Had a contractor ask me about a square foot price for pumping concrete. I have never heard of this and was wondering if someone could help me out on this topic

You need to know more about the pour.  Is it slab on grade?  Suspended?  is it steel decking?  Depth? Is Cast-in-place, what is the volume in beams?  Can they guarantee a certain placement volume or square footage per hour?  Can the redimix supply at a set rate per hour?

I did one, it was line-pumping, I knew the square footage,, the depth, the estimated volume and what the placing crew could lay down in an hour.  I factored in the mobilization, setup, line system length, pumping time, cleanup and de-mob, and I added about 10% to my calculated hours and divided by the square footage.

I came out very well on the job.  Everything went well.  It's difficult to do as a pumper, because you are caught between concrete supply and the rate of placement.  You need to be confident that both will go close to what your estimates are.  You need to have experience with both the placers and the RM supplier or don't go there.

Hourly rate plus volume is the safest and most fair for both you and the customer.  But if they feel they must have a firm number to nail down their cost, then do so, but perhaps add in an upper time limit.  Give them an additional hour over what you calculate it should take, then indicate that you must charge hourly if it goes over that time limit.  This doesn't need to be you full hourly rate, more of a safeguard (standby) rate.

Quote your hourly + yardage,plain and simple,no discounts.Just give him a guesstimate high and low,tell him this.The faster the crew lays it down,better mud service,the cost goes down.

A sog would be the only thing one might consider.Slow service (concrete),bad finishers,plant goes down,mixer breaks down all factor in.Just to many what if's for me.

If you do it you should at least agree on a minimum squares per hour. If they don't mannage that they should pay extra.  I don't believe there is any one that would do it without that in the contract.

i don't know what rates are in noth america. here in Belgium we pump as independent pumpist ( i am not one of them but many of my friends are) 250 euro's (350$) starting money and additional 4 euro's/cubic meter ( 5.6$ ), with a minimum of 20m³ per hour, if the contractor or the plant cannot work this amount of 20m³ per hour they will get an additional count of 75euro's (105$) per extra hour. these prices are made for a 34m boompump. they will go up or down for longer booms or shorter booms. linepumps work per hour not per m³ for instance 200euros starting money plus 80 euros per hour no matter howmuch concrete they pump. so the price the contractor pays depends on the motivation of his own crew.

The contractor is asking so he can lower his exposure. His goal is to fix his cost and pass the risk onto you. Feel like taking more risk? What is the upside for you? None right? If you do so, a SOMD or a formed deck is the safest to bid.  Even then you need to do your own take off to know the total yardage. Any beams he didn't tell you about? How about thickened edges and footings? When you fix your cost, those will get missed. SOG grades will vary and you will pump extra concrete (for free).  Make sure you set a minimum ft2, a maximum yardage and a maximum pour time. Of course the contractor will object because he's trying to transfer his risk to you! 

funny no-one admitts to pricing this way..  I've done it of mono-slabs for contractors I know (know what Im getting into) recently competition has been doing same for about half of what I used to get..??  Also hear of flat $800 no limit yardage or hours for these guys pouring 10,000- 15,000+ sp ft. slabs.  hope they go broke soon..

Damn!! I just did 16 yd for a 700 sq ft slab with my line pump and made out better than $800.

Damn!! I just did 16 yd for a 700 sq ft slab with my line pump and made out better than $800. That seems fair, we have to remember our costs of operation, and what a crane makes, sheesh we need this kind of money for sure. But understand some have to eat and get work also. Tough market for sure.

Small job will give you a higher cost per unit, in this case $50.00/yd. But when you get to 100 yd jobs, it can get down to the realm of $12.00 - $14.00 per yard. This particular job had a lot of handwork and some of the crew weren't familiar with how to handle the hose. Set-up and clean-out take the same time pretty much, no matter the area or volume involved.