A concrete estimate, line by line

Two calls in the same week. One homeowner wants a cracked driveway torn out and replaced. The other wants a stamped patio off the back door. Same crew, same supplier, two estimates that share almost no line items: the first is mostly demolition and dirt, the second mostly finish work.

Here they are the way a homeowner would get them. Every dollar figure below is invented so the arithmetic is easy to follow — your own unit prices come from your production rates and your supplier's yard price. See DoneQuote for concrete contractors for quoting tools built for this trade.

A 720-square-foot driveway, torn out and replaced

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Estimate #2026-214 · Date: August 23, 2026 · Valid through: September 22, 2026

To: D. Reinhardt, 3907 Marlowe Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45232

From: Bell Concrete & Flatwork LLC, Cincinnati, OH · (513) 555-0176 General liability and workers' comp certificates on request

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Re: Remove and replace 24 ft x 30 ft driveway, 4 in. slab, broom finish

Estimate total: $9,712, plus applicable sales tax.

Not included: approach work inside the city right-of-way; drainage or downspout tie-ins; step work at the garage; landscaping beyond rough grade and seed; permit fees, billed at cost if required.

Payment: deposit at scheduling, balance on completion.

A 340-square-foot stamped patio

No tear-out here. It is priced over existing lawn, and a third of the total is finish work.

Estimate total: $6,177, plus applicable sales tax.

Not included: steps or a seat wall; footings for a future pergola; drainage away from the slab; re-sealing in later seasons, which is owner maintenance.

Color and pattern: approved from a sample before we order the mix. Integral color is mixed into the load at the plant — once the slab is placed, changing the color means replacing it.

Base prep is the line item people under-scope

On the driveway, demolition, excavation and base stone come to $3,636 — 37% of the job, before a single yard of concrete is ordered. That is the part a cheaper bid shaves: thinner stone, no compaction, or spoil left on site for the homeowner. Give it its own lines, as above, and name the stone type and depth, the compaction, and where the spoil goes.

Broom, stamped and exposed aggregate are three different products

A homeowner holding two estimates cannot compare them if both say "concrete patio." Name the finish on the line — and if it is decorative, the pattern, the color and the sealer. Illustrative adders over a broom finish:

Decorative work also hands the customer maintenance: sealer wears, and re-coating runs on the manufacturer's schedule. Put that on the estimate.

Write the spec instead of assuming it

Thickness, mix strength and reinforcement follow the load. A patio, a driveway a work van parks on and a garage floor are three different answers. Get the mix design from your supplier for the exposure you are pouring into, and confirm thickness and reinforcement with your building department. Many jurisdictions do not require a building permit for flatwork on private property, but work in the public right-of-way — the approach, the curb cut, the sidewalk — generally needs a separate permit from public works. Ask both before you quote a permit as included.

Joints get their own two lines, because customers read a crack as a defect. Control joints are saw-cut so the slab cracks where you decided, at a spacing tied to slab thickness. Expansion joints — isolation joints in the spec books — are the compressible material between the slab and the house, the garage floor or a public walk. Joints cut through a stamped pattern look intentional if the estimate said so, and like damage if it did not.

When the excavation changes the job

Old fill, tree roots, a buried slab nobody mentioned, a subgrade still wet three days after rain. None of it shows on the walk-through, and all of it moves the base-prep scope. Carry standing unit prices so you are not pricing on the spot:

Photograph what you found, apply the rate, and get a written change order signed before the work goes in. Several states require that in writing on residential work, and an unsigned change can be hard to collect on there. Which office publishes the rule varies — licensing board, consumer protection division or attorney general — so look yours up once.

Sales tax varies too. Whether concrete work is taxed as a service, as materials or as an improvement to real property depends on the state — settle it once with your revenue department and a CPA who works with contractors.

Weather is a schedule term, not a disclaimer

Concrete is one of the few trades where the date is part of the product. Cold nights, a hot windy afternoon, rain in the first hours after placement — each one changes the method, the finish, or whether you pour at all. So write it in: the pour date moves for weather at your call, the customer stays off the slab until you release it, and vehicles wait longer than foot traffic. How long depends on the mix, the temperature and the thickness — ask your supplier.

Pouring the same estimate twice

Most of what is on these two pages you have written before: the same base-prep scope, the same joint language, the same undercut rate. Keep those tasks in DoneQuote with their descriptions, unit prices and exclusions attached, or upload the price list you already keep. When the yard price moves you change it once, and the number you priced is the number the customer reads — on the estimate, the change order and the invoice.