How the Concrete Quote Check Works
The quote check places the price on a concrete quote against two things: our own estimate for the same slab, built from published prices and government wage data, and what other readers in your state were quoted for the same kind and size of slab. This page sets out exactly how both work. The checker is on the quote page and under the answer on each slab cost page.
1. What your price is compared with
The slab. The same cost model every price on this site comes from: concrete at published ready-mix list prices, delivery and short-load fees, a compacted crushed-stone base, the steel you chose, form lumber, crew hours at Bureau of Labor Statistics wages for cement masons and construction laborers, and a stated overhead and margin. The low figure uses every low input, the high figure every high one. When you choose a state, the crew is priced at that state’s BLS wages (May 2025; the national cement-mason median is $27.41 an hour); concrete, stone and steel stay at national published prices because no state-by-state list exists. Each input, its source and the date we read it are in the per-square-foot guide’s method table.
The extras. Four things most often explain why two quotes for the same slab differ, so the checker asks about each. An extra you say is in the quote adds its range; one you are not sure about adds nothing to the bottom of the range and its whole range to the top, so an unknown never narrows the comparison.
| Extra | How we price it | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Removing an old slab | $1.00 to $3.05 per sq ft (median $2.00) | Village of River Forest, IL, 2026 curb and sidewalk bid tabulation (3 Dec 2025), sidewalk removal, all 8 bidders, re-read 12 Nov 2026. Municipal unit prices on a 20,000 sq ft program carry no small-job minimum, so one homeowner job often prices above them. |
| Digging out and loading soil | A 3,000 lb mini excavator and plate compactor in 4-hour or day blocks, laborer hours at BLS wages, our overhead and margin. Excludes landfill fees and trucking. | Rent-All Inc. rate card (excavator $190 for 4 hours, $270 a day), read 23 Oct 2026 and unchanged on 12 Nov 2026; site prep method. |
| Concrete pump | $300 set-up plus $13 per cubic yard ordered (volume plus 7.5% waste) | Supreme Concrete published price list, Los Angeles, read 13 Oct 2026 and unchanged on 12 Nov 2026. One supplier’s rate, so the pump line is a single figure. |
| Building permit | Not priced | Fees are set by each city or county. See when a patio needs a permit. |
The verdict. Inside our low-to-high range reads “inside our range”. Up to 10% outside it reads “just below” or “just above”; more than 10% outside reads “well below” or “well above”. The verdict describes where a price sits against a model. It never says a quote is fair or unfair: we do not know the site, the access or the contractor.
No verdict without a source. We have not yet found a published price for what exposed aggregate, stamped pattern, acid stained add per square foot, so a quote with those finishes gets no verdict. The checker shows the same slab with a plain broom finish as a floor, and other readers’ decorative quotes, instead.
2. Quotes from other readers: what is shown, and when
Readers can add the price they were quoted, or finally paid, after checking it. Each report is filed by state, by job and by size, so a quote is only ever shown beside slabs of the same kind and size:
- 4-inch slab, plain finish
- 6 or 8-inch slab, plain finish
- Decorative finish (stamped, exposed aggregate or stained)
Sizes: under 200 sq ft; 200 to 399 sq ft; 400 to 699 sq ft; 700 to 1,199 sq ft; 1,200 sq ft or more. Steel, finish and the four extras are stored with each quote and shown beside it. Quotes and final bills are counted and shown separately, never mixed.
| Reports for one slab in one state | What the checker shows |
|---|---|
| None | Our range only. The same kind and size of slab in other states, if readers have shared any, is listed as a guide. |
| 1 to 4 | Our range leads. Each reader price is listed with the month it was shared and what it covered. |
| 5 to 29 | Our range leads; the readers’ lowest to highest and their median are shown beside it, with the count and the months. |
| 30 or more | The middle 80% of reader prices and their median lead, and your price is placed against them; our range becomes the reference line. |
Why five and thirty: with five reports, the lowest and highest bracket the true median about 94% of the time, which is the least we would show a range on; at about thirty, a middle-80% range drawn from the reports alone becomes dependable. Prices show to the nearest $10 and dates to the month. Reports older than 24 months drop out. Reader prices are never blended into our estimate, and nothing we write is ever shown as a reader report: every reader price on the site was entered by a reader, and nobody is paid or rewarded to share one.
3. What we refuse, and what we hold
Refused, nothing stored: a state, size or answer that is not on the form’s lists, or a price that is not a number. Slabs must be 2 to 200 ft a side and 16 to 10,000 sq ft.
Rejected as impossible, stored but never shown: a total under $150 or over $1,000,000, or, on slabs of 100 sq ft or more, under $1.00 or over $150 per sq ft. These are fixed limits set to catch typing mistakes, at least twice as wide as anything our own model gives at either end. They are not computed from our estimate, so a price is never refused for disagreeing with us.
Held for a person to check: once a slab already has 8 or more published reports of the same kind (quote or final bill), a new price more than 3.5 scaled median absolute deviations from their median, measured on a log scale, is held instead of shown. The rule is the same above and below, it looks only at reader prices, and the number held is shown next to each list. A person then publishes it or leaves it held.
So far: 0 published, 0 held and 0 rejected (updated daily).
Reader quotes by state and slab
No reader has shared a quote yet. This table fills in as they do.
4. How this site makes money
Through affiliate links to Angi, which passes a request to local concrete contractors. If you submit a request we may earn a commission. Inside the quote check, the Angi link appears only when a price sits above the top of our range (or, once readers’ prices lead, above the middle 80% of them), it is labelled “Paid link” beside the button, and a list of what to ask for in writing is always shown alongside it. A price inside or below our range is never shown a link. Elsewhere on the site, Angi units sit below the cost answers and carry the same disclosure. No contractor, supplier or partner can change a figure, a verdict or a reader quote.