How Much Does Concrete Removal Cost in Fort Worth?
Concrete removal costs $2 to $6 per square foot in most published guides, so a 600 square foot driveway runs about $1,000 to $2,500 and a 10 by 10 slab lands around $300 to $800. Reinforced concrete costs 50 to 100 percent more to break out. Disposal in the Dallas-Fort Worth area can add $100 to $230 per ton, unless the rubble is clean enough to recycle for free.
| Project | Typical range | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Driveway | $1,000 - $2,500 | HomeAdvisor |
| Driveway | $1,140 - $3,000 | LawnStarter |
| Patio | $1,000 - $2,000 | HomeAdvisor, Fixr |
| Slab | $600 - $2,500 | Fixr, HomeAdvisor |
| Sidewalk | $850 - $2,500 | LawnStarter, HomeAdvisor |
| Pool deck | $1,000 - $2,000 | HomeAdvisor |
| Foundation | $2,500 - $10,000 | LawnStarter, Fixr |
Those are national numbers, not a quote. Thickness, rebar, access and where the rubble goes move every one of them. Our concrete removal service for Fort Worth and Burleson prices the job at the property, free, with the haul-off included.
How much does it cost to remove 1,000 square feet of concrete?
About $2,000 to $6,000 at the $2 to $6 per square foot guides publish, and bigger jobs usually land toward the low end. Thumbtack reports $3 to $4.50 per square foot for jobs under 800 square feet and $2.25 to $3.75 per square foot above that, which puts 1,000 square feet at roughly $2,250 to $3,750.
The per-foot rate drops on big jobs because the setup is the same whether the machine breaks 300 feet or 3,000. The excavator, the breaker and the dumpster all have to show up either way. What does not drop is the dump fee, because 1,000 square feet of 4 inch concrete weighs around 25 tons.
How much does it cost to remove a 20 by 20 concrete slab?
A 20 by 20 slab is 400 square feet, so $800 to $2,400 at national rates. Fixr’s slab range is $600 to $1,000 for a plain slab, and HomeAdvisor’s is $800 to $2,500. A 4 inch slab that size weighs about 10 tons, which fills a heavy-debris dumpster on its own.
Rebar changes the math. Fixr prices plain concrete at $2 to $4 per square foot and reinforced at $4 to $6. Thumbtack adds 50 to 75 cents per square foot just to cut and pull the rebar, and notes that concrete with rebar in it costs more to dump. An old shop slab or a garage floor is usually the reinforced kind.
What makes concrete removal expensive?
Three things: how thick the slab is, whether it has steel in it, and whether a machine can get to it. A 4 inch patio with open access from the driveway is the cheapest job there is. A 6 inch reinforced slab behind a house with a narrow gate is the most expensive.
Thickness. HomeAdvisor puts it simply: a six inch slab has twice as much concrete per square foot as a three inch slab. Twice the concrete means twice the breaking and twice the weight at the landfill.
Reinforcement. HomeAdvisor says reinforced concrete costs 50 to 100 percent more to remove than plain. Wire mesh tangles in the bucket, and rebar has to be cut before the pieces will load.
Access. Thumbtack’s own data puts hand demolition of a patio at about $4 per square foot, versus $2.50 for a driveway a machine can reach. When a compact excavator or a skid loader can drive up to the slab, the price drops.
Disposal. Published dump fees range from $51 per ton to $300 per ton depending on where the load goes, and that spread is the reason the next question matters.
Where does the concrete go, and what does dumping it cost?
Clean concrete can be recycled free in Fort Worth. Big City Crushed Concrete accepts clean concrete rubble at no charge at its yards on Southwest Drive in south Fort Worth, on Old Decatur Road on the north side, and in Arlington, and it takes rebar free too. Clean means no dirt, trash or wood in the load, which is why a careful breakout saves money later.
Mixed loads cost real money. The City of Fort Worth’s Southeast Landfill on Salt Road charged a cash gate rate of $51.97 per ton with a two ton minimum in the city’s 2023 rate document, and the city’s own drop-off stations refuse concrete, rock and dirt outright. Angi’s Dallas guide puts concrete disposal at up to $100 to $230 per ton across the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Weight is what you are paying for. Dumpsters.com puts solid concrete at 150 pounds per cubic foot, or about 4,050 pounds per cubic yard. A 10 by 10 slab 4 inches thick works out to about 2.5 tons. That weight is why concrete goes in a 10 yard can filled partway rather than a 30 yard can filled to the top. Our own roll-off trucks and dumpsters handle the haul on every job, and we rent roll-off dumpsters for concrete when you are breaking it out yourself.
Do you need a permit to remove concrete in Fort Worth?
Not for flatwork on your own lot. The City of Fort Worth’s residential permitting page states that “driveway flat work on your own property does not require permitting.” The line moves at the sidewalk. New or repaired driveway approaches and sidewalks in the parkway require a parkway permit pulled by a bonded contractor, and the city’s parkway standards note that approaches in some areas need a site plan review that can take 7 to 10 business days.
Removing a foundation is different, because it is part of a demolition. A slab under a house comes out under the wrecking and razing permit that covers the teardown, which is covered in our guide to what a house teardown costs in Fort Worth. Burleson lists driveways and sidewalks among the work that needs a permit, so check with the city before you touch an approach there.
Is it cheaper to break out concrete yourself?
Rarely, once the slab is bigger than a sidewalk square. Free disposal exists for clean rubble, but the breaking and the hauling are the cost. A 10 by 10 slab is 2.5 tons of concrete that has to be broken into pieces one person can lift, loaded, driven to the recycler and unloaded. A rented breaker and a weekend get most people about halfway.
A machine finishes the same slab in an hour and loads it in the next one. That is the whole reason removal runs $2 to $6 per square foot instead of more. Where the do-it-yourself math works is a single cracked sidewalk panel or a small stoop, and even then the grading to reset the base is the part that keeps the new pour from cracking.
How do you get a real number for your slab?
Measure it, and tell us how thick it is and what is around it. Square footage sets the base price. Rebar, thickness and access set the rest, and all three are visible on a short visit. That visit turns a $2 to $6 range into one number.
Texas Best Demolition works out of Burleson and covers Fort Worth, Arlington, Mansfield, Crowley and the rest of the southwest Metroplex. We break out driveways, patios, slabs and foundations with our own excavators, haul the rubble in our own dumpsters, and grade the ground when the concrete is gone. Slab sections cut out inside a standing building fall under our interior demolition work. Estimates are free. Call (817) 564-4360 or request a free estimate.