How Much Concrete Will It Take To Make Your Patio

There's a simple way to calculate how much concrete it will take to make your patio, plus you will be able to make sure you are getting your money's worth, if you decide to hire a contractor.

First, decide how big a patio you want. Since almost everybody needs to see something before they actually understand if that is what they want, you need to layout the size of the patio that you want to add on your lawn.

Contractors use spray paint to mark the outline of things they are going to build. This is called laying out a project. When you have spray painted the grass to show the size of your proposed patio, you will better understand exactly what your project will look like when you finish. Use a lot of paint so you can easily see the line.

Give yourself a few days to look at the outline of the potion to decide if you like it or not. You might want to change the size, the location or the shape. Is there something else that you would like to change?

Changes made right now are cheap compared to making changes after the forms are done and the concrete is ready to be poured. Make sure that you make the changes you want in a different color so you can see them clearly.

Since you have determined the size and shape of your patio, you can create an estimate and determine the amount of concrete that you will need to complete your project.

Measure the outside of your patio and calculate the area. For instance, if your patio is 20' x 25' the area is the width x the length. So the area would be 500 SQ Feet. Now decide on how thick you want your patio to be. Most patios are 4" thick. Now you need to convert the thickness of the patio into feet by dividing by 12. This would give you a thickness of 0.3333 feet.

Now calculate the volume of the concrete needed by multiplying the area (500 Sq Ft) by the thickness (.3333f ft). The volume is 166.666 cu feet.

Concrete is sold by the cubic yard, so you need to convert your volume in cubic feet into cubic yards by dividing the volume in cubic feet by 27. The equation looks like this 166.66/27 = 6.17 cubic yards.

Concrete costs vary from $70 per cubic yard to as high as $100 per cubic yard. (The concrete ready mix company and any contractor you talk to will refer to concrete in terms of yards instead of cubic yards, so don't get confused.)

If you are going to do the patio yourself, you will need to tell the concrete ready mix company what you are going to be doing and when so they can give you the right mix of concrete. They will make the concrete to match the weather conditions and what you are going to be using it for.

I would not recommend that you attempt to make a pour this large unless you have some experience with concrete or have someone who can help you. 6 cubic yards is a lot of concrete to place and finish, especially if you are in your back yard and have to wheelbarrow it.

A reputable contractor will have a crew of 4-6 people to place a project of this size, so don't think for a moment that you can do it with your buddies and someone who has seen concrete poured before. If you do decide to save a little money by doing it yourself, you might just have 12,000 pounds of concrete that you need do break up and haul away. (Each yard of concrete weighs around 3,500 lbs.)

Prices vary from region to region so you need to get a quote from contractors in your area. Get a price from at least 3 contractors and choose the middle price to make sure you are getting a good job from a reputable contractor.

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