Post-tension
No survey breaks post-tension out on its own, so there's no margin figure to publish and this page doesn't invent one. What it has is 2 mechanisms that cost post-tension contractors money, and the step that fixes each.
CFMA reports at NAICS level, and post-tension rolls into 238110 Poured Concrete along with several other trades. It isn't in the 48-trade master reference either. Every figure on this site traces to one of those two sources, so publishing a margin for post-tension would mean making it up. The nearest published context is the concrete and masonry group, which runs 21% to 23% gross margin and 7% to 8% net profit at $1M–$5M.
2 problems specific to post-tension
The bundle was cut for one building and one slab edge. You pay a licensed engineer and a detailer to seal a tendon layout, then wait on somebody else's desk before a strand gets cut.
Each one below points at the item, the unit, the clock, or the party that makes it a post-tension problem, and it says which step fixes it.
| Mechanism | Why it's specific to this trade | Step |
|---|---|---|
| A moved slab edge scraps a bundle you already paid for | A drywall sub orders stock-length board and sends the leftovers back on the same truck. Post-tension has no stock and no return: the material is engineered to one structure's geometry and becomes scrap the moment that geometry changes. That's why the change-order clock on a PT job starts at the fabrication release and not a day later. | Project management |
| Fabrication doesn't release until the EOR approves | The gate is the whole point. A framer with a slow submittal can still buy studs and stage them on the deck, while a PT contractor can't, because the fabrication order is keyed to the approved layout and the plant won't cut against a drawing that hasn't cleared review. A submittal-heavy owner buys more of your engineering hours than the last one did, and nothing in a standard chart of accounts tells you which owner that was. | Overhead calculation |
Other concrete and masonry trades
What owners ask
What gross margin should a post-tension contractor run?
Post-tension isn't broken out in any published benchmark, so there's no honest figure to give you. CFMA reports at NAICS level and this trade rolls into 238110 Poured Concrete, which mixes it with several others. The concrete and masonry trades that are published run 21% to 23% gross margin at $1M–$5M, and that band is the closest context available.
Why does this page have no benchmark table?
Because publishing a number nobody surveyed would be inventing it. Every figure on this site traces to CFMA or to the 48-trade master reference, and post-tension is in neither. The mechanisms below are what this trade loses money on, and those don't depend on a survey.
What costs a post-tension contractor the most money?
A moved slab edge scraps a bundle you already paid for. The bundle was cut for one building and one slab edge. Move that edge after fabrication release and roughly 100 coiled tendons become scrap with no credit memo behind them. That's one of 2 on this page, and 1 of the 2 resolve to step 06, project management.
Which steps does post-tension keep landing on?
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 carrying the most mechanisms is the one holding the most money.
What should a post-tension 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 concrete and masonry 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, andCONTROL is the order to do it in. If you would rather buy the finished result, SPM The Construction CFO does this work for post-tension contractors as a service. It is a separate firm, Sulphur Prairie Management, LLC, run by the same author.
Wrote CONTROL, the 8 step system these figures sit inside. More about the author.