Cutting Concrete for drain line

Piney · 12-01-2006, 07:53 PM

Greetings--

I need to cut a trench across aprox 25 ft of patio concrete to reroute a 2.5in drain line.

The contractor/plumber quotes $720 for this portion. That includes saw cutting, excavating, refilling and re-concreting.

Is this something I can do myself and save a substantial amt of $$-- or is the cost/time/trouble vs the $720 a wash ?

mdshunk · 12-01-2006, 08:16 PM

Sawing concrete is miserable work. I don't know what a concrete saw rents for, because I have my own. That price of 720 bucks for both sawing and for replacing the concrete sounds extremely fair to me. Of course, it is a lot of money, but that price seems very fair. I charge 3 dollars per lineal foot of cut at 4" depth. For a trench, you need two cuts. Using my prices, I'd be at 150 bucks just to saw the trench. I charge by the hour for concrete removal, which I guess at about 2 hours work, or 150 bucks. I charge 10 dollars a lineal foot for hand excavation to 24" deep, so that's another 250 bucks. I charge by the hour to backfill and place/finish concrete, which I estimate at another 2 hours or 150 bucks. Guesstimate 100 bucks worth of concrete if you include the delivery charge. So there, I'm at about the 720 bucks he quoted. Maybe you could do it cheaper, but it is not very much fun. Guess I didn't really answer your question, but maybe you have a little more insight now.

**AtlanticWBConst.** · 12-01-2006, 08:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mdshunk

Sawing concrete is miserable work. I don't know what a concrete saw rents for, because I have my own. That price of 720 bucks for both sawing and for replacing the concrete sounds extremely fair to me. Of course, it is a lot of money, but that price seems very fair. I charge 3 dollars per lineal foot of cut at 4" depth. For a trench, you need two cuts. Using my prices, I'd be at 150 bucks just to saw the trench. I charge by the hour for concrete removal, which I guess at about 2 hours work, or 150 bucks. I charge 10 dollars a lineal foot for hand excavation to 24" deep, so that's another 250 bucks. I charge by the hour to backfill and place/finish concrete, which I estimate at another 2 hours or 150 bucks. Guesstimate 100 bucks worth of concrete if you include the delivery charge. So there, I'm at about the 720 bucks he quoted. Maybe you could do it cheaper, but it is not very much fun. Guess I didn't really answer your question, but maybe you have a little more insight now.

Agreed, Agreed, Agreed.....It's a fair price for a headache.