Project types
Residential concrete slabs
A porch, pad, landing or shed base has settled, cracked or needs replacing.
Most properties have concrete that does not fit neatly into driveway, patio or walkway: a porch slab, a landing, an air-conditioner pad, a shed base, a stoop, a pad under a generator or hot tub.
These are small jobs individually, which affects the economics more than anything technical. Minimum charges tend to dominate, and combining several small jobs into one visit is usually meaningfully cheaper than doing them separately.
Small slabs settle readily
A small slab sits on a small patch of ground and has almost no capacity to bridge a soft spot. Porch slabs and landings are frequently poured on backfill against the house — the least consolidated ground on the property — which is why they are such common settlement cases.
A settled porch slab or landing next to a door is worth treating like steps rather than like a patio: a change in height where people step is a fall risk before it is anything else.
Equipment pads
Pads under air-conditioning units, generators and similar equipment have a specific failure mode: they tilt. Equipment that is designed to sit level does not appreciate sitting at an angle, and manufacturers frequently have something to say about it.
A tilted equipment pad is a good lifting candidate, since the slab is usually undamaged and the requirement is purely one of elevation.
What a good small pour involves
The same fundamentals as a large one, in miniature: appropriate base preparation and compaction, sensible thickness for the load, reinforcement where it is warranted, and slope that moves water away from the building.
Small slabs are where corners get cut, precisely because the job is small and the price is low. It is worth asking the same base and thickness questions you would ask about a driveway.
Getting several small items priced together
Because minimum charges dominate small jobs, the practical strategy here is to stop treating each item as a separate decision. Walk the property, list everything that is cracked, tilted, sunken or simply missing, and ask for the whole list priced as one visit and each item priced individually.
The gap between those two numbers is usually striking, and it changes what is worth doing. An item you would never commission on its own frequently costs very little once a crew is already on site with the equipment out.
It also gives you a rational way to stage work you cannot do at once, because you can see which items are cheap additions to a visit and which are jobs in their own right.
What moves the price
We do not publish national dollar figures. A single average applied across every site, method and market gives you a confident-looking benchmark that is wrong for your job in an unknown direction. What does transfer between jobs is the structure of the price:
- Minimum job charges, which usually dominate.
- Number of separate items and whether they can be done in one visit.
- Access.
- Removal of the existing slab.
- Thickness and reinforcement.
Local quotes decide actual pricing. If you want to compare two of them properly, the quote comparison guide covers how.
What to ask a contractor
- What are you doing to the base before the pour?
- What thickness and reinforcement, and why that for this use?
- Which way will water run off this?
- Do you have a minimum charge, and can we combine several small items into one visit?
Common questions
Is it worth calling a contractor for one small pad?
Often the minimum charge makes a single small item poor value, which is worth knowing rather than discovering. If there is other concrete on the property that needs attention, ask for it all priced together — the difference is usually substantial.
My AC pad has tilted. Does it matter?
Equipment manufacturers generally expect their units to sit level, and significant tilt is worth correcting. A tilted pad is usually a straightforward lifting job because the slab itself is undamaged and only its position is wrong.
Work it out, or judge the quote
Related guides
Concrete leveling
Raising settled slabs back toward their original height instead of tearing them out.
Read more →Replacement and new flatwork
Removing failed concrete and pouring new — plus what separates a good pour from one that fails early.
Read more →Sunken concrete
A slab that now sits lower than it should — almost always a ground problem, not a concrete problem.
Read more →Steps
Where movement stops being cosmetic — uneven risers are a fall risk first.
Read more →Garage floors
Interior slab, exterior abuse — coatings, cracks and the threshold step.
Read more →