How Many Bags of Concrete Are on a Pallet?

If you’ve ever done a project involving the pouring of concrete, then you know that you always need more than you think. It can be frustrating because the bags are big and heavy yet produce so little. So for your next concrete project, you are probably wondering how many bags of concrete are on a pallet?

There are between 40 to 80 bags of concrete per pallet. The heaviest bags of concrete – the 80-pound bags – will have the fewest bags. Smaller bags – as low as 40 pounds – will have as many as 80 bags on a pallet.

Depending on where you buy from, each store may vary the amount of concrete bags on a pallet to suit their own inventory, so you may have a hard time finding a uniform amount of concrete bags on a pallet for the same product.

In this article, we’ll look at different types and manufacturers of concrete and how many bags might be found on pallets. We’ll also investigate smaller bags of concrete that come in bales, as well as buying pallets of mortar and how they differ from concrete.

How Many Bags of Concrete Are on a Pallet

There are different sizes of concrete bags for various reasons, but mostly to offer diversity to customers in terms of customizing the appropriate amount of concrete they might want. Below we’ll go through each size of the bag of Quikrete concrete mix and tell you how many bags come on a pallet per weight class.

40 lb Bags

There are 80 bags of 40 lb. concrete mix on one pallet. The total weight of this pallet is, therefore, around 3200 lbs. Most pallets weigh in at or just above this total weight, so if you have another type of concrete in a bag and wonder how many make up a pallet, you can use 3200 lb. as a general estimate.

50 lb Bags

A 50 lb. bag of concrete will come on a pallet containing 64 bags. This weight is not commonly available for many types of concrete mix, as the bag weights tend to rise evenly. Different types of mortar mix do come in 50 lb. bags, often exclusively.

60 lb Bags

A pallet of 60 lb. bags concrete mix will contain roughly 56 bags of Quikrete concrete mix. It is also worth noting that 60 pounds are just under 30 kilograms.

If you are shopping for concrete north of the border in Canada, bags of concrete are in kilos, not pounds, so you can buy bags of 20, 30, or 40 kg. If you want roughly 60 pounds, you’ll purchase a 30 kg bag in Canada and some will be left over.

80 lb Bags

A pallet of 80 lb. concrete bags will contain 42 bags. This is the largest size of bag available for most concrete mix types.

If you’ve ever purchased an 80 lb. bag for work around your house, you’ll know that lifting it isn’t an easy task. These bags are meant for more extreme projects. If you only need a little bit of mix to fill a hole, for instance, opt for a couple of 40-pound bags and save your back.

90 lb Bags

A pallet containing 90-pound bags of Quikrete concrete mix will contain 35 bags. Most concrete mixes do not offer 90 lb. bags, as they typically only offer numbers divisible by 20.

Many different cement and masonry mixes, however, do over 90 lb bags and more. For instance, you can get 94-pound bags of portland cement.

How Much Is a Pallet of Concrete?

If you need a pallet of concrete, chat with a sales associate at your local building supplies store about getting a discount on a bulk order before you decide to go to a big box store and order 80 pound bags of concrete mix.

At stores like Home Depot or Lowes, a pallet of 40-pound standard concrete mix bags will cost around $240. Bags of this size are just under $3, so multiplied by 80 bags gives you a total cost, depending on tax, $240.

If you opt for 80 lb. bags, your total cost will check in at around $190. Bags are around $4.50, but some stores offer a discount of around $.50 – or more – if you buy a pallet. If that is the case, then you are looking at a pallet of concrete at just over $150 plus tax.

It pays to buy bigger bags of concrete. And if you do need an entire pallet, you might as well opt for the lowest price, as the size of the bag won’t matter – you’ll still be getting roughly the same amount of concrete regardless of bag size.

A specialty bag of concrete, such as a high-strength mix, will cost more. For instance, a bag of 50 lb. high strength concrete costs around $5.40. Therefore, a pallet will cost around $340 plus tax – double the amount of standard mix concrete.

How Many Bags of Concrete Do I Need?

Determining the number of bags of concrete mix you need can be tricky, even though the package indicates how many cubic feet each bag will cover. An 80 lb. bag of concrete might cover just over half a cubic foot, but if you measure in yards or inches, the calculations can be confusing.

Luckily, using a concrete calculator is a simple and easy way to determine how many bags you’ll need. If you are building a concrete patio slab of 4”, and your patio is 15×10, then all you need to do is enter your dimensions, and the calculator will tell you the number of bags you’ll need for either a 4 or 6” slab.

Thus, if you build a 15 x 10 concrete patio at 4” deep, the calculator indicates that you’ll need just over 80 bags of 80 lb. concrete mix. That means you will need roughly two pallets of concrete for your patio project. As you can see, one bag, or even one pallet, of concrete does not make as much as you’d think.

How Much Does a Pallet of Concrete Weigh?

One pallet of 80 lb. concrete bags weighs 3360 lbs. Weights of different sizes of concrete bags will vary slightly as it is difficult to get each pallet of various mixes to weigh the same.

For instance, a pallet of 40 lb. bags weighs 3200 lbs. – slightly less than the 80 lb. bags. Manufacturers have to limit the number of bags due to height constraints. A pallet is only supposed to reach no more than 7 feet, so the number of bags on a pallet is limited by this factor.

A pallet of 60 lb. bags of concrete mix will also weigh 3360 pounds – the same as a pallet of 80 lb. bags. This is possible because the physical size of the bags is smaller than an 80 lb. bag, making it possible to fit more bags on a pallet before the height limit is reached.

How Many Yards of Concrete in a Pallet?

Often you’ll find that the amount of concrete needed for a job is referred to in cubic yards or just yards. While this can be tricky to calculate, there are handy concrete yard calculators out there that make the calculations simple.

A pallet of concrete makes just under one cubic yard of concrete. For instance, one 80 pound bag of concrete yields .6 cubic feet. Multiply .6 by 42 bags in a pallet, and you have a pallet that covers just over 25 cubic feet. Since there are 27 cubic feet in one cubic yard, a pallet of concrete covers just under 1 cubic yard.

Since there is the same amount of concrete on both 80 and 60 lb. pallets, they can both be expected to contain the same amount of cubic yards of concrete – 25.2 cubic yards.

A 40 lb. bag of concrete has 80 bags on a pallet and each bag will make .3 cubic feet. Thus, an entire pallet will make 24 cubic feet of concrete. Converted into cubic yards, a pallet of 40 lb. concrete bags covers .88 cubic yards.

The pallets of smaller bags of concrete mix make slightly less than pallets of the larger bags, by about one cubic foot, on average. While this might not make much of a difference to your project, it will be a factor to do a big project like pouring a basement floor or a foundation for a home.

Conclusion

Once you know how many bags of concrete come on a pallet, you can start to shop around for the best deals. Concrete is an essential product, and there are many manufacturers making it, so you’ll likely be able to find a deal by either buying bags yourself or finding a local ready-mix supplier willing to pour it for you.

If you do opt to buy bags yourself, it might be worth your while to buy a pallet even you don’t need that many because some stores will offer discounts for buying an entire pallet.

While concrete bags are fairly cheap, you’ll always need more than you think. And if you do opt to buy a pallet, get it delivered. Trying to fit a pallet of concrete in the trunk of your sedan or van won’t work.