Concrete slab cost in Honolulu, HI

Planning more than one job in Honolulu?

Jobs that often go together with concrete slab are priced below at their usual sizes, using the same Honolulu wage and price inputs. Compared with national midpoints, concrete driveway comes out highest (+51%) and detached garage lowest (+33%); the gap comes from the trades each job uses.

Add-ons priced for Honolulu

Add-ons start from national price ranges and are scaled by 1.40 for Honolulu, which is the average of the area's wage index (1.69) and goods price index (1.12). The estimator above can add them to your total.

Cost by quality level and size in Honolulu

The cited range is split into basic, standard and premium bands, then scaled to Honolulu. Bands overlap, because plenty of standard jobs cost as much as a light premium one. Sizes run from 10x10 pad (100 sq ft) to 30x40 foundation (1,200 sq ft).

Is Honolulu cheap or dear? The local comparison

Same job, same size (400 sq ft), priced for the nearest metros. Kahului is the priciest of the group at $5,300. Santa Cruz is the cheapest at $4,200.

Out of the 300 metros we cover, Honolulu ranks #2 for the cost of this job (#1 is the most expensive). Statewide, Honolulu is 1% above the Hawaii figure.

Elsewhere in Hawaii

Metros of a similar size

Big cities and small ones price differently, so here is Honolulu against the 4 metros with the closest total employment.

Honolulu weather and the concrete slab calendar

Climate numbers on this page come from NOAA's 1991-2020 U.S. Climate Normals at the nearest suitable station, Honolulu Intl Ap (5 miles from the city center). They are 30-year averages, so any one year can run hotter, colder or wetter.

Weather is not a serious constraint for pouring concrete in Honolulu: no month in the averages is cold enough (an average overnight low of 40°F or below) or hot enough (an average daytime high of 90°F or more) to rule it out, so the workable window is all year.

Honolulu gets about 16 inches of precipitation in a normal year. The wettest months are March, November and December (2.4 inches in March). The station averages about 32 days a year at 90°F or above.

We do not adjust the estimate by month, because we have no reliable published data on seasonal pricing. It is still worth asking contractors whether an off-peak start date changes their bid.

What local crews earn in Honolulu

The labor line is built from BLS wage data, one trade at a time. This job draws on 4 trades. We compare each trade's local median with the US median, weight the ratios by how much of the job each trade does, and apply the blend to the national labor cost. For Honolulu the blend is 1.69.

Cement masons and concrete finishers (47-2051), 50% of the weighting: a median of $46.28 an hour, 69% above the US median of $27.41. The middle half of them earn between $33.80 and $47.60 an hour. About 500 work in the metro. That is 11.2 per 10,000 jobs, compared with 13.3 nationally, so expect fewer local crews to bid.

For construction laborers (47-2061, weighted 30%) the local median is $37.48 an hour, which is 65% above the national $22.66. The middle half of them earn between $24.21 and $41.41 an hour. BLS counts 3,040 of them working in the area, 68.1 for every 10,000 jobs (US: 70.5), so the local bench is about average.

Operating engineers and other construction equipment operators (47-2073), 10% of the weighting: a median of $56.55 an hour, 96% above the US median of $28.78. The middle half of them earn between $42.10 and $57.93 an hour. About 1,430 work in the metro. That is 32.0 per 10,000 jobs, compared with 30.7 nationally, so the supply of crews looks typical.

Carpenters (47-2031), 10% of the weighting: a median of $45.34 an hour, 56% above the US median of $29.12. The middle half of them earn between $33.49 and $55.04 an hour. About 3,120 work in the metro. That is 69.9 per 10,000 jobs, compared with 43.1 nationally, which suggests plenty of local crews to bid.

A quick sensitivity check: moving the lead trade (cement masons and concrete finishers) from the median to the 75th percentile wage adds about $40 to the midpoint estimate; the 25th percentile takes off about $360. That is a swing of roughly 7.0% to 0.7% of the total, which is useful for judging whether a bid reflects wages or something else, such as scope or margin.

Urban Honolulu has 446,380 jobs in total (BLS, May 2025), ranking 56th by size among the 300 metros on this site.

Concrete slab: what moves the price in Honolulu

• Truck and pump access

  If the mixer truck can't back up to the forms, someone has to wheelbarrow it in or hire a pump. Pump or line-pump hire is typically billed per day.

• Small-job minimums

  Many crews have a minimum charge, so a 10x10 pad can cost more per square foot than a 20x20 slab.

• Finish

  A broom finish is the baseline. Stamped, stained, or exposed-aggregate finishes are priced as add-ons on top of the slab.