Slab

Concrete for a 30×40 ft slab, 5 in thick

A 30 ft × 40 ft slab poured 5 inches thick suits a residential driveway or workshop floor. Here is the volume and the bag count worked out from the standard slab formula, length × width × thickness.

Concrete needed

18.52cubic yards· 14.158· 500 ft³
Bag sizeBags needed
40 lb1667
60 lb1112
80 lb834
25 kg1210
30 kg1008
Planning estimate, with no waste allowance included. Add 5–10% for spillage and over-excavation, and check the yield printed on your bag. Structural work must follow your local building code and an engineer's specification.

How it is worked out

A slab is a simple rectangular prism: multiply length × width × thickness. Enter the thickness in inches (it is usually the smallest dimension) and the plan size in feet. Four inches suits patios and walkways; drives and garage floors are usually five to six.

That volume — 500 ft³ — is divided by 27 to give 18.52 cubic yards, and by each bag's yield to give the bag count. An 80 lb bag of premix yields about 0.60 cubic feet, so this job takes 834 of them; bag counts always round up, because you cannot buy part of a bag.

Ordering ready-mix instead? Suppliers sell by the cubic yard (or cubic metre) and usually have a minimum load and a short-load surcharge — worth a call before you choose between bags and a truck.

Formwork

What is being measured

lengththicknesswidth runs into the pageSLAB · L × W × T

Nearby

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