Where concrete pumping contractors lose money
6 things cost concrete pumping contractors money without ever becoming a line item, and each one traces to a step you can install. Concrete pumping contractors average 23% gross margin, 16% overhead and 7% net profit at $1M–$5M of revenue. The CFOS target at that size is 25.5% gross margin, 15% overhead and 10.5% net, and the 3.5 points left on the table is where those mechanisms live. Figures for all 7 revenue bands are in the table below.
Concrete pumping ranks 2nd of 5 in concrete and masonry on net profit, and it has heavier overhead than the 48-trade average. Here is every figure, across all 7 revenue bands.
Concrete pumping by revenue band
| Metric | $1M–$5M | $5M–$10M | $10M–$25M | $25M–$50MModeled | $50M–$100MModeled | $100M–$500MModeled | $500M+Modeled | CFOS target at $1M–$5M |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overhead | 16% | 15% | 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 15% |
| Gross margin | 23% | 24% | 25% | 26% | 28% | 29% | 31% | 25.5% |
| Net profit | 7% | 9% | 11% | 13% | 16% | 18% | 21% | 10.5% |
| Metric | $1M–$5M | $5M–$10M | $10M–$25M |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overhead | 15% | 14% | 13% |
| Gross margin | 25.5% | 26.5% | 27.5% |
| Net profit | 10.5% | 12.5% | 14.5% |
Modeled extension of the survey curve, not reconciled against the licensed CFMA Benchmarker. That applies to the 4 bands above $10M to $25M, and no CFOS target is published for them.
Gross margin and overhead come from CFMA, Jones Maresca and SPM's own trade data, because those are the figures those sources report by trade and size. Net profit is calculated from them as gross margin minus overhead, so the three rows tie. That makes it an operating profit figure: what is left before interest, other income and expense, and the tax planning choices owners make, such as bonuses, depreciation methods and retirement contributions.
Surveys report net income before taxes after those items, so a reported net can run below the figure here. At the typical contractor the difference is small: CFMA's 2025 medians are 7.1 percent before interest and taxes and 6.7 percent net income before taxes. It grows with size. Against the separate measured net profit dataset, the calculated net runs 0.8 points higher at $1M to $5M, 2.2 points at $5M to $10M and 3.5 points at $10M to $25M, because the gross margin and overhead rows change faster with size than reported net profit does.
Above the $10M to $25M band the gross margin and overhead rows are a modeled extension of the same curves. They have not been reconciled against the licensed CFMA Benchmarker, and the calculated net there runs well above survey medians, so read those bands as a model and not as a survey result.
SPM The Construction CFO. SPM Trade Benchmark Reference: Concrete pumping. 2026. Sulphur Prairie Management, LLC. https://runoncfos.com/trades/concrete-pumping. CC BY 4.0.
Figures on this page were last revised 2026-08-21. Published under CC BY 4.0, which permits reuse of any figure here, including commercially, as long as the credit above travels with it. The same figures in machine-readable form: /benchmarks.json.
Trade level gross margin and overhead compiled by SPM The Construction CFO, validated against published CFMA and JMCO benchmarks. The CFOS targets beside them are from the book CONTROL: The Construction Financial Operating System, published with the full reference at runoncfos.com.
- 2024 Construction Financial Benchmarker, Executive Summary, Construction Financial Management Association, 2024.
- 2025 Construction Financial Benchmarker, Executive Summary, Construction Financial Management Association, 2025.
- 2025 Performance Benchmarks, Construction Companies, Jones Maresca and Company, 2025.
- SPM Trade Benchmark Reference, Sulphur Prairie Management, LLC, 2026.
Sourcing and method: the methodology page.
Which bands are measured. The 4 bands above $10M–$25M extend the survey curve further out and have not been reconciled against the licensed CFMA Benchmarker. How every figure was built is explained on the methodology page.
6 problems specific to concrete pumping
Two four-hour pours bill the same, and one of them wore out a whole pipeline. That truck is the whole shop. You were on that job for six hours in March. Half the day is windshield time at drive rate, and your operator is into overtime by ten in the morning on job two.
Each one below points at the item, the unit, the clock, or the party that makes it a concrete pumping problem, and it says which step fixes it.
