Last updated October 31, 2026

How much to charge for concrete and masonry work in 2026

The hourly rate a one-truck concrete contractor needs to charge, built from what concrete and masonry contractors actually earn, a price list for 13 common jobs with the arithmetic shown, what moves the number, and the mistakes that cost the most.

Short answer: a one-truck concrete and masonry business that pays its owner what the median concrete finisher earns, carries normal overhead, and keeps a 20 percent margin needs about $90 an hour. To pay yourself like the top quarter of concrete and masonry contractors, charge about $95. Top ten percent, $110. Below $80 you are subsidizing the customer with your own wages. Every number on this page is built from published wage data and a model you can see, and the price list further down uses the $95 rate.

Concrete is priced by the square foot for flatwork and by the cubic yard for the material, and the two numbers have to meet on the bid. A 400 square foot patio at four inches is about five yards of concrete, and the labor to form, pour and finish it is a crew for a day. Masonry, block, brick and stone, is priced by the square foot of face or by the unit, with the labor hours dominating the material.

What makes concrete money different from carpentry money is that the material arrives on a truck at a fixed time and sets whether you are ready or not. A short load is a second truck and a cold joint. A late truck is a crew standing around. Pricing has to carry the risk of the pour, the pump when a pump is needed, and the fact that a finisher's skill is the difference between a slab that lasts and one that spalls in two winters.

What concrete and masonry contractors earn, and what that means for your rate

The Bureau of Labor Statistics counted 206,170 people working as cement masons and concrete finishers in its May 2025 survey and published what they are paid. That is the wage an employer pays an employee, which is the floor for what an owner-operator should pay themselves. A rate is built on top of it: the hidden cost of an hour of labor, the overhead of running a truck, the hours you cannot bill, and a margin. The model here uses a 22% labor load for payroll taxes, workers comp and the liability share, $42,000 a year of overhead for the truck, insurance, phone, software, tools and licenses, 1,100 billable hours a year, and a 20% margin. Change any input and the rate moves; the hourly rate calculator runs it with your numbers.

If you pay yourself like the	BLS wage	Loaded	Overhead per hour	Rate to charge
Bottom quarter	$23	$28	$38	$80
Median	$27	$33	$38	$90
Top quarter	$32	$39	$38	$95
Top ten percent	$41	$50	$38	$110

Rate = (wage × 1.22 + $42,000 ÷ 1,100) ÷ (1 − 0.2), rounded to $5. Wages: BLS OEWS May 2025, cement masons and concrete finishers, national.

The $42,000 overhead is the highest of the flatwork trades: a truck, a trailer, forms, a power trowel, a compactor, saws, and the insurance that comes with pours. Brickmasons are a separate BLS occupation with a higher wage, shown as the second row, and masonry labor per square foot runs well above concrete flatwork. Concrete delivered cost about $150 to $200 a yard in most markets in 2026, with short-load fees under a few yards.

A concrete and masonry price list, with the math

Flat prices for the jobs concrete and masonry contractors quote most, built the same way every time: hours at the $95 rate, plus materials at cost with a 30 percent markup, rounded to $5. The hours and material costs are example inputs for a typical job in a typical market, stated so you can swap in your own. A job with a crew of two doubles the labor line. Flatwork prices are per square foot at four inches with a gravel base and fiber or wire mesh, for a site a truck can reach. Pump, excavation beyond grading, and demolition of existing concrete are separate lines. Crew labor is shown as total person-hours.

Job	Labor	Materials at cost	Price	What it assumes
Pour a 4-inch slab or patio, per sq ft	0.07 h	$3	$10	Forms, base, mesh, broom finish; concrete at $175/yd included in material
Pour a driveway, 5-inch, per sq ft	0.08 h	$3	$10	Rebar grid, control joints
Sidewalk, 4-inch, 4 ft wide, per linear foot	0.3 h	$11	$45	Forms, base, broom finish
Demolish and haul existing concrete, per sq ft	0.04 h	$1	$5	4-inch unreinforced; dump fee in material
Stamped or colored finish, add per sq ft	0.04 h	$1	$5	Color hardener, release, sealer
Concrete pump, per pour	0 h	$950	$1,235	Line pump half day
Footing, 12x24 in., per linear foot	0.35 h	$14	$50	Dug, formed, rebar, poured
Concrete steps, per step, 4 ft wide	2.5 h	$60	$315	Formed and poured
Block wall, 8-inch CMU, per square face foot	0.35 h	$6	$40	Mortar, rebar, grout; footing extra
Brick veneer, per square foot	0.45 h	$9	$55	Standard brick, mortar, ties, flashing
Stone veneer, manufactured, per sq ft	0.4 h	$12	$55	Lath, scratch coat, stone, mortar
Tuckpoint brick, per sq ft	0.12 h	$2	$15	Grind and repoint
Seal concrete, per sq ft	0.006 h	$0	$0	Penetrating sealer, one coat

Price = hours × $95 + materials × 1.3. Trip or diagnostic fees, permits and disposal are extra lines.

