In my town there are 3 main players in concrete work one of them being us. As of two weeks ago we finally lost our last home builder because our prices are too high. In a way it was a good thing last year we branched out and now bid jobs as the general contractor and erect steel buildings so not having to worry about houses with crazy deadlines while we have a bunch of other work going on is alright by me. But it's been this way for a long time. Im not 100% sure on my competitions actual prices but for an example last week I bid a small 35'x40' building slab that was going to be like a small apartment/shop building. After I gave my price the owner came back and said one of my competitors bid it significantly lower then me. I don't remember exact numbers right now but there price was so low just after materials alone they were left with about $1000. That's not including tax or labor just on material. So something seems fishy. I do everything the way it should be. We are licensed general contractors in the state of New Mexico. We pay all of our taxes and insurance and are bonded. New Mexico has state payroll taxes so each week my guys making $12 an hour actually cost me close to $20 an hour. We also are SMI certified which meant adding allot on to our insurance. Then on top of all of that materials keep going up and we have had our same prices for years. About 3-4 years ago 5 sack concrete with fiber was $100 a yard now it's $120. I guess I'm just looking for some insight. I think either they don't do things the way they are supposed to or they just produce so much that $50 profit per job adds up quickly. Our standard rate each job varies is $4.50 per sqft on house slabs and $4 on the exterior work (porches, driveways, sidewalk). Metal building slabs are usually around $6. We do loads of other work and some really big jobs and we never make money on houses they are just a good filler in between the big jobs to keep the company going and my crew employed. This last home builder I hope will notice the difference in quality but now a days allot of home builders are just worried about the bottom line.