Plain-English guides to help you plan, save, and decide with confidence.
Every guide here backs a calculator somewhere on this site. Jessica Martinez writes them, Chris Terry checks the math against the named source before anything publishes, and each page carries the date it was last touched.
The house rules are short. A constant has to trace to a manufacturer data sheet, a university extension bulletin, or a code section, and the arithmetic is shown on the page so you can rerun it with your own dimensions instead of taking a single number on faith. When a cited price or spec moves, the page moves with it and the update gets dated. The full method is on the editorial standards page; a wrong number flagged through the contact form gets fixed the same week, with the correction dated rather than slipped in quietly.
Concrete is walkable in a day or two, hits about 70 percent strength at 7 days, and reaches full strength at 28 days. See the timeline, what speeds it up or slows it down, and how to cure it right.
Read →A plain concrete driveway runs about $5 to $10 per square foot installed, or roughly $3,200 to $11,500 total. Compare cost by size and finish, plus concrete against asphalt and pavers.
Read →A nine-step walkthrough from permits and gravel base to forms, rebar, the pour, finishing, and curing. The work that decides whether the slab lasts happens before the truck arrives.
Read →Multiply length x width x depth (in feet) and divide by 27 to get cubic yards. See the quick formula, a size reference table, and how many bags that equals.
Read →You need about 45 80-lb bags or 60 60-lb bags to make one cubic yard of concrete. See the full comparison table, cost breakdown, and when to choose bags vs ready-mix.
Read →Most residential slabs are 4 inches thick. Driveways are 4 to 6 inches; garage floors 4 to 6; heavy-equipment pads 6 to 8. See the full table by use case.
Read →Installed concrete slabs average $6 to $12 per square foot in 2025, or $1,300 to $5,000 for most residential projects. See cost by size, thickness, and region.
Read →Plan for 4 inches of compacted gravel under most residential slabs. Multiply length x width x 0.333 ft and divide by 27 for cubic yards. See the coverage table.
Read →For rectangular footings multiply length x width x depth in feet and divide by 27. For round sonotubes use pi x r^2 x depth. See worked examples and a bag count table.
Read →Cubic yards, bag counts, and bagged-mix cost for ten common slab sizes at 4 and 6 inches, all computed from the concrete calculator's own model with a dated retail bag price. A 10 by 10 slab at 4 inches runs about $401 in 80-lb bags. Downloads as a CSV you can take to the supply yard.
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