How Much Does It Cost to Remove 100 Sq Ft of Concrete in New Orleans?
What You Need to Know
Big Easy Demolition, a licensed and insured demolition contractor in New Orleans, Louisiana, quotes a 100 square foot concrete removal job after a site visit rather than from a flat rate. For larger work, the company publishes its ranges: a standard two-car driveway typically runs $1,200 to $2,500, and slab foundation removal runs $2,000 to $5,000 for most residential-scale jobs. A 100 square foot slab poured 4 inches thick weighs roughly 2.3 to 2.5 tons, so thickness, rebar, access, and the haul to a disposal or recycling site set the final price. Big Easy Demolition gives a firm estimate within 24 hours of the site visit.
Last Updated: September 2026
Table of Contents
- What Does 100 Square Feet of Concrete Weigh?
- Why Is a Small Concrete Job Quoted on Site?
- What Changes the Price of Removing a Small Slab?
- What Are Big Easy Demolition’s Published Concrete Prices?
- Why Do So Many New Orleans Slabs Need Removal?
- Do You Need a City Permit to Remove Concrete?
- Where Does Removed Concrete Go?
- Can You Remove 100 Square Feet of Concrete Yourself?
- How Do You Get an Accurate Quote?
- Frequently Asked Questions
Removing 100 square feet of concrete in New Orleans is a small job with a real weight problem. A 10 by 10 foot patio, walkway, or equipment pad poured 4 inches thick weighs roughly 2.3 to 2.5 tons, and all of it has to be broken, loaded, and hauled away to a facility that accepts it. Big Easy Demolition handles concrete work across Orleans Parish, Jefferson Parish, and St. Tammany Parish, and prices small slabs after a site visit because thickness and reinforcement cannot be judged from a photo.
Homeowners searching for concrete removal in NOLA usually want one number. The honest answer is that the per square foot cost of a 100 square foot slab depends on the same few factors every time: how thick the pour is, whether wire mesh or rebar runs through it, how close a truck can get, and where the broken concrete ends up. The published prices for concrete removal in New Orleans cover driveways and slab foundations, and this breakdown shows how a smaller job compares.
Please note: The prices in this article are estimates only, shared to help you plan. Your actual cost depends on your property, the materials and the size of the job. For pricing on your project, call Big Easy Demolition for a quote.
What Does 100 Square Feet of Concrete Weigh?
A 100 square foot concrete slab poured 4 inches thick contains about 33.3 cubic feet, or 1.23 cubic yards, of concrete. At the 140 to 150 pounds per cubic foot that the Iowa Department of Transportation lists for normal weight concrete, that slab weighs about 4,670 to 5,000 pounds before any rebar is counted.
Weight is the first thing a concrete removal quote has to account for, because weight decides how many trips a truck makes and how the load is handled at the other end. The density figure comes from the Iowa DOT guidance on concrete unit weight, and the table below applies it to three common thicknesses for a 100 square foot area.
| Slab Thickness | Volume (100 sq ft) | Approximate Weight |
|---|---|---|
| 4 inches | 33.3 cu ft (1.23 cu yd) | 4,670 to 5,000 lb (about 2.3 to 2.5 tons) |
| 5 inches | 41.7 cu ft (1.54 cu yd) | 5,830 to 6,250 lb (about 2.9 to 3.1 tons) |
| 6 inches | 50 cu ft (1.85 cu yd) | 7,000 to 7,500 lb (about 3.5 to 3.75 tons) |
The practical takeaway is that a 100 square foot slab does not leave a New Orleans property in the back of a car. Even at 4 inches, the minimum recommended for a driveway, it produces more than two tons of broken concrete, which is why the cost of removing a small patio in Mid-City or Gentilly depends as much on hauling as on breaking.
Why Is a Small Concrete Job Quoted on Site?
A 100 square foot concrete removal job in New Orleans is quoted on site because the fixed parts of the work barely shrink with the slab. The crew still has to bring a breaker, load the rubble, and haul it to a disposal or recycling facility, so thickness, reinforcement, and access decide the price more than square footage does.
Concrete removal prices are often quoted per square foot, and that math works poorly at the small end. A crew that breaks out a full driveway and a crew that breaks out a 100 square foot patio both travel to the property, both set up equipment, and both need a truck and a disposal run. The small job simply spreads those costs across fewer square feet, which is why the per square foot figure on a small slab tends to run higher than on a large one.
Hidden conditions are the second reason. A slab that looks like a plain 4 inch walkway can turn out to be 6 inches thick at one edge, poured over an older slab, or tied into a house footing. Those details only show up when someone measures an exposed edge, taps the surface, and looks at how the concrete meets the structure next to it.
What Changes the Price of Removing a Small Slab?
Five major factors shape the price of removing a small concrete slab in New Orleans: thickness, reinforcement, access for equipment, the slab’s connection to the house, and the destination for the broken concrete. Two slabs with the same 100 square foot footprint can land in very different places once those five details are measured on site.
