CONCRETE DEBRIS REMOVAL PUEBLO WEST

Every other junk category is priced by how much room it takes up in the truck. Concrete is priced by what it weighs, because weight is what kills trucks, trailers, and axles.

Cured concrete runs about 150 pounds per cubic foot. That means:

• A 4-inch slab weighs 50 lbs per square foot. A 12' × 12' patio = 144 sq ft = 7,200 lbs, or 3.6 tons.
• A 5-inch driveway weighs 62.5 lbs per square foot. A 20' × 30' driveway = 600 sq ft = 37,500 lbs, or roughly 18.5 tons.
• A 4-foot-wide sidewalk at standard thickness weighs about 200 lbs per linear foot. Sixty feet of walkway = 6 tons.
• Broken up and loose-stacked with air gaps, concrete still runs 2,000–2,400 lbs per cubic yard.

That last number is the one that trips people up. A 15-yard roll-off dumpster filled to the brim with broken concrete holds about 16 tons — several times what most roll-off trucks can legally lift and haul. Which is why concrete-only dumpsters are typically 10-yarders that you fill one-third full and no higher.

Same physics applies to the do-it-yourself route. A half-ton pickup has a real-world payload near 1,500–1,800 lbs. That's about 30–36 square feet of 4-inch slab — a 6' × 6' pad, one trip. A tandem-axle trailer rated at 7,000 lbs GVWR carries maybe 5,000 lbs of payload, or a 10' × 10' pad. A 200-square-foot patio is seven pickup loads or two-and-a-half trailer loads, and that's assuming your suspension and your back both cooperate.

Our concrete pricing has two parts: labor to break and load, and tonnage to haul and dispose.

• Pre-broken pile, you did the demo, under 1 ton: $145–$275
• Small patio or pad, 100–200 sq ft, we break and haul: $450–$900
• Sidewalk or walkway run, 40–80 linear feet: $400–$750
• Driveway sections or full driveway, 400–800 sq ft: $1,800–$3,500
• Additional tonnage past the quoted load: $65–$95 per ton

Prices move on four things: thickness, rebar, access distance, and whether the slab is still in the ground. A 3-inch unreinforced patio pad breaks in an afternoon. A 6-inch driveway apron with #4 rebar on 18-inch centers is a different job with a different number, and any company quoting you sight-unseen over the phone without asking about rebar is guessing.

We're happy to look at it in person and quote flat. See [concrete and rock removal](/services/concrete-rock-removal-pueblo) for the service page, or [our Pueblo West and southern Colorado service area](/areas) for coverage.

This is the section most junk removal sites leave out. There are real situations where paying us is the wrong call, and we'd rather tell you now than after you've spent money.

1. You're pouring new concrete on the same spot. If a concrete contractor is replacing that driveway next month, their bid almost always includes demo and haul-away, and their marginal cost to take the old slab is far below our standalone price. They already have the breaker, the skid steer, and the disposal account. Hiring us first and them second means paying twice for the same equipment mobilization. Ask your concrete contractor what the bid drops to if you remove the slab yourself before you hire anybody. Sometimes the answer is $200 and it's not worth it.

2. Pure concrete, big volume, no time pressure. If you have 15+ tons of clean concrete and a driveway that can host a dumpster for a week, a concrete-only roll-off is usually cheaper per ton than full-service removal. Clean concrete recycles into road base, and area recyclers charge in the range of $12–$25 per ton for uncontaminated loads — a fraction of mixed-waste landfill rates. You're paying us for labor and speed. If you have your own labor and no deadline, you're paying for something you don't need.

3. Very small piles. Under about 800 pounds — say, a couple of broken step treads — our $145 minimum is poor value. Rent a breaker for $75–$110 a day, borrow a trailer, and you're out under $150 including disposal. We'll still take the job, but we'll tell you it's a coin flip.

> If you're within a month of pouring new concrete on the same footprint, call the concrete contractor before you call us. Their demo line item is usually the cheapest quote you'll get all week.

