Concrete Slab Cost Guide: Calculator, Cost Per Square Foot, Estimates and Patio & Driveway Cost Guide

Like everything these days, the price of concrete has gone up fractionally. This is for many reasons, including the fact the building boom, in countries such as Ireland especially, has diminished, leaving half started projects and unemployed builders in its wake. So, since not as many construction workers are out there building like crazy any more, the concrete slab sellers have had to up their prices in order to make a decent profit.

Now, sadly, this means the builders who did have to finish off buildings and construction sites are finding it hard to do so, because the cost of all their materials, concrete included has gone up incredibly. This means even less houses and buildings are being finished, making these increasing prices even worse for the economy than the building boom was in the first place.

Concrete Slab Cost Calculators

If you are penny-pinching but still need to remodel your home, add a path through your garden or even work on a concrete slab construction site, it is important to estimate the cost of concrete slabs, which is exactly what a concrete slab cost calculator can do.

You can find these handy estimators all over the internet and they all give you very accurate results if you know where to look. Most of the applications will give you a decent concrete slab cost per square foot estimate in whatever unit of measurement and in whatever currency you’d like according to the current price on the market. Tools such as this help immensely when determining how much you should save up for a project or bid on a certain job you are going to be doing for a client.

Why Estimate Before Buying?

There are a lot of reasons why you should estimate the cost of your concrete slabs before you buy them. Here are just a few reasons why:

• Prevent over purchasing

In the event that you purchase too much concrete for a project, not only did you overspend the money which you are working so hard to preserve, but you are now going to be stuck with concrete which will go unused. In some cases, the hardware store where you purchase the concrete from may permit you to return it; however there are instances where this is not permitted, thus leaving you with plenty of concrete and nothing to do with it.

This is why a cost calculator for your concrete slab needs is a handy mechanism for knowing how much your concrete patio cost or concrete driveway cost will be.

• Budgeting

If you need to know exactly how much money you need to get all your project needs so that you can budget accordingly, then it would be handy to know how much you have to spend on your concrete slabs.

Whether you are installing your concrete yourself, or you are hiring an outside company to do the work for you, it is important to note an average cost for the concrete you need. Not only so you know how much money to set aside for your project, but so that you do not get scammed by a contractor who is overpricing concrete they are using for your job.

This is another handy reason to use a cost calculator for your concrete slabs.

• Bargaining

Equipping yourself with the knowledge that you need to ensure you are not overpaying for your materials is important. Oftentimes a hardware store will announce a sale on concrete, when in reality it isn’t that much of a deal.  You should be able to address the average price of concrete based on a cost estimator to help you with your purchase decision.

This is yet another reason to seek a concrete slab cost estimate.

What to Think of an Over or Under Bid by a Contractor?

If you have hired a contractor to lay the concrete for your home project there are some important considerations to be kept in mind. First, your contractor will need to examine the area, take measurements and get a formal understanding of what you are looking for. Once he has done this he will then create a price bid based on the project and materials that will be needed to lay the concrete. Before you accept the bid that the contractor offered it is important to find out if they placed a reasonable bid based on the materials and task at hand.  While you much include labor into the total of their bid, you can analyze their bid based on the material costs, which in this case is where a concrete cost estimator comes in handy.

Say you calculate the cost of materials presented in the bid by a contractor and they are underbidding the price of the project. While you might be inclined to jump at the price, you have to ask yourself why they are willing to make so little for the project? In this case it is important to find out what kind of materials they are using for the job, and whether or not they have experience with other happy clients.

In the even that you use a concrete estimator and pricing of other materials to find that the cost of your job was well over bid, beyond your reasonable budget you should also take caution. First you want to ask why they are charging you so much for materials, perhaps present the idea of purchasing them yourself.  Also, ask how long they are estimating the project will take, as that will have an influence on the price bid.

Either way you should be certain that you check out previous customer testimonials for the contractor, ensure that they are trained in the skills for your job, and that their bid is reasonable.

Using a calculator in order to calculate how much concrete slabs you need for a project is very important. Make sure you check out some of the following sites with concrete slab cost estimators on them. You won’t regret it!

àhttp://www.csgnetwork.com/concreteblockwallcalc.html

àhttp://www.builderbill-diy-help.com/concrete-calculator.html

àhttp://www.jklakshmi.com/calculator.html