Where framing contractors lose money
4 things cost framing contractors money without ever becoming a line item, and each one traces to a step you can install. Framing contractors average 18% gross margin, 13% overhead and 5% net profit at $1M–$5M of revenue. The CFOS target at that size is 22% gross margin, 12% overhead and 10% net, and the 5 points left on the table is where those mechanisms live. Figures for all 7 revenue bands are in the table below.
Framing ranks 8th of 8 in envelope and structure on net profit, and it has leaner overhead than the 48-trade average. Here is every figure, across all 7 revenue bands.
Framing by revenue band
| Metric | $1M–$5M | $5M–$10M | $10M–$25M | $25M–$50MModeled | $50M–$100MModeled | $100M–$500MModeled | $500M+Modeled | CFOS target at $1M–$5M |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overhead | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 9% | 8% | 8% | 12% |
| Gross margin | 18% | 19% | 20% | 22% | 23% | 25% | 27% | 22% |
| Net profit | 5% | 7% | 9% | 12% | 14% | 17% | 19% | 10% |
| Metric | $1M–$5M | $5M–$10M | $10M–$25M |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overhead | 12% | 11% | 10% |
| Gross margin | 22% | 21.5% | 22.5% |
| Net profit | 10% | 10.5% | 12.5% |
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.
Run On CFOS. Run On CFOS Trade Benchmark Reference: Framing. 2026. Sulphur Prairie Operations, LLC. https://runoncfos.com/trades/framing. 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 come from figures CFMA, Jones Maresca and other sources publish, and Run On CFOS derives net profit as gross margin minus overhead. The CFOS targets beside them are from the book CONTROL: C.F.O.S. 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.
- Run On CFOS Trade Benchmark Reference, Sulphur Prairie Operations, 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.
4 problems specific to framing
You bid the plan by the square foot and pay the crew by the hour or by the unit, and nothing you own converts one into the other. You priced the plan off a March quote and you're still setting walls on that same plan in October at March money. The deck is clean, the walls are plumb and braced, and eight guys are on it waiting for a girder truss somebody else was supposed to order. The slab is an inch and a half out of square, the concrete crew is gone and paid, and hiding it just became a framing expense.
Each one below points at the item, the unit, the clock, or the party that makes it a framing problem, and it says which step fixes it.
| Mechanism | Why it's specific to this trade | Step |
|---|---|---|
| Nothing in your books turns hours back into square feet | Almost no other trade bids in one unit and buys its biggest cost in a different one. A plumber bids fixtures and buys fixtures; an electrician bids devices and buys devices. Framing bids floor area and pays labor by the clock or by the piece, so the conversion has to be built on purpose or it simply doesn't exist. | Estimating system |
| Your plan price is locked and lumber reprices every week | Framing is the trade whose material half is a traded commodity bought load by load across dozens of repeat starts on one locked price. Trades that buy fixtures or gear order once per job at a quoted price and take the hit once. You take the same hit twenty times on the same plan number and the contract never reopens. | Estimating system |
| Walls stack in four days. Trusses take eight weeks. | Framing is one of the few trades that gets a structure half built and then has to stop mid-sequence waiting on a made-to-order component it didn't buy. Trades that install stock material can push through in one mobilization. You stack walls in days and then hold an eight-man crew against a component with a two-month clock. | Project management |
| You inherit the slab and eat the shim labor | Framing is where the design gets forced to match what got poured, because every trade after you sets to your lines. Drywall, mechanical, and finish trades inherit a structure that was already corrected, while you inherit the error itself and have to make it disappear. That correction work has no cost code, no change order, and no witness left on site by the time you find it. No report downstream shows the day you spent pulling the plate line straight. | Estimating system |
Framing against the other 47 trades
| Metric | Framing | Envelope and structure average | All 48 average | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overhead | 13% | 15.1% | 15.1% | 1st of 48 |
| Gross margin | 18% | 22.8% | 22.1% | 44th of 48 |
| Net profit | 5% | 7.6% | 7% | 42nd of 48 |
Framing sheds 5 points of overhead between $1M–$5M and $500M+, against 6.3 for envelope and structure as a group. Inside that group, Curtain wall and glazing, Waterproofing all keep 9%, the most in the group, and Framing runs the leanest overhead at 13%. The leanest one is this trade.
Other envelope and structure trades
What owners ask
What overhead should a framing contractor run?
Framing shares its overhead figure with 4 other trades at this revenue, which is what the published data resolves to. It averages 13% at $1M–$5M and 8% at $500M+, as a percentage of revenue. That is 2.1 points below the envelope and structure average of 15.1%. The CFOS target at $1M–$5M is 12%. The CFOS target is one point leaner than your trade's industry average at your revenue.
What gross margin should a framing contractor run?
Framing shares its gross margin figure with 4 other trades at this revenue, which is what the published data resolves to. It averages 18% at $1M–$5M and 27% at $500M+, as a percentage of revenue. That is 4.8 points below the envelope and structure average of 22.8%. The CFOS target at $1M–$5M is 22%. 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 framing contractor run?
Framing shares its net profit figure with 2 other trades at this revenue, which is what the published data resolves to. It averages 5% at $1M–$5M and 19% at $500M+, before taxes, as a percentage of revenue. That is 2.6 points below the envelope and structure average of 7.6%. The CFOS target at $1M–$5M is 10%. 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 framing business run?
Owners usually mean net profit when they say profit margin, and for framing at $1M–$5M that's 5%. Gross margin is a different number, 18%, and it's what's left after job costs but before overhead. Overhead is the 13% between the two. A small framing business holding 5% net is at the published figure for its size, and the CFOS target at that revenue is 10%.
Does framing get more profitable as it grows?
Overhead is the number that moves. Framing sheds 5 points between $1M–$5M and $500M+, which is flatter than the 6.3 points envelope and structure sheds as a group. Net profit starts 2 points under the 48-trade average, so the room is in the overhead line before it's anywhere else.
Where does framing rank against the other trades?
Framing is 8th of 8 in envelope and structure on net profit. Curtain wall and glazing, Waterproofing are the most profitable at 9%. It also runs the leanest overhead in the group. Gross margin ranks 44th of 48 and overhead ranks 1st.
That's the industry average and the CFOS target for framing 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, and CONTROL is the order to do it in. If you would rather buy the finished result, SPM The Construction CFO does this work for framing 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.