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The amount of space that one yard of concrete covers depends on your desired thickness. The thicker the concrete is, the greater the volume it needs to fill to cover the same surface area. With four inches of thickness, one cubic yard of concrete covers 81 square feet. With five inches of thickness, one cubic yard covers 65 square feet. With six inches of thickness, one cubic yard covers 54 square feet.

Ready-mixed concrete in its wet form lasts about 90 minutes to two hours, so it’s important to schedule your concrete delivery accurately. From the time water gets added, a truck has up to 300 rotations of the barrel to deliver the wet concrete. The warmer the temperature, the faster the product sets.

Bags of dry concrete mix have a typical shelf life of a few months if stored in an airtight container with controlled temperature and humidity. The cement reacts to moisture in the air, losing its strength over time.

Most large concrete trucks can hold a maximum of 11 to 15 cubic yards of concrete. However, weight limits on most roads can limit this capacity to around eight to 11 cubic yards per delivery. For context, you’ll need three to four truckloads of concrete to pour a 10-inch foundation for a new home that covers 1,000 square feet.

Assuming the work site has been fully prepped and is reasonably accessible for the concrete delivery truck, pouring one cubic yard of concrete takes about 10 minutes on average. A fully loaded truck with 10 cubic yards of concrete takes around one hour and 40 minutes of continuous pouring to empty its barrel.