The Size and Scope of a Concrete Crushing Job Affects Your Bid

When it comes to concrete crushing, not every job is the same. The size, complexity, and scope of the project significantly influence your concrete crushing bid strategy. Whether you're dealing with large-scale commercial demolition or smaller residential concrete recycling, understanding the nature of the job is crucial.

To understand the material volume of a pile, you can walk the pile and make an estimate or use tools such as SR Measure or similar drone-based systems.

Key Considerations When Bidding Concrete Crushing Jobs

1. Material Preparation Responsibility

Concrete crushing starts with material prep. Whether using a mobile impact crusher or jaw crusher, you must ensure proper preprocessing. Clear roles need to be defined:

• If the client is responsible: Specify material size requirements and agree that oversize chunks will be set aside.
• If you’re responsible: Account for equipment like an excavator with a concrete pulverizer and possibly a primary jaw crusher to reduce wear on your impact crusher.

💡 Tip: Plan for a full day of prep for every full day of crushing unless conditions suggest otherwise.

2. Crushed Material Handling

Moving crushed concrete efficiently is critical to avoiding downtime.

Options:

• Tracked stacking conveyors (efficient and consistent)
• Wheel loaders (flexible but labor-intensive)
• Track-and-crush onsite (requires room and is not suitable for large stockpiles)

Ensure your bid reflects who provides and operates the loader. If the client supplies the loader, specify machine capacity requirements to avoid delays from underpowered equipment.

3. Ownership of Liberated Rebar

When crushing concrete, you end up with a lot of liberated rebar —a valuable scrap material.  You should account for having a bin at the job site to collect rebar or discharge the rebar directly into the bin. This can be a nice pocket money at the end of the day. 

Your contract should clearly state 

• Who provides the rebar bin?
• Who transports it to the scrap yard?
• Who keeps the proceeds?

Consider All Moving Parts in Your Crushing Rate

Making an estimate is difficult if you have no control over the material and don’t know what’s in the pile. If you lack experience estimating concrete crushing jobs, you can keep the material prep and the actual concrete crushing separate.

For the material prep, you could offer an hourly rate for an excavator, operator, and pulverizer, while for the actual concrete crushing, you can offer a cost-per-ton rate.

In your crushing rate, you should factor in:

• crusher wear and fuel costs per hour
• excavator incl, operator, and fuel per hour
• conveyor fuel costs per hour
• ground man to support the crusher operator
• bin for collecting rebar
• water trailer for the crusher’s dust-suppression

To bill your customer for the crushing job, you will need a belt scale on the crusher or stacking conveyor to provide proof of your service. The RUBBLE MASTER proprietary belt scales are tied into the RM XSMART Telemetry system, providing an easier belt scale control and advanced reporting functionalities. Optionally, you can also install belt scales from a third-party supplier such as Beltway Scales.

Small Concrete Crushing Jobs: Sell on Value, Not Volume

Small concrete crushing jobs—such as a few hundred tons—are less competitive but require a different bidding mindset. Instead of competing on price per ton, emphasize the value of on-site concrete recycling. Typically, you solve a specific problem related to material disposal or available room. 

Therefore, you need to understand your customer's pain points:

• Material disposal costs
• Hauling and landfill fees
• Limited space or access
• Can't get a crushing contractor in

Minimize Your Risk Through Site Visits and Clear Communication

Every crushing project is unique. Site visits help you evaluate:

• Feed material quality (clean or contaminated)
• Jobsite access and layout
• Environmental and logistical concerns

Look for red flags:

• Poorly sorted debris piles
• Hidden contaminants like wood or metal
• Buried materials that require screening
• Ancient loaders provided by the client

If the concrete pile was buried somewhere and is overgrown, you might want to use a mobile scalping screen before your crusher to segregate dirt from the feed to minimize wear and produce a better end product. 

Clear communication about your crusher’s capabilities—especially with rebar size and material type—will protect your equipment, crew, and bottom line.