This is a sample. The free price book builder prices the full concrete and masonry book, 32 jobs, with your own wage, overhead and margin, and gives you the PDF for the truck and the spreadsheet that keeps the formulas.

What moves the price

Access for the truck. If the mixer cannot get within 20 feet of the pour, you are pumping or wheeling. A pump is a $900 to $1,500 line; wheeling is a day of a crew's back. Walk the site.
Thickness and reinforcement. A four-inch patio with fiber and a five-inch driveway with rebar are different yards and different hours. Say which, and say the psi.
Base and grading. Compacted gravel under the slab is where cheap bids save money and where slabs crack. Make it a line with a depth.
Weather. Pouring below 40 degrees or above 95 needs additives, blankets or a dawn start. Cold-weather pours cost more and the bid should say when the pour happens.
Finish. Broom is the baseline. Stamped, colored, exposed aggregate and polished finishes price per square foot on top and need a sample the customer approves.

Hourly, flat rate, or by the unit

Per square foot for flatwork, with the concrete itself priced at today's delivered cost per yard inside the material line, and the pump, the demo, the base and the finish as separate lines. Per linear foot for footings, curbs and sidewalks. Per face foot for walls and veneer. The customer sees the yards and can check the arithmetic.

A pour is never hourly: the customer cannot control the truck and neither can you. Flat price, with a weather clause that moves the date and not the money. A deposit that covers the concrete order and the pump, because the material is ordered against your name.

A worked concrete and masonry bid

A 400 square foot backyard patio, 4 inches, broom finish, truck access from the alley. Forming, base, mesh, pour and finish: 400 at 0.07 hours, 28 person-hours, a crew of three for a day. Concrete: 400 times 4 inches is 4.9 yards; order 5.5 at $175, in the material line with the base gravel, mesh and forms. Grading as a line. No pump. Sealer as an option the customer can tick. Labor at the top-quarter rate from the table; materials marked up 30 percent; a third down to cover the order.

Most markets see $8 to $14 a square foot for a broom-finish patio, and this arithmetic lands inside it with every piece visible. The sample concrete patio estimate shows the finished bid, and the concrete calculator turns the dimensions into yards.

The pricing mistakes that cost the most

Ordering exactly the calculated yards. Order ten percent over; a short load is a second truck fee and a cold joint.
No pump line on a job where the truck cannot reach, and finding out on pour morning.
Skipping the base to match a cheaper bid. The slab that cracks in year two carries your name.
Pricing the stamped finish like broom. It is twice the hours at the finish stage and a color sample before the pour.

Writing the price into a bid that gets signed

The number is half the job. The other half is a bid the customer can say yes to from their phone: the scope in lines, one price, the deposit and payment terms, the warranty, a date it expires, and a signature. The free concrete and masonry estimate template is laid out that way in PDF, Word and Excel, and How to bid concrete jobs covers the scope lines that keep you out of arguments. If you want the typing done for you, BidWriter Pro turns your notes into a clean bid your customer signs on their phone, with the deposit paid by card. $29 a month, 30 days free.

Sources and method

Wages: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, Cement masons and concrete finishers, national percentile hourly wages and employment.
Also: Brickmasons and blockmasons, median $30 an hour, 52,550 employed.
Rate model: labor load 1.22, overhead $42,000 a year, 1,100 billable hours, 20% margin. Hours and material costs in the price list are example inputs, not survey data. Prices are examples, not advice for your market.

Questions contractors ask

How much do concrete contractors charge per square foot in 2026?

For a 4-inch broom-finish slab with base and mesh, $8 to $14 a square foot installed is common, with stamped or colored finishes adding $3 to $8. Built from BLS wages, a one-truck concrete contractor needs about $90 an hour per person at the median wage and $95 to earn like the top quarter.

How much concrete do I need for a patio?

Length times width times thickness in feet, divided by 27, plus ten percent. A 20x20 patio at 4 inches is about 4.9 yards; order 5.5. The concrete calculator does it.

Should I charge for a concrete pump?

As its own line, whenever the truck cannot reach the pour. A line pump runs $900 to $1,500 for a half day in most markets and the customer should see it before pour day.

How do I price a block retaining wall?

Per square face foot for the wall plus a per-foot footing line, drainage and backfill as lines, and an engineering note for anything over about four feet.

How much deposit should a concrete contractor ask for?

Enough to cover the concrete order, the pump and the rebar, usually a third to a half, paid at signing since the material is ordered against you.

Write a concrete / masonry bid from your notes

Type the job the way you would text it. It comes back as a finished estimate in about five seconds, in your words. No account.

Type a job the way you would text it

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Free, no account: estimate checker, job price calculator, markup vs margin, hourly rate, and 84 sample estimates.