Short answer: a driveway replacement is two jobs. Breaking out, loading, hauling and dumping the old slab is its own crew-day (sometimes two) with its own truck trips and its own disposal bill. If you bury it inside a square-foot pour rate, it’s the first thing you lose money on.
Why does tear-out get underpriced?
Because it doesn’t look like the job. The homeowner asked for a new driveway, so the bid gets built around the pour: forms, base, mud, finish. The demolition gets waved through as “a couple of hours with the skid steer.” Then the slab turns out to be 6 inches instead of 4, or has wire mesh or rebar in it, and the couple of hours become a day and a half. Nobody said it out loud on the walk, so nobody priced it.
What does tear-out actually cost?
It depends heavily on where you work, so treat any number you read online as a starting point for your own, not a price. Two September 2026 examples show the spread:
- One East Tennessee yard put break-up at about $1.50–$3.50 per square foot, depending on thickness, mesh and rebar. Their worked example: a 1,000 sq ft, 4-inch unreinforced driveway at $2.00/sq ft is $2,000 just to break it up. (East Tennessee yard, Sept 10, 2026) Those per-foot numbers are break-up. Haul and dumping sit on their own lines.
- One 2026 cost guide quotes $2,000–$6,000 all-in to remove a typical 20×40 ft driveway. That’s the range your customer will find when they search. (2026 cost guide, Sept 20, 2026)
Don’t forget the dump fee
Old concrete is heavy. That same Tennessee example works out to about 25 tons for 1,000 sq ft at 4 inches. At a county landfill’s $60 a ton, that’s $1,500 in tipping fees. At a yard that takes clean concrete free, it’s $0. Same driveway, same trucks, a $1,500 swing, and it’s decided by where you dump, not by how well you pour. (East Tennessee yard, Sept 10, 2026)
The tear-out lines to put on every replacement bid
- Break-up, priced for the real thickness and whatever’s in it (mesh, rebar). Probe an edge or a crack before you guess.
- Saw-cut where it meets what stays: the garage slab, the apron, the sidewalk. A clean cut keeps the break-up from cracking into concrete you’re not replacing.
- Loading and hauling: how many trips, and how far to the dump.
- Disposal: your local rate per ton, or the free yard if you have one.
- Machine time: the skid steer or breaker, and getting it there.
- Subgrade repair after the slab comes out. What’s under an old driveway is rarely ready for a new one.
Put them on their own lines. If the homeowner compares your number with a lower one, they can see the other bid left a whole job out.
Where Rebar fits
When you walk a replacement with Rebar and say “we’re tearing this out,” it prices the tear-out and haul-off from the walk. It asks for your dump fee once and remembers it. And it shows the old slab’s thickness and the dig depth it used, so you can change them before you send, instead of finding out on the job.