I want to hire a concrete crew to lay a slab for my shop. I want to
get it
for a reasonable cost.

I put in a concrete driveway and back yard patio/hot tub slab 2 years ago.
The soil/gravel mixture around the home was put in place while the house was
being built. It was partially compacted by "time" (12 months/4 seasons) and
by various machinery driving on same. Immediately adjacent to the
home(~4'out from foundation) the soil was compacted in 2 ft lifts. For the
remainder of the 30' one side/65' other side (a 90 o curved driveway) I
added about 4" of what they call "roadbase" around here (1" minus
gravel/sand mixture). I formed up 4" high 3/8" ply strips, double
layered/screwed to 3/4" on pegs making the top of the 'form' 5" above grade.
I rented a vibrating plate compactor and pummeled the roadbase (it was
conveniently raining at the time). After that, I ran 3/8" rebar on 2'
centers throughout. I'd called a concrete crew that worked on the house
next door to placxe the concrete. They arrived at 6AM (while we stared at
a dark gray cloudy sky..Will it Rain ??) We decided to go ahead..the
concrete trucks (2) arrived and they laid about 6 yards of 3000# concrete
(IIRC) They put control joints at about 6' centers and did a "light broom"
finish.

Following that, we took another load behind the house with a concrete line
pump and did a 250 sf slab with 3/8" and 1/2" rebar (under the hot tub
area) and they finished it the same way.

My cost..a lot of physical WORK..about $ 400.00 in rebar, $ 300 for the line
pump and another $ 100 for forms, $ 150 for the gravel ..40 bucks for the
compactor, 10 bucks in rebar ties = $ 1000.00 The crete was about $ 1000.00
My cost for the concrete crew 45 cents a square foot.. Yes $ 0.45

They (3 of them, one left after 2 hrs) were here for about 3-4 hours and he
took $ 500 cash for the 1100 sf job.

So, I was quoted $ 5000 for the whole job by two different contractors. My
cost was $ 2500.00 with a lot of PREP work.

The good news: after 2 years of 4 seasons: HIGH 104 o to Low -10o.. No
cracks at all. About half of the control joints have done their job.

You can get it at a reasonable cost if YOU do the prep work. If not, be
prepared to pay double for "Them" to do it.

Good luck

R