Updated October 2026

Concrete Pad Cost in 2026

Q: Why do small concrete pads cost so much per square foot?

Because much of the cost does not depend on size. A crew has to lay out, set forms, prepare the base, place, finish and clean up whatever the pad's size; our model allows 8 to 16 crew hours of that fixed work per job. Ready-mix suppliers also charge for small loads: Gehring $50 under 4 yards, Scenic City Ready Mix $100 at 5 yards or less. If you need two pads, pouring them on one visit means paying that fixed work and the small-load charge once.

Q: Is a concrete pad the same thing as a concrete slab?

In everyday use, yes, and contractors will quote either word. "Pad" tends to describe a small, free-standing, single-purpose pour such as an AC condenser base, a generator base, a shed floor or a hot tub base. "Slab" tends to describe larger work such as a garage floor, a driveway or a house foundation. The construction is the same: compacted base, forms, concrete, optional reinforcement, finish. The building code does not distinguish between them either: IRC R506.1 applies one prescriptive minimum, 3.5 inches, to every concrete floor on ground.

Q: How thick should a concrete pad be?

4 inches is the usual choice for anything carrying foot traffic, equipment or a static load: shed pads, AC and generator bases, hot tub bases, patios and walkways. 6 inches with a rebar grid is what contractors usually specify for anything a vehicle drives onto. The code floor underneath both is IRC R506.1's 3.5-inch minimum for a slab on ground, and the IRC adds no thicker requirement for vehicle loads. Follow an equipment maker's pad requirements where they exist.

Q: Do I need a gravel base under a concrete pad?

Usually, and the code says when it is mandatory. IRC R506.2.2 calls for a 4-inch base course of clean graded sand, gravel, crushed stone, crushed concrete or crushed blast-furnace slag where the slab is below grade, except on well-drained or sand-gravel soils. Our prices include a 4-inch compacted crushed-stone base, which costs $0.65 to $1.11 per square foot at four suppliers' published prices.

An installed concrete pad runs $5 to $18 per square foot on a 20x20 or larger, in our model. Smaller pads cost more per square foot, because the set-up work and small-load charges are the same whatever the size: a 4-inch 10x10 pad with mesh is about $1,410 ($830 to $2,880). Calculator, size table and cost by pad type below.

$5–$18

Installed, per sq ft (20x20 up)

$1,410

10x10 pad, typical

4 inches

Standard pad thickness

6 inches

Vehicle pad thickness

Concrete Pad Cost Calculator

Concrete Slab Cost Calculator

Width (feet)

Length (feet)

Concrete Pad Cost by Size

Each row is priced by the same model: a 4-inch pad of 3,000 PSI concrete with wire mesh on a 4-inch crushed-stone base, broom finish. Low uses the lowest published price and our lowest labour assumption at every step; high uses the highest. Fixed set-up work and small-load charges are included, which is why the price per square foot falls as the pad grows.

Pad Size	Sq Ft	Low	Typical	High	Per Sq Ft (typ.)	Typical Use
8×8	64	$660	$1,160	$2,520	$18.12	Small shed, equipment pad, hot tub
8×10	80	$730	$1,270	$2,680	$15.88	Shed pad
10×10	100	$830	$1,410	$2,880	$14.09	Shed, hot tub base
10×12	120	$920	$1,550	$3,080	$12.89	Standard shed pad
12×12	144	$1,030	$1,710	$3,330	$11.88	Garden shed, hot tub
12×16	192	$1,260	$2,040	$3,670	$10.63	Workshop shed
12×20	240	$1,490	$2,370	$4,160	$9.88	Large shed
16×20	320	$1,800	$2,920	$4,960	$9.11	Small patio
20×20	400	$2,180	$3,360	$5,620	$8.41	Patio

Excludes permits, excavation beyond the stone base, and decorative finishes. AC and generator pads (3×3 to 6×6) are priced on the AC pad page: our crew-hour assumptions are set for slab jobs, not for one small equipment pad, so we do not use them below 8×8.

Cost by Pad Type

Pad Type	Installed Cost	What Drives It
AC condenser and generator pad	See page	Pre-cast pads and very small pours; priced on their own page.
Shed pad	$920 to $3,080 for a 10×12	4-inch with mesh on a stone base. Under about 150 sq ft some owners mix from bags.
Hot tub pad	$660 to $2,520 for an 8×8	4-inch with wire mesh; check the tub maker's pad requirements.
Garage floor	$4,420 to $10,560 for a 24×24	Normally 6-inch with a rebar grid, which is why it costs more per sq ft than a patio.
RV pad	$8–$19 / sq ft	6-inch with rebar on a 6-inch base (12×40 in our model); heavier RVs may need 8 inches.
Pool deck	$5–$13 / sq ft	4,000 PSI mix and a non-slip finish (600 sq ft in our model).
Patio	$5–$14 / sq ft	4-inch with mesh, broom finish (20×20). Decorative finishes cost more.
Driveway	$5–$18 / sq ft	4-inch mesh at the low end to 6-inch rebar at the high end (20×24).

Low to high from our cost model at the size or spec named; per-sq-ft rows are the price per square foot for the size in the note.

Where the Money Actually Goes

Concrete is the small part. On a 4-inch 20x20 pad, ready-mix and delivery are about 23% of the typical price in our model. Crew labour is about 40%, and overhead and margin most of the rest.
Short-load fees. Gehring charges $50 on loads under 4 yards and Scenic City $100 at 5 yards or less. A 10×12 pad at 4 inches is about 1.48 cubic yards, so almost every small pad pays one.
Base preparation. A 4-inch compacted stone base costs $0.65 to $1.11 per sq ft in stone at published prices. See site prep cost.
Reinforcement. Wire mesh is about $0.24 per sq ft in materials ($0.65 installed on a 20x20), a #4 rebar grid $0.74 ($1.90 installed). Compare the two on rebar vs wire mesh.

