Concrete Weight Calculator
A cubic yard of standard concrete weighs about 4,050 pounds — roughly the weight of a small SUV. Enter your slab dimensions, a known volume, or a bag count and type to get total weight in pounds, kilograms, and tons, plus how many pickup truck loads it takes to haul.
Total Weight
5,000 lbs
2,268 kg · 2.50 US tons
≈ 4 pickup truck loads (3/4-ton, 1,500-lb payload each)
~4,050 lbs
per cubic yard
~150 lbs
per cubic foot
~50 lbs
per sq ft, 4-in slab
Weight Tips
- →Standard concrete runs 140-150 lb/ft³; always confirm the mix design with your supplier if weight is load-critical
- →A 3/4-ton pickup has roughly 1,500 lb of payload — that's about 15 bags of ready-mix or 0.37 cu yd of wet concrete per trip
- →Broken demolition concrete bulks up roughly 1.3-1.5x its solid volume once it's rubble, so a 10-yd dumpster fills on weight long before it fills on volume
- →Reinforced concrete (with rebar) runs slightly heavier than plain concrete — figure an extra 3-5 lb/ft³ depending on steel ratio
- →For structural or elevated work (decks, roofs), always use the density your engineer specifies rather than a general planning number
For general step-by-step instructions, read our complete Concrete Weight and What Is A Yard.
Weight Per Cubic Yard and Cubic Foot by Concrete Type
Concrete's weight depends on its mix design — the aggregate type and density drive most of the variation. Here's how the common types compare:
| Concrete Type | Density (lb/ft³) | Weight per Cu Yd | Weight per Cu Ft |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lightweight structural | 110 | 2,970 lbs | 110 lbs |
| Asphalt concrete | 140 | 3,780 lbs | 140 lbs |
| Standard / normal-weight | 150 | 4,050 lbs | 150 lbs |
| Reinforced (with rebar) | 156 | 4,212 lbs | 156 lbs |
| High-density | 175 | 4,725 lbs | 175 lbs |
Standard normal-weight concrete — the mix used in the vast majority of driveways, patios, and footings — is the default in the calculator above. Lightweight structural concrete swaps in expanded shale or clay aggregate to cut dead load on elevated decks and roofs. High-density concrete uses heavy aggregates like magnetite or barite for radiation shielding and counterweight applications.
Slab Weight Per Square Foot
For flatwork, weight per square foot scales directly with thickness:
| Slab Thickness | Weight per Sq Ft |
|---|---|
| 4 inches | ~50 lbs |
| 6 inches | ~75 lbs |
| 8 inches | ~100 lbs |
These figures use the standard 150 lb/ft³ density. To calculate: thickness in feet × 150 lb/ft³ = weight per square foot. A 4-inch slab is 4/12 = 0.333 ft thick, so 0.333 × 150 ≈ 50 lb/sq ft.
Weight by Common Slab Size
Running the numbers on a few typical residential pours at 4 inches thick and standard density:
| Slab Size | Area | Weight (4 in, standard mix) |
|---|---|---|
| 10×10 ft | 100 sq ft | ~5,000 lbs |
| 12×12 ft | 144 sq ft | ~7,200 lbs |
| 20×20 ft | 400 sq ft | ~20,000 lbs |
| 24×24 ft | 576 sq ft | ~28,800 lbs |
A 10×10×4-inch slab computes as 100 sq ft × 50 lb/sq ft = 5,000 lbs — right at the load limit of a single mixer truck's short pour, and well beyond what any pickup truck can haul in one piece. Use the calculator above to run the same math on your exact dimensions and concrete type.
Wet vs. Cured Weight
Freshly poured concrete and fully cured concrete weigh nearly the same. Curing is hydration — a chemical reaction, not simple drying — so most of the mix water bonds into the cement paste rather than evaporating. Cured concrete typically weighs about 2-3% less than the wet mix, meaning a cubic yard that weighs 4,050 lbs wet settles to roughly 3,900-4,000 lbs after 28-day cure. For planning purposes, the wet-mix figure is the safer number to use since it represents the heavier, worst-case load during placement and transport.
Why Concrete Weight Matters
Truck payload limits. A half-ton pickup typically has 1,500-2,000 lbs of payload capacity — enough for about 15-20 bags of ready-mix, but nowhere close to a cubic yard of wet concrete (4,050 lbs). Check your vehicle's payload sticker (usually on the driver's door jamb) before loading bagged concrete, and never assume a pickup can haul loose ready-mix.
Dumpster load limits. Rental dumpsters for demolition debris are billed and limited by weight, not just volume — a typical 10-yard dumpster carries a 2-3 ton weight limit even though its box could physically hold more material by volume. Broken concrete is dense enough that a dumpster fills its weight limit well before its visual capacity, which is why concrete demolition often needs a dedicated heavy-debris dumpster or multiple hauls.
Structural dead loads. Per ASCE 7, normal-weight concrete is treated as 150 pcf (pounds per cubic foot) for structural dead-load calculations — the same figure used throughout this calculator. Anyone pouring over a deck, elevated slab, or engineered structure needs to confirm that structure can bear this dead load before adding live loads (people, vehicles, furniture, snow) on top.
Weight of Broken Concrete for Disposal
Demolished concrete doesn't weigh less than the slab it came from — it weighs the same total, just redistributed into rubble. But broken concrete bulks up in volume: irregular chunks with air gaps between them take up roughly 1.3-1.5 times the volume of the solid slab they came from. That means a 10×10×4-inch slab (5,000 lbs, about 3.7 cu ft solid) becomes closer to 5-5.5 cu ft of loose rubble at the same 5,000 lbs — filling a dumpster's volume faster than the math on solid concrete would suggest, while still hitting the weight limit first in most cases. When budgeting a demolition haul-off, calculate weight from the original slab dimensions (using this calculator) rather than eyeballing the rubble pile, and always confirm your dumpster or hauler's weight limit before loading.
Calculating Your Own Project
Use the calculator above with whichever inputs you have on hand — dimensions if you're planning a pour, a known volume if you're already working with cubic yards from a supplier quote, or a bag count if you're buying bagged mix at a retailer. Switch the concrete type to match your project (standard for the vast majority of residential work, reinforced if you're accounting for rebar mass, lightweight or high-density for specialty applications) and the calculator applies the correct density automatically.
For volume planning before you get to weight, see the concrete slab calculator; for what a "yard" of concrete actually represents, see what is a yard of concrete; and for bag-quantity planning on smaller projects, see how many bags of concrete you need.