Concrete Cost Calculator

How this calculator works

Every figure in this calculator is the one published in the cost table on our concrete guide. Pick the option that matches your job and the calculator returns that published range, adjusted for your region - it does not model anything the guide does not already say.

That is deliberate. A calculator whose rates drift from the page it sits under is worse than no calculator, because two numbers on the same site disagree.

What it cannot know: access, the condition of what is already there, and anything structural. Those are what separate three real quotes from each other.

What actually moves a concrete driveway quote

The calculator gives you a sound budget from the rates above, but three groundworkers pricing the same slab can still land some way apart. With concrete the money is in the prep you don’t see and the finish you do.

Joints and reinforcement. A slab that size moves as it cures and with the weather, so it needs movement joints cut in and usually steel mesh or fibres to control cracking. A quote that skips proper joints or reinforcement looks cheaper on paper and cracks in a year or two. Ask what’s allowed for both.

The finish you pick. The rates above climb from a plain broom finish through exposed aggregate and stamped up to polished, and it’s not only material. Stamped and exposed finishes are skilled labour on the day the slab goes down – there’s no going back once it’s set – so a fitter who does them well prices that in.

Sub-base and slab depth. What sits under the concrete decides how long it lasts. A well-compacted sub-base and an adequate slab thickness cost more than a thin pour on soft ground, and they’re the part you never see once it’s finished. Push each quote to state the sub-base prep and the slab depth so you’re comparing like for like.

Weather and the curing window. You can’t pour into a hard frost or bake a slab dry in high summer without risking the surface, so a good gang builds curing time into the programme. A drive you can’t use for several days is normal; a price that promises it poured and driven on by the weekend is a flag.

Falls, drainage and access. Concrete is impermeable, so the slab has to be laid to a fall that carries water to a channel, a border or a soakaway rather than off onto the pavement – and the same front-garden rules apply as for any hard surface, set out in the government’s guidance on paving over front gardens. Ready-mix also comes by lorry and either pumps or barrows in, so check the wagon can reach the drive and that breaking out any old surface is in the price.