Bagged concrete vs ready-mix: where is the break-even?
· 6 min read
For most small jobs the break-even between bags and a ready-mix truck sits around one cubic yard: below it, bags are cheaper and the truck's short-load fee is hard to justify; above it, you are mixing 50 or more bags of 80 lb by hand and the truck wins on price, on your back and on the quality of the mix. Where exactly the line falls depends on two numbers only you can get: the price of a bag at your store and the delivered price of a small load from your nearest plant. This article gives you the arithmetic to put them in.
The short answer
Under half a yard, buy bags. Over a yard and a half, order a truck. In between, the decision comes down to the short-load fee at your plant and how much you value a morning of mixing. There is no national break-even because there is no national price; but there is a fixed arithmetic, and it takes two phone calls to fill in.
What bagged concrete actually costs
The bag count is the part that never changes. With the calculator's 10% waste allowance, a cubic yard is 50 bags of 80 lb or 66 of 60 lb, and half a yard is 25 or 33. Multiply the bags by the shelf price at your store, add mixer hire if you need it, and you have the bagged total. The hidden costs are the ones that do not appear on the receipt: the trips to the store (a full-size pickup carries about 20 bags of 80 lb safely), the hours of mixing, and the risk of a cold joint if you cannot keep up with the pour.
| Volume | 80 lb bags | 60 lb bags | Dry weight (lb) | Mixer batches (2 bags) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.25 cu yd | 13 | 17 | 1,040 | 7 |
| 0.5 cu yd | 25 | 33 | 2,000 | 13 |
| 0.75 cu yd | 38 | 50 | 3,040 | 19 |
| 1 cu yd | 50 | 66 | 4,000 | 25 |
| 1.5 cu yd | 75 | 99 | 6,000 | 38 |
| 2 cu yd | 99 | 132 | 7,920 | 50 |
| 3 cu yd | 149 | 198 | 11,920 | 75 |
| 5 cu yd | 248 | 330 | 19,840 | 124 |
What ready-mix actually costs, including the short-load fee
A plant quotes a price per cubic yard for a given strength, and a minimum load, often several yards. Below the minimum it adds a short-load fee, and below a certain volume some plants will not come at all. Ask for a delivered price for your exact volume, rounded up to the plant's ordering step (usually a quarter yard), with the fee and any waiting-time charge included. That single number is the ready-mix total; the concrete calculator gives you the volume to ask for, waste included.
Labour and time: the cost that is not on the invoice
Two people with a small mixer place about a yard in a morning: fetch, cut, tip, mix, barrow, pour, repeat 25 times. A truck places the same yard in twenty minutes and the crew spends the morning finishing rather than mixing. If you would otherwise be paying someone for that time, put it in the bagged column; if it is your own Saturday, decide what a Saturday is worth. Either way the pour has to be continuous: a slab poured in two sessions has a cold joint and will crack along it, which is a real argument for the truck once the volume gets past what you can mix in one go.
Does the quality difference matter for your job?
For a fence post or a step, no: bagged mix set with the water on the bag is more than strong enough. For a footing, a garage floor or a slab that will carry a load, the plant's weighed, consistent batch is worth having, and it is what a building inspector expects to see on a delivery ticket. Decorative work with a coloured or exposed finish is a third case: consistency between batches is everything, and a single truck load is far easier to keep uniform than forty bags.
How to decide for your project
- Volume with waste, from the calculator: under 0.5 yd³, bags; over 1.5 yd³, truck; in between, do the sum.
- Access: can a truck get within a barrow's run of the forms? A long barrow route adds time and a pump adds cost.
- Timing: a truck needs a booked slot and a ready site; bags wait in the garage until you are.
- Neighbours: two small pours on one morning share one truck and one short-load fee.
- Strength and inspection: if anyone will ask for a delivery ticket, that settles it.
Worked example: a 10 x 10 slab
A 10 x 10 ft slab at 4 inches is 1.23 cubic yards before waste and 1.36 with it: 62 bags of 80 lb, or a 1.5 yard order once the plant rounds up to its quarter-yard step. Price both, and remember that the bag total is a full day for two people. The 10x10 slab guide has the exact bag count for every bag size, and the shed slab article walks through the pour itself.
Quoting both ways for a client?
The calculator gives the volume and the bags; the Pro quote builder lets you add the delivered price or the bag price, the labour for each method, margin and tax, and print two versions of the quote so the client chooses.
Frequently asked questions
- At what point does ready-mix become cheaper than bagged concrete?
- Usually somewhere between three quarters of a yard and a yard and a half, once the short-load fee is spread over enough concrete. Work it out: bags cost (bags x bag price) plus mixer hire; ready-mix costs (yards x price per yard) plus the short-load fee. At 50 bags per yard the bag total climbs fast.
- What is a short-load fee and how much is it?
- A surcharge a ready-mix plant adds when you order less than its minimum load, because the truck and driver cost the same whether they carry one yard or eight. The minimum and the fee are set by each plant; ask for a delivered price for your exact volume and it will be included. Some plants also charge waiting time if the pour is slow.
- How many bags of concrete equal one cubic yard?
- 45 bags of 80 lb or 60 of 60 lb make exactly a cubic yard; with the 10% waste every job should carry, buy 50 and 66. The bags per cubic yard guide has every size, including 50 and 40 lb and metric bags.
- Is ready-mix concrete stronger than bagged concrete?
- Not by design: both can be specified at the same strength. In practice ready-mix is more consistent, because the plant weighs the cement, aggregate and water, while bagged mix depends on how carefully you measure the water in each batch. For a footing or a slab that an inspector will see, that consistency is the point.
- Can I order a small amount of ready-mix concrete?
- Yes, most plants will deliver a yard or two for a fee, and some towns have small-batch or mix-on-site trucks that charge by the yard used with no minimum. It is also worth asking a neighbour: two small jobs on the same morning share one truck and one fee.
- Is it worth renting a mixer instead of buying bags?
- A mixer does not change the number of bags, only how fast you get through them: two bags per batch, so 25 batches for a yard. Rent one for anything over about ten bags; below that a barrow and a hoe are fine. The rental is a small line next to the bags themselves.
Figures are planning estimates from the calculators on this site and typical product data. Check the yield, size or coverage printed on what you buy, round up, and follow your local building code for structural work.