C25 Concrete Supply in Birmingham
The all-rounder: C25/30 — "30-newton" concrete — for reinforced foundations, footings and general structural work around the house. From £110 per m³ +VAT, batched fresh on your site.
What C25 Is — and Why It's Really C25/30
If builders' merchants sold a "house grade", this would be it. Order "C25" anywhere in Birmingham and what should turn up is the C25/30 family: 25 is the cylinder strength, 30 the cube strength, both in N/mm² at 28 days. The trade quotes cubes, so this is "30-newton concrete" — despite the 25 on the label.
It's the class the industry's designated-mix book calls RC25/30: the standard mix for reinforced foundations. Designated names belong to certified producers, so we batch an equivalent C25/30 designed mix to the strength and durability requirements of BS 8500 / BS EN 206 and put the full class on your batch ticket.
Reach for C25 when there's steel in the ground: reinforced strips and footings, reinforced extension foundations, and general structural domestic work where the drawings say 30-newton. For foundations we batch it at S3, the general-purpose consistence; trench-fill pours go wetter, at S4.
From £110 per m³, +VAT — guide price, confirmed when you book. 0.5m³ minimum, no part-load penalty, billed on metered volume.
C20 vs C25 vs C30
| Grade | Strength class | Guide price (per m³, +VAT) | Reach for it when… |
|---|---|---|---|
| C20 | C16/20 ("20-newton") | From £105 | The pour is unreinforced — shed, workshop and garage bases |
| C25 | C25/30 ("30-newton") | From £110 | There's steel in it — reinforced foundations, footings, structural domestic work |
| C30 | C25/30 family, durability focus | From £115 | It lives outside — external slabs and air-entrained driveway mixes |
Yes, C25 and C30 orders land in the same C25/30 strength family — one name is the cylinder half of the designation, the other the cube half. What separates them in practice is the job: C25 gets ordered for structural work in the ground, C30 for slabs that face the weather, where extras like air entrainment earn their keep. Tell us the job and we'll batch what it actually needs — and if that's C20 rather than C25, we'll say so. The full picture is in our concrete grades guide.
Foundations Done Properly
Two honest checks before you order C25 for foundations. First: is the pour actually reinforced? Plain, unreinforced strip or trench-fill foundations in normal ground only need a C8/10 designed mix (GEN1-equivalent) — ours starts from £99/m³ +VAT. Paying 30-newton money for a 10-newton job helps nobody but the supplier.
Second: what's the ground like? Parts of Birmingham and the Black Country sit on made ground from their industrial past, where sulfates can attack ordinary concrete. If your ground investigation report specifies a DC class, we batch a sulfate-resisting FND-equivalent designed mix to match — same C25/30 strength, different chemistry. That call comes from a soil report, never from eyeballing the trench.
Work out your volume with the concrete calculator — length × width × depth in metres, plus 5–10% — and remember the volumetric advantage: we bring spare material and you only pay for what goes in the trench. There's a fuller walkthrough on our concrete for foundations page.
C25 Concrete FAQs
What is C25 concrete used for?
C25 — in full, the C25/30 strength class, "30-newton" concrete — is the all-round structural mix for domestic work: reinforced foundations and footings, and general structural jobs around the house such as extension bases with steel in them. Where the industry's designated-mix book says RC25/30, we batch an equivalent C25/30 designed mix to BS 8500 / BS EN 206.
What is the difference between C25 and C30 concrete?
Less than the names suggest — both orders land in the C25/30 family. "C25" comes from the cylinder half of the designation and "C30" from the cube half, so it's 30-newton concrete either way. In practice C25 is the name people use for reinforced foundations and structural work, while C30 orders lean towards external slabs and hard-working floors, where durability extras like air entrainment matter. Ask for the job, not just the number, and you'll get the right mix.
Do I need C25 for strip footings?
Only if they're reinforced. Plain, unreinforced strip or trench-fill foundations in normal ground need a C8/10 designed mix (GEN1-equivalent) — much cheaper. The moment there's steel in the trench, step up to C25/30. We'll happily talk you down a grade if the job doesn't need C25; that's money better spent elsewhere.
How much does C25 concrete cost in Birmingham?
Our C25 guide price is from £110 per m³ +VAT, confirmed when you book. Volumetric supply means a 0.5m³ minimum, no part-load penalty, and billing on the metered volume actually poured.
What consistence (slump) should I order for foundations?
S3 is the general-purpose consistence for foundations and slabs; trench fill goes to S4, which flows almost like a self-compacting mix. Whatever you do, don't add water on site to loosen a mix up — unauthorised water invalidates the performance of the mix and weakens it. Because we batch on site, we adjust workability properly at the point of mixing instead.
Footings Booked In?
Tell us the trench sizes and whether there's steel in the pour — we'll confirm grade, volume and price in one call. C25 from £110/m³ +VAT.