- Thickness. Concrete Network, a concrete trade publication, recommends a minimum of 4 inches for driveways, and any given patio or carport pad may be thicker. Every extra inch on 100 square feet adds roughly 0.6 tons.
- Reinforcement. The same trade guidance calls for wire mesh in driveways 4 to 5 inches thick and rebar in driveways 5 inches or thicker. Steel slows breaking and may need to be cut out of the concrete, depending on the recycling facility.
- Access. On a narrow lot with a tight side yard, a backyard slab may need to be broken by hand and carried out in pieces instead of loaded by a machine.
- Attachment to the house. A patio poured against a foundation or under a back step has to be cut free cleanly so the structure is not damaged, which is slower than breaking a freestanding pad. The steps for removing a concrete patio attached to the house show why that edge takes extra care.
- Disposal route. Clean broken concrete can often go to a crushing and recycling operation, while concrete mixed with soil, brick, or wood often cannot, which changes where the load goes and what it costs to drop it off.
The company’s concrete crews use hydraulic jackhammers, electric breakers, and a compact excavator with a hydraulic attachment for larger slabs, and switch to hand tools and smaller equipment where access is tight. Knowing which of those tools a 100 square foot job needs is part of what the site visit settles.
What Are Big Easy Demolition’s Published Concrete Prices?
Big Easy Demolition publishes two concrete removal price ranges for New Orleans: $1,200 to $2,500 for a standard two-car driveway, depending on thickness, rebar content, and access, and $2,000 to $5,000 for most residential-scale slab foundations, priced by square footage. Smaller jobs, including 100 square foot slabs, are quoted after a site visit.
| Job Type | Published Price | Typical Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Small slab, walkway, or pad (around 100 sq ft) | Quoted after a site visit | Set at the site visit |
| Standard two-car driveway | $1,200 to $2,500 | Typically a single day |
| Residential-scale slab foundation | $2,000 to $5,000 | Two to three days for larger slabs or difficult access |
Those ranges come straight from the company’s concrete removal service page, and the gap inside each range reflects the factors the service page names: thickness, rebar content, and access. Those are the same details a site visit measures on a small slab.
The ranges also explain why a small job is not simply a fraction of a driveway price. A 100 square foot patio covers a fraction of the area of a two-car driveway, but it still carries the setup, loading, and disposal trip that every job needs.
Why Do So Many New Orleans Slabs Need Removal?
Subsidence is one major reason New Orleans slabs crack and settle, because much of the city sits on sinking soil. The City’s hazard mitigation office reports an average subsidence rate of about 0.2 inches per year, with some areas sinking more than 0.8 inches per year, and notes that houses not built on deep pilings crack and settle unevenly.
That official data comes from the City’s NOLA Ready subsidence hazard page, and backyard concrete sits on the same sinking soil. Patios, walkways, and carport pads can tilt away from the house, split along old joints, or leave a trip edge where two sections sink at different rates.
Removal can solve more than a cosmetic problem. A patio that slopes toward a raised slab home or a pier-and-beam cottage can steer rainwater under the structure, and a heaved walkway is a liability for anyone who uses it. The benefits of removing old concrete for drainage, safety, and property value are one reason an owner may choose replacement over repeated patching.
Do You Need a City Permit to Remove Concrete?
Removing concrete that sits entirely on private property in New Orleans generally does not require a permit. The City of New Orleans does require a Driveway or Curb Cut Permit to install, replace, or repair a driveway that connects to a public street, and a separate permit to repair or replace a sidewalk in the public right-of-way.
Three situations bring a City of New Orleans permit into a small concrete job:
- Driveway aprons. The City’s Driveway or Curb Cut Permit applies to any driveway that connects to a public street, and only the property owner or someone the owner authorizes can apply through the City’s One Stop system.
- Sidewalks. Repairing or replacing a sidewalk located in the public right-of-way requires a sidewalk repair permit from the City, even when the sidewalk runs in front of a private home.
- Dumpsters in the street. Placing a dumpster or storage container in public view in front of a property requires a City dumpster permit, and the container cannot sit within 20 feet of an intersection or 15 feet of a fire hydrant.
A backyard patio, a side yard walkway, or a slab under a removed shed usually falls outside all three. Any permit requirement is identified during the estimate so the work is not held up after the crew arrives.
Where Does Removed Concrete Go?
Broken concrete from New Orleans jobs usually goes to a concrete crushing and recycling operation or to a facility that accepts construction and demolition debris. Louisiana solid waste rules treat clean brick, stone, and concrete differently from mixed debris, so keeping a load clean usually opens the recycling route.
Louisiana Administrative Code Title 33, Part VII, Section 303.A.5 lists brick, stone, reinforced and unreinforced concrete, and asphaltic roadbeds among materials that are not subject to the solid waste permitting and disposal standards when they are processed or disposed of in facilities operated in an environmentally sound manner. The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) publishes that text in its Title 33 solid waste regulations, which also define a Type III facility as one used for disposing or processing construction and demolition debris or woodwaste.
