Specialty
The 3 specialty trades, compared on the three numbers that decide whether the year works.
Specialty covers 3 trades. At $1M–$5M they run 22% to 26% gross margin, carry 15% to 18% overhead, and keep 7% to 8% net profit before taxes. Tank and vessel keeps the most at 8%, Marine the least at 7%.
Every specialty trade at $1M–$5M
| Trade | Overhead | Gross margin | Net profit | Net profit target |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marine | 15% | 22% | 7% | 10% |
| Tank and vessel | 15% | 23% | 8% | 10.5% |
| Scaffolding | 18% | 26% | 8% | 10% |
- 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.
Compare against the rest
Find your numbers gets you to a single trade and revenue band in two clicks, or open all 48 trades.
What owners ask
What gross margin do specialty contractors run?
Across the 3 trades in this group, gross margin runs 22% to 26% at $1M–$5M, averaging 23.7%. The all-trade average is 22.1%.
Which trade in specialty keeps the most?
Tank and vessel nets 8% before taxes at $1M–$5M. Marine sits at 7%, and the distance between them is mostly cost structure, not sales skill.
Why does overhead differ inside one group?
Marine carries the leanest overhead in this group at 15%. Equipment intensity, crew size, and how much of the work is self-performed move that number more than revenue does.
Does specialty 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.