Every concrete project eventually faces this fork: buy bags and mix it yourself, or order a ready-mix truck. The bag aisle makes bags look cheap — five dollars a bag feels like nothing — until you multiply by eighty and realize you have signed up to move three tons of material by hand.
This guide gives you the real comparison: bag-count tables for common slabs, 2026 cost math on both sides, and the break-even point where the truck wins. Bag yields are from the Quikrete #1101 spec sheet (80-lb ≈ 0.60 cu ft); truck prices are 2026 US planning ranges from published pricing guides — labeled as estimates throughout.
Bag counts for common slabs (4 inches thick)
| Slab | Cubic yards | 80-lb bags | Bag material ≈ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 × 10 ft shed pad | 0.99 | 45 | $225 |
| 10 × 10 ft patio | 1.23 | 56 | $280 |
| 12 × 12 ft patio | 1.78 | 80 | $400 |
| 12 × 16 ft patio | 2.37 | 107 | $535 |
| 16 × 20 ft slab | 3.95 | 178 | $890 |
Bag counts are rounded up (never round down concrete); material assumes roughly $5 per 80-lb bag, a typical 2026 big-box price. Check your exact slab with our concrete bag calculator.
The truck side of the math
Ready-mix in 2026 runs roughly $125–$180 per cubic yard delivered for standard residential mix (planning range from published pricing guides). Against the table above:
- 10 × 10 patio (1.23 yd): truck ≈ $155–$220 in material — but a short-load fee ($30–$60/yd under the truck minimum) can push a 1-yard order toward $250+. Bags at $280 are competitive here, if you value your Saturday at zero.
- 12 × 12 patio (1.78 yd): truck ≈ $225–$320. Bags cost $400 in material alone. The truck wins on money and you skip mixing 80 bags.
- 16 × 20 slab (3.95 yd): truck ≈ $500–$710. Bags cost $890 — and mixing 178 bags (over 7 tons) by hand is not a DIY project, it is a crew job.
The real break-even: about 1 cubic yard
On pure material cost, the lines cross near 1 cubic yard (45 eighty-pound bags). Below that, short-load fees make the truck expensive per yard and bags are competitive. Above it, the truck pulls away fast. But material cost is only half the equation — the other half is labor:
- Mixing pace: with a rented mixer and two people, expect 8–12 bags per hour including placing and screeding (estimate). Forty-five bags is a full day. Eighty bags is a very long day.
- Consistency: a truck delivers one uniform batch. Eighty hand-mixed bags are eighty chances for the water ratio to drift — and inconsistent mix means inconsistent strength.
- The haul: 45 bags is 3,600 lb. Unless you have a trailer, that is multiple trips in a pickup.
When bags are genuinely the right call
- Post holes, small pads, and repairs under ~1 yard
- Sites a mixer truck cannot reach (steep, soft, or gated access)
- Staged work — a few bags today, a few next weekend (separate pours, not one slab)
- Fast-setting mix for posts (sets in 20–40 minutes — a different product, same math)
Frequently asked questions
45 bags. Each 80-lb bag of Quikrete Concrete Mix #1101 yields about 0.60 cubic feet (per the product spec sheet), and 27 ÷ 0.60 = 45. At roughly $5 per bag, that is about $225 in material alone per yard — before your labor.
Below about 1 cubic yard, bags are usually cheaper once you count short-load fees on small truck orders. Above 1 yard, ready-mix almost always wins on material cost alone — roughly $125–$180 per yard delivered in 2026 versus $200+ per yard in bag material — and the labor difference is enormous.
Plan on a full brutal day with help. A realistic pace is 8–12 bags per hour with a rented mixer and two people (mixing, hauling, placing, screeding). Eighty bags is 6,400 lb of dry material plus water — this is why the break-even is as much about your back as your wallet.
Do not. Concrete starts setting within about 90 minutes, and the seam between two pours of different ages — a cold joint — is a permanent weak line. Pick one method for each continuous pour.
Related calculators & guides
- Concrete bag calculator — exact bag count for your volume
- Concrete calculator — cubic yards with waste allowance
- How much does a yard of concrete cover?
- Concrete curing timeline — what happens after the pour