Where masonry contractors lose money
5 things cost masonry contractors money without ever becoming a line item, and each one traces to a step you can install. Masonry contractors average 21% gross margin, 14% overhead and 7% net profit at $1M–$5M of revenue. The CFOS target at that size is 23.5% gross margin, 13% 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.
Masonry ranks 2nd of 5 in concrete and masonry on net profit, and it has leaner overhead than the 48-trade average. Here is every figure, across all 7 revenue bands.
Masonry by revenue band
| Metric | $1M–$5M | $5M–$10M | $10M–$25M | $25M–$50MModeled | $50M–$100MModeled | $100M–$500MModeled | $500M+Modeled | CFOS target at $1M–$5M |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overhead | 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 9% | 8% | 13% |
| Gross margin | 21% | 22% | 23% | 24% | 25% | 26% | 28% | 23.5% |
| Net profit | 7% | 9% | 11% | 13% | 15% | 17% | 20% | 10.5% |
| Metric | $1M–$5M | $5M–$10M | $10M–$25M |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overhead | 13% | 12% | 11% |
| Gross margin | 23.5% | 24.5% | 25.5% |
| 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.
Run On CFOS. Run On CFOS Trade Benchmark Reference: Masonry. 2026. Sulphur Prairie Operations, LLC. https://runoncfos.com/trades/masonry. 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.
5 problems specific to masonry
You take the full brick package in one or two drops at buyout, then lay it out over the next eight months while the cash stays in a stack on the ground. Your top mason and a tender spend three days building a wall that gets walked, argued over, and torn down. You set structural block right behind the foundation, and the ten percent held on it stays untouched until substantial completion, a year and a half later. Steel slipped four weeks, your scaffold is up on an elevation you can't advance, and the rental invoice still comes in right on time.
Each one below points at the item, the unit, the clock, or the party that makes it a masonry problem, and it says which step fixes it.
| Mechanism | Why it's specific to this trade | Step |
|---|---|---|
| The whole brick package hits cash before course one | Plenty of trades buy material early. Masonry is the one where splitting the order damages the finished product, so the early buy is mandatory and it can't be staged to match the billing curve. A drywall sub can take another truck of board next month and no one will ever know. A second kiln run bands the wall for the life of the building. | Monthly cadence |
| Three days of your best mason, buried in general labor | Other trades submit paper and then wait. Masonry submits a built assembly, so the submittal itself consumes your highest-paid mason, a tender, scaffold time, and real material before the job has produced a billable square foot. On a time card the panel reads like ordinary wall work, which sends those hours into general job labor where they never get found again. That's how a week of premium production disappears into a code with no story attached to it. | Job cost structure |
| Block laid in month two, retention released in month twenty | Most trades earn where their retention is held, late in the job, so the hold and the work fall near each other on the calendar. Masonry goes vertical early and finishes late under a single number, which stretches the distance between earning and release further than any other subcontract on the building. The block scope alone can be held longer than some subs are even on site. Your estimator sees the bid margin and never sees the eighteen months the cash was gone. | Software and bookkeeping alignment |
| Standby scaffold has no line on the pay application | Scaffold is the mason's largest non-labor cost and the GC's schedule decides how long it is up. A trade that pulls up with a van and a scissor lift can walk off a stalled elevation and lose nothing that day, while your access is bolted to the building and metered by the month. Schedule slip converts directly into equipment cost for masonry in a way it simply doesn't for the trades working behind you. | Equipment cost basis |
| You go back to clean a wall you finished a year ago | No other trade leaves its finished surface exposed for the entire build. Drywall gets covered, painted, and protected within weeks, while face brick is the final product from the day it goes up and stays out there as a work surface for everyone who follows. That's why cleandown and repair is a genuine second mobilization for masonry and a punch list walk for everybody else. | Standards and accountability |
Masonry against the other 47 trades
| Metric | Masonry | Concrete and masonry average | All 48 average | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overhead | 14% | 14.6% | 15.1% | 6th of 48 |
| Gross margin | 21% | 21.8% | 22.1% | 33rd of 48 |
| Net profit | 7% | 7.2% | 7% | 21st of 48 |
Masonry 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. The leanest one is this trade.
Other concrete and masonry trades
What owners ask
What overhead should a masonry contractor run?
Masonry shares its overhead figure with 10 other trades at this revenue, which is what the published data resolves to. It averages 14% at $1M–$5M and 8% at $500M+, as a percentage of revenue. That is 0.6 points below the concrete and masonry average of 14.6%. The CFOS target at $1M–$5M is 13%. The CFOS target is one point leaner than your trade's industry average at your revenue.
What gross margin should a masonry contractor run?
Masonry shares its gross margin figure with 5 other trades at this revenue, which is what the published data resolves to. It averages 21% at $1M–$5M and 28% at $500M+, as a percentage of revenue. That is 0.8 points below the concrete and masonry average of 21.8%. The CFOS target at $1M–$5M is 23.5%. 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 masonry contractor run?
Masonry 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 20% 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 masonry business run?
Owners usually mean net profit when they say profit margin, and for masonry at $1M–$5M that's 7%. Gross margin is a different number, 21%, and it's what's left after job costs but before overhead. Overhead is the 14% between the two. A small masonry business holding 7% net is at the published figure for its size, and the CFOS target at that revenue is 10.5%.
Does masonry get more profitable as it grows?
Overhead is the number that moves. Masonry 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 masonry rank against the other trades?
Masonry ties 3 trades in concrete and masonry on net profit, all at 7%. Concrete flatwork is the most profitable at 8%. Its overhead is the leanest too, level with Concrete and Concrete flatwork. Gross margin ranks 33rd of 48 and overhead ranks 6th.
That's the industry average and the CFOS target for masonry 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 masonry 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.