How to price a concreting job (step by step, with a worked example)

A rate per square metre is how a client compares concrete quotes, so it is tempting to price that way: last job's rate times this job's area. It works until the driveway with the soft ground, the long barrow and the exposed aggregate finish comes along at the same rate as a flat shed slab. Here is a way to price a concreting job from its parts, and only then look at the rate.

It is the concreting version of how to price a job, which covers the pricing methods for any trade, and how to quote a job as a tradie covers putting the price in writing, with a free quote template.

1. Walk the site and write the scope

Go over the site with the drawings, a tape and a checklist, and take photos:

• Areas, thicknesses and any thickenings or edge beams on the drawings
• What is coming out: grass, old concrete, roots, and how deep the dig goes
• The ground: soft spots, fill, rock, and how water drains off the finished slab
• Access for the truck and the pump, and how far the concrete has to travel
• The finish: broom, exposed aggregate, coloured, stencilled, and where the saw cuts go
• What is underground. Before You Dig Australia gives free plans of underground services for your dig site

Then write the scope as included, excluded and assumed: "excavation to 200 mm in soil, rock and soft spots excluded" is what lets you price the surprise as a variation.

2. Work out the concrete

Volume is length x width x thickness, all in metres. A 5 x 10 metre driveway at 100 mm thick is 5 x 10 x 0.1 = 5 cubic metres. Add the thickenings and edge beams from the drawings, allow for an uneven base, and round the order up. Running short on pour day costs far more than a little left over. Ask your supplier about minimum loads, short-load charges and after-hours fees before you price, because on a small pour they can change the answer.

3. Price everything around the concrete

The concrete itself can be a smaller part of the price than you expect. List every other line:

• Excavation: machine and tipper hire, and the hours to run them
• Disposal: spoil and old concrete by the load or the tonne. Dug soil takes up more room than it did in the ground
• Base: road base or crushed rock, ordered above the compacted volume, plus compaction
• Forms and steel: formwork timber, pegs, mesh, bar chairs, membrane and any bar
• Placing: pump hire, or barrows and extra hands, and standby time if the truck is late
• Finishing: the finish itself, saw cuts, sealer, and the return visit to cut and seal

Safe Work Australia lists cutting, grinding, jack hammering and chiselling concrete among the work that can create respirable crystalline silica dust. The dust controls take time and gear, so price them into every job with saw cuts or demolition.

4. Cost the crew

Estimate the hours by stage for everyone on the job: excavation and base, forming and steel, the pour and finish, then stripping, cutting, sealing and clean-up. Pour day can need more hands than the other days, so count them. Multiply by your true hourly cost, not your wage. The concreter example on the tradie hourly rate calculator comes to about $116 an hour once wages, super, overheads, rain days and heavy gear are counted.

5. Add overhead and a real margin

If your hourly cost already includes overheads, as the calculator's does, the last step is the margin. For a 20% margin, divide the total cost by 0.8. Adding 20% on top gives a 20% markup, which is only about a 17% margin. The markup vs margin calculator shows the difference on your own numbers.

A worked example: a plain concrete driveway

A 5 x 10 metre driveway, 100 mm thick on mesh, 100 mm of road base, broom finish, saw cut and sealed, with room for a line pump. The prices are illustrative, not a benchmark for your area.

Now check the rate: $12,890 over 50 square metres is about $258 a square metre ex GST. Compare it with similar jobs you have done. If it is well above them, find which line is different (the dig, the base, the access) and say so in the quote. If it is well below, check what you left out. Put your own job through the calculator below to see what a change in hours does to the profit.

How to price a concreting job when the client wants a number on site

Give a range and a date, not a single figure: what similar jobs have come in at per square metre, what could push this one up (the dig, the ground, the finish, access for the pump), and when the written quote will arrive. A range on the day is an estimate, not a quote, and quote vs estimate covers why that matters once you start digging.

Deposits, stages and variations

Take a deposit before you book the concrete and the pump, then the balance after the pour or after the cut and seal. Deposit limits for home building work differ by state, and progress claims and payment stages lists them. When the dig finds a soft spot that needs more base, or the client wants a wider apron, price it in writing on the day and get a yes before you pour. Variations: how to price them and get them approved covers the wording.

The mistakes that cost you the most

• Pricing from last job's square metre rate instead of from the parts
• Ordering the exact volume, with nothing for an uneven base
• Forgetting minimum loads, short-load charges and pump standby
• Counting spoil by its volume in the ground, not once it is dug
• Leaving out the return visit to cut and seal
• Saying nothing about soft spots or rock, so every surprise is yours
• Too few hands on pour day, so the finish suffers or the day runs long

Price from the parts on every job and log the crew's hours and every docket against it, and your square metre rates become a record of what jobs really cost instead of a guess. That is what TrackYaTradie is built for concreters to do.