How much does a concrete footing cost per linear foot in 2026?

For a homeowner, the all-in installed cost of a residential strip footing typically runs about $5 to $19 per linear foot, averaging near $7 to $9, according to 2026 cost data. That figure bundles concrete material, labor, excavation, and forms. The number a footing subcontractor bills a wall company for labor alone is much lower, and the raw concrete alone is only a few dollars per foot.

How do you calculate the concrete needed per linear foot of footing?

Multiply the footing width in feet by the depth in feet to get the cross-section area in square feet, which equals cubic feet per linear foot. Divide by 27 to convert to cubic yards per linear foot. For example, a 20-inch wide by 8-inch deep footing is 1.667 ft times 0.667 ft, or about 1.11 cubic feet per foot, which is roughly 0.041 cubic yards per linear foot.

Why is a footing sub rate so much lower than the installed cost homeowners see?

A footing subcontractor is usually paid for labor and equipment to place and finish the footing only, and often does not carry the concrete cost, excavation, or forming in that line rate. The homeowner-facing installed price includes the concrete material, excavation, forms, rebar, and the general contractor markup on top. Those are three different numbers built from different scopes.

How much concrete is in 300 linear feet of footing?

For a common 20-inch wide by 8-inch deep footing, each linear foot holds about 0.041 cubic yards, so 300 linear feet needs roughly 12.3 cubic yards before waste and over-excavation. Always order a little extra to cover uneven trench bottoms and spillage. A 24-inch by 12-inch footing over the same distance would need about 22 cubic yards.

Footing Cost Per Linear Foot (2026): Installed Cost vs. Sub Rates

Three different people quote “footing cost per linear foot” and mean three completely different numbers. A homeowner reading a cost-guide article sees the all-in installed price. A footing subcontractor billing a wall company sees a labor-only rate. And anyone ordering ready-mix sees the raw concrete cost. Conflating them is how estimates blow up and how bids get thrown out.

This guide separates the three cleanly, gives verified 2026 figures for each, and shows the cross-section math so you can build any of them from scratch.

What are the three “per linear foot” numbers?

Number	Who uses it	What it includes	Rough 2026 range
All-in installed	Homeowners, GCs	Concrete, labor, excavation, forms, rebar, markup	$5 to $19 / LF
Labor-only sub rate	Footing subs, wall companies	Placing and finishing labor and equipment only	Market-specific (example below)
Raw concrete material	Anyone ordering ready-mix	Just the yardage in the trench	$3 to $12 / LF

Notice the top and bottom of that table barely overlap. If you are a footing sub and someone hands you a homeowner cost-guide number as your target rate, you are being asked to work for a fraction of the real installed price. Know which number you are looking at.

What is the all-in installed cost per linear foot?

This is the homeowner-facing number, and it is the one every cost-guide site publishes. It bundles everything: the concrete, the labor to place and finish it, excavation of the trench, forms where needed, any rebar, and the contractor’s overhead and profit.

For 2026, published data puts typical residential strip footings around $5 to $19 per linear foot, with most jobs landing near $7 to $9 per linear foot (Inch Calculator). Angi’s 2026 data shows a similar spread, roughly $5 to $18 per linear foot depending on project size, depth, and site conditions, and lists labor alone at $0.50 to $8 per linear foot, or $50 to $350 per footing pad.

The range is wide because depth is the biggest driver. A shallow 12-inch by 6-inch footing in mild soil and a deep frost-protected 24-inch by 12-inch footing are the same “line item” but not remotely the same cost.

What does a footing sub actually bill per linear foot?

Here is where the numbers diverge hard. Footing subcontractors pour the footings only; the wall company forms and pours the foundation walls on top. In many arrangements the sub is paid for placement and finishing labor plus equipment, billed against measured linear feet, with the concrete supplied and paid for separately by the GC.

Because of that narrower scope, the labor-only rate is a small fraction of the installed price. As one real-world convention among labor-only footing subs in some Ontario markets, the billing looks like this:

$3.00 per linear foot as the base labor rate
$3.50 per linear foot when rebar is placed in the footing
$50 per interior support pad, billed flat

Treat those as an illustrative regional convention, not universal pricing. The point is the structure: a flat per-foot rate for the run, a modest rebar upcharge because reinforced footings take more setup, and a separate flat charge per pad. What counts as a billable linear foot (whether wood-frame bearing strips, wing walls, and window wells are in or out) is a convention that varies by crew, which is exactly why it has to be spelled out and applied consistently. For how to structure that, see the guide to billing footings per linear foot.

What is the raw concrete cost per linear foot?

This is the cleanest number to compute because it is pure geometry times a material price. For one linear foot of footing:

Width in feet times depth in feet gives cross-section area in square feet, which equals cubic feet per linear foot.
Divide by 27 to get cubic yards per linear foot.
Multiply by your ready-mix price per cubic yard.

For 2026, national average ready-mix runs roughly $135 to $175 per cubic yard, with common quotes near $165 per yard for standard mixes (SlabCalc, ConcreteCalculate). Concrete Network reports a nationwide range around $160 to $195 per cubic yard. Note that small orders also carry short-load and delivery fees on top of the per-yard price, so the effective cost on a tiny job is higher.

Using $165 per cubic yard, here is the material cost per linear foot for common footing sizes:

Footing size	ft³ / LF	yd³ / LF	Concrete $ / LF @ $165/yd³
18” W x 8” D	1.00	0.037	$6.11
20” W x 8” D	1.11	0.041	$6.79
24” W x 12” D	2.00	0.074	$12.22

So the concrete inside a standard 20-inch by 8-inch footing is under $7 per linear foot of material. That is why the installed price and the sub rate look so different: most of the installed number is labor, equipment, excavation, and markup, not the concrete itself.

Worked example: pricing a full house

Take a typical single-family house with 300 linear feet of 20-inch by 8-inch footing.

Concrete material: 300 LF times 0.041 yd³/LF is about 12.3 cubic yards. At $165 per yard that is roughly $2,035 in concrete, before ordering a waste allowance for uneven trench bottoms.
Labor-only sub bill (illustrative Ontario convention): 300 LF times $3.00 is $900, plus $50 per pad. With four interior pads that is $200, for $1,100 in labor. If the footing carries rebar, at $3.50 per foot the run alone becomes $1,050.
All-in installed cost (homeowner-facing): 300 LF times a mid-range $9 per linear foot is about $2,700, and a deep or frost-protected footing can push well past that.

Three legitimate numbers, same 300 feet, because each answers a different question. Before you quote or accept a footing price, confirm which scope you are pricing.

Common mistakes that break footing estimates

Quoting an installed number as a sub rate. A homeowner cost-guide figure already includes concrete and markup a sub usually does not carry.
Forgetting the width when converting. You cannot get cubic yards from linear feet without the cross-section. See linear feet vs. square feet in concrete.
Ignoring short-load and delivery fees. On small footing pours these fees can add more than the concrete itself.
Skipping a waste allowance. Over-excavated or uneven trenches consume more yardage than the nominal cross-section predicts.

A consistent per-foot takeoff, measured from the plan rather than eyeballed, is what keeps all three numbers honest. Tools like FootingTakeoff generate the measured linear-foot and pad counts from a plan so the material, sub, and installed figures all trace back to the same geometry. You can also run the raw math yourself with the free footing cost calculator and linear feet of footing calculator.

The single habit that prevents most footing pricing disputes is naming the number out loud: installed, labor-only, or material. Once everyone at the table knows which one is on the page, the argument disappears.