| Mechanism | Why it's specific to this trade | Step |
|---|---|---|
| You Bill Hours. The Steel Wears by the Yard. | A labor trade's four hours costs four hours of labor, every time. Your four hours costs whatever the mix, the yardage, and the slick line took out of the steel, so a 120-yard high-rise pour on 300 feet of line with a stiff mix destroys many times what a 40-yard driveway slab does. Both of those invoice at roughly the same four hours, and the money leaves at the parts counter weeks later. | Equipment cost basis |
| A Back-Ordered Boom Part Parks Your Whole Revenue Unit | A crew-based trade flexes capacity by moving guys to another job, adding a Saturday, or subbing out part of the scope. Pumping has one production path per unit, and every yard of it goes through a machine no supplier keeps on a shelf. So downtime removes the unit from the schedule entirely while the equipment payment, the commercial auto and inland marine premium, and the operator's pay all keep clearing your account. | Equipment cost basis |
| Six Hours of Pumping, Eighteen Months of Retainage | Retention exists to hold a sub who lives on the job for months and can be dragged back to finish. You leave before lunch, you've nothing to correct, and the hold still applies because your ticket rides inside somebody else's pay application. No one at the GC knows who your company is, and your release depends entirely on a closeout between two other parties. | Software and bookkeeping alignment |
| The Cheapest Hour of the Day Is the One You Can't Skip | Most trades set up once in the morning and tear down once at night. You set up and tear down two to four times, and the hours between those setups are unavoidable and billed at the discounted rate. Overtime runs $25 to $40 an hour past eight and up to $80 past twelve, so the last customer of the day is the most expensive one you serve and usually pays the same posted rate as the first. | Estimating system |
| Grout, Diesel, and Payroll Go Out Before the Invoice | A trade that installs material bills the material it bought. You buy grout to throw it on the ground. Diesel goes in the tank to reach four addresses, and a bag of washout leaves someone else's site clean, but none of that has a billable line big enough to cover it. The more pours you book, the more of it you fund, so a strong month pulls cash out before the first check on those pours comes in. | Job cost structure |
| Outrigger Damage Comes Back Netted Off Your Next Check | Trades with a warranty tail come back and repair their own work. You've no work to come back to, the slab belongs to somebody else, and your exposure is what a 70,000 pound machine did to the property around it. That means the whole thing gets settled by a letter and a deduction, with no punch list, no RFI, and no chance to price the repair yourself. | Project management |
Concrete pumping against the other 47 trades
| Metric | Concrete pumping | Concrete and masonry average | All 48 average | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overhead | 16% | 14.6% | 15.1% | 32nd of 48 |
| Gross margin | 23% | 21.8% | 22.1% | 13th of 48 |
| Net profit | 7% | 7.2% | 7% | 21st of 48 |
Concrete pumping sheds 6 points of overhead between $1M–$5M and $500M+, against 6 for concrete and masonry as a group. Inside that group, Concrete flatwork is the most profitable at 8%, and Concrete, Concrete flatwork and Masonry all run 14% overhead, the leanest. Concrete pumping is neither, which is the usual position and the one with the most room in it.
Other concrete and masonry trades
What owners ask
What overhead should a concrete pumping contractor run?
Concrete pumping shares its overhead figure with 12 other trades at this revenue, which is what the published data resolves to. It averages 16% at $1M–$5M and 10% at $500M+, as a percentage of revenue. That is 1.4 points above the concrete and masonry average of 14.6%. The CFOS target at $1M–$5M is 15%. The CFOS target is one point leaner than your trade's industry average at your revenue.
What gross margin should a concrete pumping contractor run?
Concrete pumping shares its gross margin figure with 6 other trades at this revenue, which is what the published data resolves to. It averages 23% at $1M–$5M and 31% at $500M+, as a percentage of revenue. That is 1.2 points above the concrete and masonry average of 21.8%. The CFOS target at $1M–$5M is 25.5%. The CFOS target recalculates at your revenue: whatever gross margin produces the net profit target once overhead is paid, never below your trade's own industry average.
What net profit should a concrete pumping contractor run?
Concrete pumping shares its net profit figure with 16 other trades at this revenue, which is what the published data resolves to. It averages 7% at $1M–$5M and 21% at $500M+, before taxes, as a percentage of revenue. That is 0.2 points below the concrete and masonry average of 7.2%. The CFOS target at $1M–$5M is 10.5%. The CFOS target recalculates at your revenue: 10 percent before taxes, or 3.5 points better than your trade's industry average, whichever is higher.
What profit margin should a small concrete pumping business run?
Owners usually mean net profit when they say profit margin, and for concrete pumping at $1M–$5M that's 7%. Gross margin is a different number, 23%, and it's what's left after job costs but before overhead. Overhead is the 16% between the two. A small concrete pumping business holding 7% net is at the published figure for its size, and the CFOS target at that revenue is 10.5%.
Does concrete pumping get more profitable as it grows?
Overhead is the number that moves. Concrete pumping sheds 6 points between $1M–$5M and $500M+, which is in line with the 6 points concrete and masonry sheds as a group. Net profit starts 0 points under the 48-trade average, so the room is in the overhead line before it's anywhere else.
Where does concrete pumping rank against the other trades?
Concrete pumping ties 3 trades in concrete and masonry on net profit, all at 7%. Concrete flatwork is the most profitable at 8%. Concrete, Concrete flatwork and Masonry run the leanest overhead at 14%. Gross margin ranks 13th of 48 and overhead ranks 32nd.
That's the industry average and the CFOS target for concrete pumping at every size. Want your own books set beside them? The Financial Health Snapshot builds a CEO Report from your last twelve months, sets every figure against your trade, and walks you through it on a 60 minute call. SPM The Construction CFO (Sulphur Prairie Management, LLC) is a separate firm, and the same author runs it.
Everything on this page is something you can install yourself, andCONTROL is the order to do it in. If you would rather buy the finished result, SPM The Construction CFO does this work for concrete pumping contractors as a service. It is a separate firm, Sulphur Prairie Management, LLC, run by the same author.
Wrote CONTROL, the 8 step system behind these figures. More about the author.