We're breaking ground on a single-story house next month and need to budget for the foundation work. I've gotten a couple quotes but they vary wildly - one contractor said $8k, another said $15k for basically the same square footage. What factors affect pricing the most, and how do I know if I'm getting ripped off?
Concrete foundation costs typically run somewhere between $4 and $20 per square foot depending on your region and site conditions, which explains why those quotes are so far apart. The big variables are soil quality (poor soil needs more prep or reinforcement), local labor rates, concrete prices in your area right now, and whether the site needs drainage work or has access issues. Get a third quote to see if one contractor's clearly an outlier, and ask each one to break down their estimate - labor, materials, site prep - so you can actually compare apples to apples instead of just staring at bottom-line numbers.
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