Millwork and casework
No survey separates millwork and casework on its own, so this page shows Interiors's figures as the nearest comparable trade, labelled as derived, and lists 6 mechanisms that cost millwork and casework contractors money and the step that fixes each.
No survey separates millwork and casework, and it isn't one of the 48 trades in the SPM reference. The figures on this page are Interiors's, the nearest comparable trade that's in it, and every table and export labels them as derived. They describe a trade that works like this one, not millwork and casework itself. Use them to find the neighbourhood, then let your own job costing be the answer.
Millwork and casework 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 | 19% | 21% | 22% | 23% | 25% | 26% | 28% | 22% |
| Net profit | 6% | 9% | 11% | 13% | 16% | 18% | 20% | 10% |
| Metric | $1M–$5M | $5M–$10M | $10M–$25M |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overhead | 12% | 11% | 10% |
| Gross margin | 22% | 23.5% | 24.5% |
| Net profit | 10% | 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: Millwork and casework. 2026. Sulphur Prairie Operations, LLC. https://runoncfos.com/trades/millwork-casework. 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.
6 problems specific to millwork and casework
You spent five weeks on drafting, submittals, and veneer samples, none of it reached a pay application, and the architect decided when that window closed. Your panel goods, hinges, and slides were priced at bid and bought a quarter or two later, and since 14 October 2025 a duty layer stacks on top of that delay. The casework is finished, wrapped, labeled, and on your floor, and the standard payment clause says none of it counts until it reaches the site. Base cabinets go in first, tops follow, doors and hardware wait on paint, and touch-up closes it out.
Each one below points at the item, the unit, the clock, or the party that makes it a millwork and casework problem, and it says which step fixes it.
| Mechanism | Why it's specific to this trade | Step |
|---|---|---|
| Your Shop Drawings Are Payroll With No Pay App | A trade that mobilizes the week it wins starts producing installed, billable work immediately. A millwork shop has to design the product before the product exists, because it doesn't exist until your drafter draws it and an architect signs it. That makes engineering a production department with its own payroll falling entirely on the wrong side of the first pay application. | Job cost structure |
| You Bid Plywood in March and Buy It in September | A sub that mobilizes the week it's awarded buys close to bid pricing, because only days separate the two. Millwork can't buy until drawings are approved, which makes this trade's exposure window structurally longer than almost anyone else's on the job. The tariff line points straight at HTSUS 9403 cabinets, vanities, and their parts, which is the product coming off your floor. | Estimating system |
| Built, Boxed, and Not Billable Until It Leaves the Shop | Most subs produce and bill in the same building, so their payment clause and their work are in the same place. Millwork produces in one building and bills against another, and A201 was written around the second one. That mismatch is why a shop can be stacked wall to wall with finished, profitable product and still be tight on Friday. | Job cost structure |
| One Install Line, Five Trips to the Same Building | Most trades come in, install, and leave the building for good. Millwork installs last, into a jobsite that's still active, and its product is the visible finished surface every remaining trade walks past with a ladder. That makes every scratch, ding, and misaligned door a millwork punch item whether or not your crew ever touched it. | Project management |
| Doors Line Up at Closeout and Move by February | Wood is the only material on the job that changes dimension after the owner accepts it. A painted wall doesn't move when the humidity drops, while a run of full-overlay doors on a 3/32 reveal does, and it's visible from across the room. The callback comes back to your shop because your product is the only thing in the building anyone can watch move. | Overhead calculation |
| Three Spec Lines That Cost You Before You Bid | Other trades pick up their specification cost off the drawings, where an estimator is already looking. Millwork picks it up in Division 06 text: a certification program, a grade designation, and a three-letter note beside a hardware schedule. None of those has a quantity to take off, so they go missing in the shops that are best at counting sheets. | Estimating system |
Other interiors and finishes trades
What owners ask
What gross margin should a millwork and casework contractor run?
No survey reports millwork and casework on its own, so there's no figure of its own to give you. The nearest comparable trade in the reference is Interiors, which runs 19% gross margin at $1M–$5M. That's the number this page shows, labelled as derived. Treat it as the neighbourhood, because millwork and casework can run above or below it.
Where do the figures on this page come from?
From Interiors. In the surveys millwork and casework rolls into 238350 Finish Carpentry, which mixes it with several other trades, so the reference pairs it with the nearest trade it does measure. Gross margin and overhead are that trade's, and net profit is calculated as gross margin minus overhead, so the three tie out. Every table and every export says "Derived from the nearest comparable trade."
What costs a millwork and casework contractor the most money?
Your Shop Drawings Are Payroll With No Pay App. You spent five weeks on drafting, submittals, and veneer samples, none of it reached a pay application, and the architect decided when that window closed. That's one of 6 on this page, and 2 of the 6 resolve to step 01, job cost structure.
Which steps does millwork and casework keep pointing to?
step 01 job cost structure on 2 of them, step 04 estimating system on 2 of them, step 06 project management on 1 of them, step 03 overhead calculation on 1 of them. That distribution is the install order for this trade, because the step with the most mechanisms is the one holding the most money.
What should a millwork and casework contractor use instead?
Work the mechanisms on this page first, since they're specific and actionable. For a rough sense of the economics, read the interiors and finishes group, which is the nearest published context. Your own job costing beats any industry average once step 01 is installed.
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 millwork and casework 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.