4. You need the hole filled and graded, and you think removal covers it. It doesn't, and this is the most common surprise. Pull a 4-inch slab and you now own a 4-inch depression, often right against a foundation. Pueblo West soils are clay and caliche and drain poorly, so a fresh depression next to your house becomes a basin the first time an August thunderstorm dumps an inch in twenty minutes. Backfilling 200 sq ft at 4 inches takes about 2.5 cubic yards of fill, roughly $35–$60 per yard delivered plus a delivery fee, and you want the finished grade dropping about 6 inches over the first 10 feet away from the structure. Removal and restoration are two jobs. If you want both, ask us to bundle [dirt work and grading](/services/dirt-work-excavation-pueblo) into the quote up front.

Failure modes worth naming. Concrete jobs go sideways in predictable ways:

• Hidden thickness. Homeowners guess 4 inches; the pour is 7 inches because the 1978 contractor dumped the leftover load. Price changes.
• Hidden rebar or wire mesh. Mesh doubles cutting and separation time. Heavy rebar can add 30–50% to a demo estimate.
• Utilities under the slab. Sprinkler lines, gas stubs, conduit, and old septic runs live under Pueblo West patios. We stop and locate rather than break blind, and that costs a day.
• Access. Many Pueblo West lots are one to two-and-a-half acres with a long approach. If we can't get a truck within 75 feet of the pile, everything moves by wheelbarrow, and the labor line goes up accordingly.
• Soft ground. A loaded skid steer on saturated clay leaves ruts. After a wet stretch we may reschedule instead of tearing up your yard.

This distinction is worth real money and almost nobody explains it.

Clean concrete is concrete, brick, block, and rock — nothing else. It gets crushed and reused as aggregate base. Recyclers accept it cheap, and some accept small rebar since they run magnets on the crusher line.

Contaminated concrete is a pile with dirt, sod, wood forms, roofing, plastic sheeting, or painted material mixed in. One buried bundle of asphalt shingles can get a whole load rejected at the recycler and rerouted to the landfill at mixed-debris rates. If you're stacking material ahead of our arrival, keep concrete in its own pile. That one habit can shave meaningful dollars off the disposal side of your invoice.

Also: if the slab or coating dates to a pre-1980 structure and shows cracked, flaking paint, that's a different conversation. Painted or coated old concrete may need testing before disposal. We won't quietly haul it.

For a typical 200-square-foot Pueblo West patio:

• Hand demo, two people with a 35-lb electric breaker: 6–10 hours. It's brutal work.
• Machine demo, skid steer with a hydraulic hammer: 60–90 minutes.
• Loading, by hand into the truck: about 3–5 tons per hour with a two-person crew.
• Total on-site time with equipment: half a day.

We generally show up in a 2- to 4-hour arrival window, walk the pile with you, give a flat number before anything moves, and clean the work area with a magnet sweep for rebar ends before we pull out. If the slab is still intact and sizable, we'll bring [skid steer services](/services/skid-steer-services-pueblo) rather than swinging hammers at your hourly rate.

Concrete rarely shows up alone. Patio teardowns come with old fence panels, footings, and hardware — see [deck and fence removal](/services/deck-fence-removal-pueblo). Remodels produce mixed loads best handled under [construction debris removal](/services/construction-debris-removal-pueblo). If it's a full property reset, start with the [services overview](/services).

Have four things ready and we can price most concrete jobs over the phone within about 10%:

• Square footage (length × width, rough is fine)
• Thickness — measure at a cracked edge or a corner
• Rebar or mesh? Look at a broken edge for metal
• How close a truck can park to the pile, in feet

Send photos with a tape measure or a shoe in the frame for scale and we'll usually respond inside the hour. If the honest answer is "your concrete guy should do this" or "rent a 10-yard dumpster instead," that's what we'll tell you. We'd rather lose a $600 job and be the company you call for the [garage cleanout](/services/garage-cleanout-pueblo) next spring.