Combine Small Pours

The fixed set-up work and the small-load charge come with each visit, not each pad. If you need an AC base, a generator pad and a shed floor, having them poured on one visit, off one delivery, means paying those once instead of three times.

Prepare every site before the crew arrives (base compacted, forms set, access clear) so everything can be poured off one delivery.

Method / How We Price

How We Price a Slab

Every installed price on this site comes from one model: published ready-mix and materials prices, plus crew hours priced at Bureau of Labor Statistics wages, plus overhead and margin. The low figure uses the lowest published input and our lowest assumption at every step; the high figure uses the highest. The crew hours, overage and margin are our own estimates, not published figures, and are listed below so you can check them against your quote. Worked example: a 10 x 10 ft (100 sq ft) pad (4-inch, 3,000 PSI, wire mesh, broom finish, 4-inch stone base).

Line	Low	Typical	High	Basis
Ready-mix concrete	$165	$188	$224	1.23 cu yd plus 5 to 10% overage, at published per-yard prices
Delivery and small-load charges	$50	$110	$619	Per-truck charges from the same price lists (10 yd per truck)
Crushed-stone base	$65	$81	$111	4 in compacted crusher run
Reinforcement	$24	$24	$24	6x6 10-gauge mesh panels, lapped
Form lumber	$15	$23	$30	Perimeter boards, shared across reuses
Crew labour	$370	$657	$1,050	Crew hours x BLS wages x employer costs
Overhead and margin	$138	$325	$823	20% to 40% on direct cost
Installed total	$830	$1,410	$2,880	Rounded to the nearest $10

Not included: excavation and soil haul-off, removing an old slab, permits, pumping, decorative finishes and sealing. Totals are national; the calculators’ state option swaps in that state’s BLS wages and leaves concrete and materials at the published lists.

Published inputs (read 13 October 2026)

Ready-mix, per cubic yard: 3,000 PSI $127.05 to $165.00, 4,000 PSI $132.00 to $175.00, from Supreme Concrete (Los Angeles, CA), Minimix Concrete (Pequannock, NJ), Gehring Construction & Ready-Mix (Columbus, NE, list dated 2026-01-01), Scenic City Ready Mix (Tennessee, list dated 2024-08-03).
Small orders and trucks: short-load charge $50 under 4 yd (Gehring) or $100 at 5 yd or less, plus $100 more at 2 yd or less (Scenic City); per truck, no charge within 20 miles (Gehring), a $35 surcharge (Scenic City), or $363.88 Zone A delivery plus a $55 environmental fee (Supreme).
Crushed-stone base: $44.00 to $74.75 per cubic yard from D & L Supply (Central New York, $44.00/yd), JMJ Companies (Lynchburg, VA, $39.50/ton), Golden Landscaping Supply (Cumming, GA, $50.00/ton), Yard Works Landscape Supply (Fort Mill, SC, $74.75/yd); per-ton prices converted at 2,450 lb per yard.
Steel, forms, poly: #4 rebar 20 ft $8.99, 6x6 10-gauge mesh 4x8 panel $6.99, 2x6x12 $14.32, 2x4x16 $12.13, 6-mil poly 8 ft 4 in x 100 ft $59.99, rebar chair $0.33 (Menards online prices; Home Depot and Lowe’s pages could not be read that day). That works out to $0.24 per sq ft for mesh and $0.74 per sq ft for a rebar grid, materials only.
Wages: BLS OEWS 47-2051 cement masons (May 2025) 25th percentile $22.60, median $27.41, 75th $32.15 an hour; 47-2061 construction laborers $18.57, $22.66, $28.72. Employer costs from BLS ECEC June 2026, construction industry ($51.96 total compensation per $36.13 of wages, x1.44): a crew hour costs $29.60 to $43.77.

Our assumptions (estimates, not published figures)

Crew: half cement masons, half laborers.
Setup per job: 8 to 16 crew hours (layout, stripping, cleanup).
Per 100 sq ft: 4-inch 4 to 7 crew hours, 6-inch 5 to 8.5, 8-inch 6 to 10; add 0.5 to 1 for mesh or 1.5 to 2.5 for rebar.
Concrete overage 5% to 10%; base stone ordered at 1.2x its compacted volume; form boards charged at half to all of their price.
Overhead and margin 20% to 40% of direct cost.
6-inch and thicker slabs use 4,000 PSI mix; thinner slabs 3,000 PSI.

Sources: BLS OEWS 47-2051 cement masons (May 2025), BLS OEWS 47-2061 construction laborers (May 2025), BLS ECEC, construction (June 2026), ready-mix price lists from Supreme Concrete, Minimix Concrete, Gehring Construction & Ready-Mix, Scenic City Ready Mix, crusher-run prices from D & L Supply, JMJ Companies, Golden Landscaping Supply, Yard Works Landscape Supply, Menards mesh, rebar, lumber and poly prices, IRC R506.1 and R506.2.2. All read 13 October 2026. Crew hours, overage, overhead and margin are our estimates and are listed in the method above.

Concrete Pad FAQ

How much does a concrete pad cost in 2026?

Our model prices installed concrete at $5 to $18 per square foot on slabs of 20x20 and up, covering concrete, delivery, a stone base, forms, steel, labour and the contractor's overhead and margin. Small pads cost more per square foot: a 4-inch 10x10 pad with mesh is about $1,410 ($830 to $2,880), or $14.09 per sq ft at typical prices, against $8.41 for a 20x20.

Why do small concrete pads cost so much per square foot?

Is a concrete pad the same thing as a concrete slab?

How thick should a concrete pad be?

Do I need a gravel base under a concrete pad?

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