Envelope and structure
The 8 envelope and structure trades, compared on the three numbers that decide whether the year works.
Envelope and structure covers 8 trades. At $1M–$5M they run 18% to 27% gross margin, carry 13% to 18% overhead, and keep 5% to 9% net profit before taxes. Curtain wall and glazing keeps the most at 9%, Framing the least at 5%.
Every envelope and structure trade at $1M–$5M
| Trade | Overhead | Gross margin | Net profit | Net profit target |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Curtain wall and glazing | 18% | 27% | 9% | 11.5% |
| EIFS and stucco | 15% | 23% | 8% | 10% |
| Framing | 13% | 18% | 5% | 10% |
| Insulation | 14% | 22% | 8% | 10% |
| Roofing | 15% | 22% | 7% | 10% |
| Siding | 14% | 21% | 7% | 10% |
| Structural steel | 15% | 23% | 8% | 10% |
| Waterproofing | 17% | 26% | 9% | 11% |
- 2024 Construction Financial Benchmarker, Executive Summary, Construction Financial Management Association, 2024. The survey puts gross profit margin at 21.8%, SG&A at 11.8%, and net income before taxes at 6.3% across all respondents. The best-in-class top quartile reaches 11.9% net income before taxes. Those figures are the whole-population reading, so a single trade can sit well either side of them.
- 2025 Performance Benchmarks, Construction Companies, Jones Maresca and Company, 2025. This study reports specialty contractor gross margin between 15% and 25%. It puts net profit at 5% to 8% for a well managed company, and total indirect cost between 8% and 15%. The indirect cost band is the one worth reading twice, because it's the number most owners have never calculated for their own shop.
- SPM Trade Benchmark Reference, Sulphur Prairie Operations LLC, 2026. The reference holds 48 trades, and net profit in it is stated before taxes. It publishes here as 47 trade pages, because landscaping and irrigation share an identical benchmark profile and are one market, so they're presented together. Everything else carries its own row.
How these figures were built. Gross margin and overhead come from CFMA's 2024 and 2025 financial survey data, plus a January 2026 specialty trade study. Net profit comes from a 48 trade master dataset that covers 24 served trades and 24 adjacent trades. The reference holds 48 trades and the site publishes 47 pages, because landscaping and irrigation carry the same figures and are the same market. Where the survey and the master disagree on net profit, the master carries it. Benchmarks are reviewed against each new CFMA survey release and reconciled before publication.
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What owners ask
What gross margin do envelope and structure contractors run?
Across the 8 trades in this group, gross margin runs 18% to 27% at $1M–$5M, averaging 22.8%. The all-trade average is 22.1%.
Which trade in envelope and structure keeps the most?
Curtain wall and glazing nets 9% before taxes at $1M–$5M. Framing sits at 5%, and the distance between them is mostly cost structure, not sales skill.
Why does overhead differ inside one group?
Framing carries the leanest overhead in this group at 13%. Equipment intensity, crew size, and how much of the work is self-performed move that number more than revenue does.
Does envelope and structure get better as revenue grows?
Overhead does. Every trade in this group sheds overhead points as it moves up the 7 revenue bands, because the indirect cost base grows in steps while revenue grows continuously.
What is the CFOS target for this group?
Overhead recalculates at every band, one point leaner than the trade average. Gross margin and net profit show the published $1M–$5M figure. Open any trade page in this group to see all three side by side.
Josh Luebker ran commercial construction projects before he ran the numbers behind them, on data centres, military bases, hospitals, and high-rises. He wrote CONTROL: The Construction Financial Operating System, which is an eight-step framework for commercial subcontractors, and it publishes on October 1, 2026. He is a master electrician who moved into the office and kept the field vocabulary.
Sulphur Prairie Operations LLC maintains the benchmark reference behind these figures. Every edition is reconciled against the newest CFMA survey release before it publishes here. Where a figure changes between editions, the older edition keeps its year in the title so a citation to it stays correct.