Why we self-perform concrete (and what it saves you)
Most GCs sub their concrete. We pour our own. Here's the case for keeping the slab in-house — and the numbers behind it.
A typical commercial schedule allots three to five weeks for foundation and slab. In our jobs we hit two — sometimes less — because we own the crew, the forms, and the pour day.
Subbed concrete carries hidden costs the line item never shows. A sub schedules around their own backlog, not yours. They protect their margin by upcharging anything that wasn't on the original takeoff. And when the engineer of record kicks back a rebar question, the answer takes two days to come back through three different inboxes.
We can answer in 20 minutes because the foreman is on our payroll.
On a recent 60,000 sqft warehouse addition we saved roughly six weeks on the slab alone, caught a steel discrepancy the EOR had missed, and gave back $84,000 in unspent contingency at closeout.
