A shed slab is the smallest real pour you will quote, and it is where the most money gets lost. The footage is tiny, the customer found a per square foot number online, and that number never included a concrete truck showing up for an hour of work. Price it around the minimum, not around the square feet.
The footage is small, so the minimum rules
Do the arithmetic and it looks trivial. A 10 by 12 shed base is 120 square feet; at the example $9 per square foot broom rate that is $1,080. But the ready mix truck, the short load fee, the crew, and the forms cost nearly the same as they would on a slab three times the size. That is your minimum job charge talking, and on a shed pad it is almost always the number you quote instead of the square foot math. If your minimum feels high next to a 120 foot pad, it is not; the small job is the one carrying full mobilization on tiny footage. Pricing small jobs so they pay is the whole argument.
Size the pad to the shed
Measure the shed’s real footprint, not the name on the box; a “10 by 12” kit is often an inch or two off each way. Pour to that footprint so the siding overhangs the slab edge and rain drips clear instead of wicking into the walls. An oversized pad is not a favor to the customer, because the extra lip collects water and leaves against the shed base. When you confirm the size, you also confirm the yardage, so nobody is short a wheelbarrow at the pour.
What can move the number
The base spec is thin, so a few real things move it:
- Thickness and anchors. A garden shed takes 4 inches. A heavy shop shed or one that needs to be anchored against wind may want a thicker edge or a thickened footing, which is more concrete and its own line.
- Access and prep. A pad behind a fence with no truck access means wheelbarrowing or a pump, and that is labor you bill, not eat.
- Gravel as the honest alternative. If the shed is light and the customer is price shopping, tell him a compacted gravel pad at roughly the example $1.50 per square foot may do the job. Losing a $1,080 pour you would have lost money on is a win.
Run the footage on the shed base concrete calculator, and price any bigger flatwork with the method in how to price a concrete slab. Then load your rates and your minimum into PriceDesk, and every shed pad quotes itself from your phone in about ten seconds, floor already built in. Free for 14 days, no card.