MyBuildPlanner / Calculators / Concrete & Masonry

Concrete Cost Calculators for Slabs, Driveways, Patios & Walls

Cubic yards, slab thickness, base depth and reinforcement — and whether to pour it, lay pavers, or just spread gravel.

By Trace Bailey · Reviewed August 8, 2026 · How we calculate

19 calculators

Concrete & Masonry

Concrete is the one trade you cannot take apart and redo. A wall that racks can be unbolted; a slab poured on soft ground stays where it is until somebody brings a breaker. Almost every job in this category reduces to the same three numbers: volume of material, depth of compacted base underneath, and what steel sits inside. Settle those and the rest is finishing technique and the patience to let it cure.

The calculators under this heading split two ways. The poured work is slabs, footings, patios and driveways; the stacked work is paver patios, segmental retaining walls, mortared block walls, fire pits and gravel drives. Which one you open depends on decisions made before any arithmetic: bags or a ready-mix truck, poured or pavers, four inches or six. The guide below settles those, using the numbers those same calculators return. Everything here is a planning estimate, not an engineered design.

Before you pick a tool

Settle these before you pick a calculator

Bagged concrete or a ready-mix truck?

Order the truck past two cubic yards — the crossover every concrete calculator here switches at. A yard is 27 cubic feet, an 80 lb bag yields 0.60, so a yard is 45 bags and 3,600 pounds to buy, haul, mix and place before the first batch stiffens. Two yards is 90 bags; the Concrete Patio Calculator alone adds six to ten person-hours of mixing for that. Under one yard, bags win outright — no delivery window, no short-load fee, and you can stop and restart. Between one and two, take bags only if the pour breaks into separate footings or piers.

How thick, and rebar or mesh?

Let the load pick it, not the budget. Four inches over four inches of compacted base carries walkways, patios, shed floors and car-only driveways. Five inches with a five-inch base goes under trucks, RVs and trailers, six under heavy equipment — that is exactly the ladder the Concrete Driveway Calculator steps through. Reinforcement does not stop cracks; joints do. Steel holds the crack tight so the two halves cannot step apart. Take 6×6 welded wire mesh on a patio and a #4 rebar grid on anything vehicles drive on, because mesh sags to the bottom unless it is chaired carefully. Either one belongs at mid-depth, on chairs.

Poured concrete, pavers or gravel?

Poured is the cheaper surface; pavers are the more forgiving one. On the same 16 by 12 footprint the Concrete Patio Calculator returns $684–926 in material against $1,087–1,471 from the Paver Patio Calculator — about 1.6 times. Labor is closer than expected: 69 to 124 person-hours poured, 78 to 142 for pavers. The difference is that pavers can be laid over five weekends and a pour cannot be stopped. Pour for one unbroken surface. Lay pavers for hard freeze-thaw winters, tree roots, or anywhere you may lift a unit later. On a driveway, gravel costs a third: $607–873 against $1,907–2,580 for the same 40 by 12 pad.

Freestanding block wall or segmental retaining wall?

If it holds back soil it is a retaining wall, and nothing about a mortared block wall transfers. A block wall is CMU laid in Type S mortar on a frost-depth footing, rebar grouted into the cells — it carries only itself. A segmental wall is dry-stacked block on a buried base course, and the stone, drain pipe and geogrid behind it are the structure. The price shows it: at 20 feet by 4 feet the Block Wall Calculator returns $686–929 and the Retaining Wall Calculator $1,151–1,558 for the same 80 sq ft of face. Past four feet of retained height, get a stamped design.

Reference

Slab thickness, base, reinforcement and DIY material cost by application

Application	Slab + base	Reinforcement	DIY material cost
Walkway or path — 20 × 3 ft	4" slab · 4" base	6×6 mesh — optional on a path	$5.50–7.45/sq ft
Patio or seating area — 16 × 12 ft	4" slab · 4" base	6×6 welded wire mesh	$3.55–4.80/sq ft
Shed or workshop floor — 16 × 12 ft	4" slab · 4" base	6×6 welded wire mesh	$3.15–4.30/sq ft
Hot tub or equipment pad — 10 × 10 ft	6" slab · 4" base	#4 rebar, 16" grid	$6.45–8.70/sq ft
Car or light-SUV driveway — 40 × 12 ft	4" slab · 4" base	#4 rebar, 18" grid	$3.95–5.40/sq ft
Truck, RV or trailer drive — 40 × 12 ft	5" slab · 5" base	#4 rebar, 18" grid	$4.55–6.20/sq ft

Cost figures are material only, taken from the Concrete Slab, Concrete Patio and Concrete Driveway calculators at the reference size shown, and they include the fifteen percent spread those tools apply. Nothing here is labor. Per-foot cost rises as the job gets smaller, because anything under about two cubic yards is priced as bagged mix rather than ready-mix — the same patio at 12 × 10 ft runs $5.55–7.55/sq ft. Base depths are the finished compacted depth, which is what the calculators order to, so buy roughly twenty percent more loose stone and compact it in two-inch lifts. Control joints follow thickness: both concrete calculators panel a 4-inch slab at 10 ft and cap the spacing at 12 ft for 5- and 6-inch slabs. On clay, expansive or poorly drained soil, add an inch or two of base and step up one thickness.

Keep planning

Other calculator categories

All calculators Decks & Structures Fencing & Privacy Garden & Yard Interior & Finishing

Answers

Frequently asked questions

How much does a concrete patio or driveway cost per square foot?

In DIY materials, $3.10 to $4.85 a square foot for a patio slab at 190 square feet and up, and $3.95 to $5.40 for a car driveway — those are the Concrete Patio and Concrete Driveway calculators' own totals divided by area, including the fifteen percent spread they apply. Small pours cost more per foot, not less: a 12 by 10 patio lands at $5.55 to $7.55 because it falls under the two-yard mark and you buy bagged mix at roughly $7 a bag instead of ready-mix at $165 a yard. None of these figures include labor.

What temperature is too cold, or too hot, to pour concrete?

Fifty to eighty degrees is the window. Below about forty, hydration slows to a crawl and strength gain stalls; if fresh concrete freezes in its first twenty-four hours it can lose most of its strength permanently, so use insulating blankets and warm mix water or wait for a better week. Above ninety with sun and wind, the finishing window can close inside an hour and the surface crusts while bleed water is still coming up. Pour early, shade the slab, and have every tool, form and helper in place before the truck backs in.

Do I need a permit for a patio, driveway or wall?

It depends on what you are building, and the triggers are consistent. A ground-level patio slab usually needs nothing. A new driveway almost always does where the apron meets the public street — many cities specify the apron's width, thickness and rebar themselves. A freestanding block wall over about four feet, and any retaining wall over four feet of retained height, needs a permit and usually a stamped engineered design. Many towns also cap impervious coverage, so a large slab can push a lot over its limit. One call to the building department settles all of it.

Can I pour new concrete over an existing slab?

Only if the old slab is sound and you have the height to give up. A bonded overlay needs at least two inches of new concrete, a clean, profiled surface and a bonding agent, and it will telegraph every crack underneath within a season or two. An unbonded overlay — a slip sheet or an inch of sand, then four inches with mesh — behaves like a new slab but raises the finished grade four to five inches, which usually kills door thresholds and drainage. If the old slab rocks underfoot, break it out.