New concrete floor price check

[Dart53]

I have a 20' x 22' two car attached wood frame garage with a spalled concrete floor. The top 1/2" or so of the 4" thick floor has flaked off exposing the stone in 70% of the surface. It's at least a 40 yr. old floor( no rebar) with only one crack in it.

After calling ten contractors, one actually showed up and gave me a price of $6500.00 to replace it. The existing floor will be broken up and removed, the subgrade adjusted and compacted. Polyethene will put down with expansion joint around the perimeter. A new 5" thick floor poured with 6"x 6" mesh, power troweled. The price includes cutting control joints and applying a sealer. Concrete around here(Boston, MA) goes for $125.00/cy delivered. The $6500 works out to $14.78/s.f. which seems quite high to me.

Does anyone have any experience with costs for this kind of job and does it seem reasonable?

As an option, I'm considering trying to salvage the floor. Power wash it, removing whatever is loose and trying to apply some sort of patching material or sealer. The goal would be to stop/stabilize the spalling. I can live with an uneven surface. Any ideas on this?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Junkman]

The damage is probably because cars parked in the garage were dripping salted water from the winter roads for 40 years. I think the price is high also, but so is disposal fees to get rid of the old concrete. I suggest that you find someone to come in with a grinder, and grind it smooth. Then put a durable finish on it. Probably will cost 1/3 of a new floor, and it will look good also.

 

[BooUrns!]

I think you're ignoring the demolition costs when looking at the sq.ft price. As Junk said, concrete removal and diposal fees are high.

The best way to determine if it's a decent price is to get more quotes, at least three (I'm aware you're having trouble getting trades to look at the job).

 

[rickairmedic]

With the economy where it is and the Trades begging for work I cant believe all the threads I read here where peaple cant get someone out to give them a Quote . I dont think I have missed one Quote in the last year and dont plan to miss any for a long while.


Rick

 

[e-tek]

It's the same up here in Canada. I called 10 outfits to quote on asphalt work and one called me back - to laugh!! Slowing economy my AZZ!

 

[ddawg16]

Demo of my detached 2 car garage...including concrete foundation $2500

New foundation, 20' x 25', 4" slab....along with about 27' of cinder block wall - $10,500

So, your quote does not sound outragous....but, I would make sure that it's all inclusive...like insuring proper tie in with the existing footing.

 

[Junkman]

The price of concrete 75 miles West of Boston is $100. Labor costs are probably 30% less. Disposal of the old floor is a problem, because it has to be trucked away, and probably will require a long distance to dispose of it. I can see the demo work costing $2000 / $2500. If you are ambitious, you could rent a jack hammer, and break up the old floor yourself, and try to find someone to dispose of the old concrete. Then it would be a simple job to find someone that will pour the new floor for you. The problem today, is that even though work is getting harder for contractors to find, they are still in the mode of believing that they don't need to cut prices. Only after a few go under, will they realize that they will have to take less if they want the work. I would wait a year or so and then you will find contractors that are hungry for the work. I just hope that concrete prices don't continue to skyrocket. Oil prices have fallen drastically, but the price of asphalt hasn't come down one cent! The asphalt plants continue to price gouge, because they can.

 

[mikeyr]

My 20x20 work almost exactly what you are doing cost me $5,400 a month ago. The difference was that I had the floor raised 4" by putting and rebar instead of mesh.

 

[tdkkart]

It's the same up here in Canada. I called 10 outfits to quote on asphalt work and one called me back - to laugh!! Slowing economy my AZZ!

Try being in an area that has 3-4000 flooded out homes that all need to be somewhat weather tight and heated very soon.
I called 5 companies to give me estimates on a new furnace install, only 1 called back and the earliest he can do it is Nov. 19th.

 

[tfi racing]

I don't think the price is too far out of line.The breakup,removal and disposal of the old floor is the variable here,it could come apart in minutes or could take many hours to demolish,they have to take a guess on the demo and if they are smart,they will err on the high side.I suggest doing the grunt labour yourself if possible and getting the experts to lay the new slab if you want to save money.Once the demo is done,most of the variables are taken out of the quote and it should be easier to shop the job around.

 

[6t7gto]

Does your garage have a perimeter footer? or is it a monolithic slab?
around here you could get that done for $8.00/$9.00 sq. ft.
tear out and put back.

david

p.s.

got those numbers from a friend that does it all the time.

 

[logical]

In the end it really doesn't matter what I paid or what I think it should cost does it? All you can do is get competative local quotes. You might look at finding a separate contractor to do the tear-up and haul away...sometimes by having a company with fairly skilled people do fairly inskilled work you will overpay. Anyhow, 2 years ago in northern metro detroit area I was paying just over $2 per square foot for 4" concrete, includes everything. Saw cuts and extra rebar was a nominal charge more. But this was new construction and between my garage, basement, porch, driveway, sidewalks and some misc areas I probably was in for 13,000 square feet within a 4 month stretch.

 

[Dart53]

It is a monolithic slab. I have considered doing the demo myself- don't know if my back will hold up. I found a place to take the old concrete: $5.00/ton - no steel, $17.50/ton - steel.

Many thanks to all who responded.

 

[Junkman]

save your back and hire some high school football players that are strong and young. If you work along side of them, it should go fast, since they will not start horsing around with you there. Don't try to do this with a sledge hammer, but rent a large electric jack hammer. Break it into pieces small enough to handle. Once you have the floor out, then you can decide if you need to dig out the existing dirt and add a layer of sand. A little sweat equity goes a long way to saving lots of $$$$. You might even be able to find someone with a small backhoe to help load the pieces into a truck or trailer. I rented a Kubota tractor to dig out my garage floor and to do some trenching inside of the garage. It was small enough to do what I wanted with little to no effort. Even my little BX22 would work in a small space...

 

[dipper]

Call around to local quarry's to get rid of the concrete. On my garage demo there was a slab about 18x18 8-10" thick that was jack hammered out and trailered to a local quarry and disposed for about $10 per load. The concrete contractor I hired already had the truck & dump trailer and had access to the pneumatic jackhammer. That being said, I was at about $5500 for old floor removal, dig 48" trench, footer, 7 courses of block, and then repouring the new 5" floor on my new 20'x22' garage.

I would get more quotes to make sure you are within reason. I found that using a dumpster to haul and dispose of the concrete was way too expensive (the dumpster companies just take it there any way). The old concrete gets recycled for use in asphalt. It also depends how much you want to do yourself, I was there helping load the trailer after he broke up the concrete. Best thing to do is get a couple of more quotes and go from there. 6500 does seem a little steep since you have no footer/block work.

 

[pattenp]

Seeing how I just paid $6500 for granite counter tops to be installed in my kitchen, $6500 seems good for a garage floor demo and new pour. It's all relative. But my $6500 expenditure did get me some points with the wife.

 

[madjack]

Call the local rental yard and check on cost of renting a skidsteer with a rockpick (jackhammer) attachment should be in the $250 to $300 per day range with delivery and pickup. With the size of your slab it should take 6 to 8 hrs to break it all out and move it into a pile in out of the floor area. Local landscape companies sometimes will haul broken material when they have some slow time

 

[Pritch]

Sometimes, the local gravel pit will take old concrete if it don't have any steel in it for free and they will just crush it up and mix it in with whatever they are making that day.