TradesHow this works
Bags and ready-mix are priced in completely different ways, so the only fair comparison is the bottom line on your own pour. This takes the volume you need, adds a waste allowance, and turns it into two totals: bags at your per-bag price, and ready-mix at your per-yard price with delivery, a short-load fee under the plant minimum, and an optional pump.
Small pours favor bags because the truck's fixed fees hit hard on a fraction of a yard. Big pours favor the truck because those fees vanish into the yardage and you skip a day of hand mixing. The tool shows both totals and the effective cost per yard, and it will lean toward the truck on a big pour when the dollar gap is small and the labor is not.
Common questions
Is it cheaper to bag concrete or order ready-mix?
It depends on the size of the pour and your prices. On small pours, bags usually win because ready-mix carries delivery and a short-load fee under the plant minimum. As the pour grows those fixed fees disappear into the per-yard price and the truck pulls ahead, and it saves you a lot of hand mixing. Put your real prices in and the tool shows the crossover.
What is a short-load fee?
Ready-mix plants have a minimum order, commonly around one cubic yard. If you order less than that, they add a short-load or small-load fee to cover sending a truck out for a partial drum. That fee is what makes tiny ready-mix pours expensive, so the tool adds it whenever your order falls under the minimum.
Does the bag total include labor?
No. The bag total is just materials plus any flat extra you enter for a mixer or tools. Mixing dozens of bags by hand is real time and effort that the dollars do not show, so when the two totals are close, let the labor break the tie.
Sources: All prices are user inputs (evergreen, no stored figures) · Bag yields: standard concrete-mix published values. Engine version 1.0.0. Risk tier 1.