Recycling capacity exists close to the city. Pontchartrain Materials states that it recycles local broken concrete through two crushing plants in New Orleans and Belle Chasse, which keeps usable material out of landfills. The process for turning old slabs into recycled aggregate depends on the load arriving free of soil, trash, and wood.
Acceptance rules differ from one facility to the next, including whether rebar can stay in the pieces. A contractor who already knows which yards take which loads avoids the wasted trip and the second tipping charge that come from arriving with the wrong material.
Can You Remove 100 Square Feet of Concrete Yourself?
A homeowner can remove 100 square feet of concrete without a contractor, but the job means breaking and lifting roughly 2.3 to 2.5 tons of material for a 4 inch slab and arranging a legal place to take it. Reinforced slabs, slabs against a foundation, and slabs over buried utility lines are where do-it-yourself removal usually goes wrong.
The work breaks down into a predictable sequence, and each step carries its own cost in rented equipment, time, or disposal.
- Call 811 before breaking any slab that sits over soil where gas, water, electric, or irrigation lines could run, so utilities can be marked.
- Rent a breaker or a heavy jackhammer, since a sledgehammer makes slow progress on a 4 inch pour and very little on a reinforced one.
- Cut out any wire mesh or rebar if the recycling facility requires clean pieces.
- Load the pieces into a rented dumpster or a trailer rated for the weight, keeping the concrete clean of soil and trash.
- Haul the load to a facility that accepts concrete, and confirm its rules before driving over.
- Level and compact the exposed base if a new slab, pavers, or lawn is going in.
For a freestanding, unreinforced walkway with easy access, the do-it-yourself route can make sense. For a patio poured against a raised slab home or a slab hiding rebar, a crew with the right breaker and an established disposal route is usually faster and less risky for the structure next to it.
How Do You Get an Accurate Quote?
An accurate quote for removing a small concrete slab in New Orleans starts with its measurements, its thickness at an exposed edge, any visible rebar or mesh, and the width of the path from the street. Big Easy Demolition confirms those details on site and gives a firm estimate within 24 hours of the visit.
Gathering a few details before calling shortens the process:
- Length and width of the slab, measured in feet.
- Thickness at any exposed edge, or the depth of a crack if no edge shows.
- Photos of the slab, the edges where it meets the house, and the route from the street.
- Width of the narrowest gate or side yard a machine would have to pass through.
- What replaces the slab, since new concrete, pavers, or sod each need a different finished base.
Comparing a small concrete job against a whole-property project helps set expectations, and the wider view of demolition costs in New Orleans shows where concrete fits among homes, buildings, and site clearing. Owners ready to book a visit can request a free concrete removal estimate with the slab details above.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much should concrete removal cost in New Orleans?
Big Easy Demolition publishes $1,200 to $2,500 for a standard two-car driveway and $2,000 to $5,000 for most residential-scale slab foundations in New Orleans. Smaller jobs such as a 100 square foot patio are quoted after a site visit because thickness, rebar, and access change the price.
Why is concrete removal so expensive?
Concrete removal costs more than people expect because concrete is heavy: a 100 square foot slab poured 4 inches thick weighs about 2.3 to 2.5 tons. Every job also needs breaking equipment, loading, and a haul to a facility that accepts concrete, and those costs do not shrink much on a small slab.
How long does it take to remove 100 square feet of concrete?
Big Easy Demolition typically removes a standard driveway in a single day, so a 100 square foot slab may fit within one visit. Thick, reinforced slabs or slabs with difficult access can take longer.
How do I get rid of old concrete for free?
No free option is guaranteed, but clean broken concrete is recyclable, and concrete crushing operations in the New Orleans area, such as Pontchartrain Materials, recycle local broken concrete. Acceptance rules and any drop-off charges vary by facility, so call ahead and keep the load free of soil, wood, and trash.
Is a 100 square foot slab cheaper per square foot than a driveway?
A small slab usually costs more per square foot than a driveway because equipment setup, loading, and the disposal trip are needed either way. Those fixed costs are spread over fewer square feet, which pushes the per square foot figure up.
Does Big Easy Demolition remove concrete outside New Orleans?
Yes. Big Easy Demolition removes concrete in New Orleans, Metairie, Kenner, Harahan, Covington, Mandeville, Slidell, and surrounding communities in Orleans, Jefferson, and St. Tammany parishes.
Do I need to be home for a concrete removal estimate?
Being present helps because the estimator can confirm which slab goes, where it ends, and what replaces it. If that is not possible, ask whether clear photos, measurements, and gate access are enough for the visit to go ahead.
Ready to Remove That Slab?
A cracked patio, a heaved walkway, or an old equipment pad does not have to wait for a bigger project. Call Big Easy Demolition at 504-688-4399 to schedule a site visit anywhere in Orleans, Jefferson, or St. Tammany Parish, and the crew will measure the slab, check for rebar, and give a firm estimate within 24 hours.
Written by the Big Easy Demolition team, a licensed and insured demolition crew that breaks out driveways, patios, and slab foundations across Greater New Orleans.