3,760, or $6.27 a square foot, before overhead and profit. Overhead (insurance, phone, marketing, software, the estimate visits that do not book) often adds 10 to 15 percent of revenue. Then you need profit.

Step 2: set your price

At $6,000 for that driveway, you keep about $2,240 before overhead, a 37 percent gross margin. That is a healthy target for residential flatwork: 30 to 40 percent gross, 10 to 20 percent net after overhead.

Typical US installed prices for 2026, 4 inches with mesh, mid-market:

• Plain driveway: $8 to $12 a square foot
• Patio or slab: $8 to $12 a square foot
• Sidewalks and walkways: $9 to $14 a square foot, because forming a long narrow pour takes longer per foot
• Stamped or decorative: $14 to $20 a square foot
• Resurfacing an existing slab: $3 to $7 a square foot

Step 3: use a starting price, not one flat rate

Small jobs cost more per foot. The truck, the forms, the crew, the base and the cleanup take nearly as long for 100 square feet as for 300. A flat $9 a foot makes a 100 square foot pad $900, which loses money.

So price with a starting price that covers the smallest job, plus a rate for every foot above it:

• Driveway: $2,400 for the first 200 square feet, then $9 a foot. 400 square feet is $4,200; 600 is $6,000; 1,000 is $9,600
• Patio or slab: $1,200 for the first 100 square feet, then $8 a foot. 200 is $2,000; 300 is $2,800; 400 is $3,600
• Sidewalk: $750 for the first 50 square feet, then $9 a foot. A 4 by 30 walk (120 square feet) is $1,380
• Stamped: $1,800 for the first 100 square feet, then $14 a foot. 300 square feet is $4,600
• Resurfacing: $600 for the first 100 square feet, then $4 a foot. A 600 square foot driveway is $2,600

Notice how the price per foot falls as the job grows: the 600 square foot driveway is $10 a foot, the 1,000 square foot one is $9.60.

Step 4: price the add-ons separately

Add-ons are where jobs lose money when they are buried in the base price. List them:

• Tear-out and haul-off of old concrete: $1,500 on a typical driveway, $900 on a patio. Dump fees and a breaker rental eat this fast
• Rebar instead of wire mesh: $600 on a driveway, $300 on a patio
• 6-inch pour for RVs, work trucks or a shed: $900 on a driveway, $600 on a patio
• Sealer: $350 on a driveway, $200 on a patio
• Integral color: $500 on a driveway, $350 on a patio

A homeowner who sees the add-ons listed understands why the neighbor's price was different.

Step 5: check every job after the pour

Write down the hours, the yards ordered and the yards used. If a job type keeps running over, raise the rate or the starting price. Three jobs in a row that ran long is a pricing problem, not bad luck.

Show the price before the visit

Customers want a ballpark before they let you come measure. Put your rates on your website so they can outline the driveway on a map and see a range, then book the visit. Try the concrete slab cost calculator to see how it works, and read concrete driveway cost for what moves a driveway price.