Where precast concrete contractors lose money
4 things cost precast concrete contractors money without ever becoming a line item, and each one traces to a step you can install. Precast concrete contractors average 22% gross margin, 15% overhead and 7% net profit at $1M–$5M of revenue. The CFOS target at that size is 24.5% gross margin, 14% 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.
Precast concrete 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.
Precast concrete by revenue band
| Metric | $1M–$5M | $5M–$10M | $10M–$25M | $25M–$50MModeled | $50M–$100MModeled | $100M–$500MModeled | $500M+Modeled | CFOS target at $1M–$5M |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overhead | 15% | 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 9% | 14% |
| Gross margin | 22% | 23% | 24% | 25% | 26% | 27% | 29% | 24.5% |
| Net profit | 7% | 9% | 11% | 13% | 15% | 17% | 20% | 10.5% |
| Metric | $1M–$5M | $5M–$10M | $10M–$25M |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overhead | 14% | 13% | 12% |
| Gross margin | 24.5% | 25.5% | 26.5% |
| 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: Precast concrete. 2026. Sulphur Prairie Operations, LLC. https://runoncfos.com/trades/precast. 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 precast concrete
Sixty grand of steel forms is parked in the yard for a job that hasn't billed a dollar, and the piece count just got value engineered down after award. Drawings have been on somebody else's desk for five weeks. Four hundred thousand dollars of panels are laying on dunnage, cast, cured, and piece marked, and none of it is billable this month. You go back for welding and drypack, then caulk a season later, then patch at punch, and the GC picks the week for every one of them.
Each one below points at the item, the unit, the clock, or the party that makes it a precast concrete problem, and it says which step fixes it.
| Mechanism | Why it's specific to this trade | Step |
|---|---|---|
| Your mold is a one-job asset you pay for up front | Every other trade's long lead item is something they install and get paid for as an installed unit. Precast's long lead item is tooling the job consumes, and at the end it goes on the scrap pile with the project's geometry still in it. That makes the form a job cost with a recovery schedule bolted to it, and when the schedule that recovery rides on changes, no one outside your shop notices. | Equipment cost basis |
| The casting bed is empty while the architect reviews | Idle bed time never gets charged to a job. There's no cost code for a reserved bed that cast nothing, so the plant burden and the crew you held for that slot get absorbed into overhead where it reads as a bad month with no cause attached. Other trades waiting on submittals are waiting to start work; a precast shop waiting on submittals is already paying for capacity it committed by date. | Project management |
| A yard full of panels the contract won't let you bill | For most subs, material waiting in a warehouse is a purchase waiting to be installed, and the supplier's terms fund it. For a precaster it's finished goods with your own labor and burden already cured into it, stamped with that project's piece marks so it can't be returned or moved to another job. The working capital hole is your own production cost laying on dunnage, and it grows every day the bed runs on schedule. | Job cost structure |
| Three more trips to that job after the crane goes home | Most subcontractors demobilize once and their cost curve ends there. A precaster's scope splits across four visits separated by months, and the last three absorb full mobilization cost against line items that were bid as small change. That inversion is why the caulk trip loses money on nearly every job, and why it goes uncaught: the cost hits long after anyone was still watching that job. | Project management |
Precast concrete against the other 47 trades
| Metric | Precast concrete | Concrete and masonry average | All 48 average | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overhead | 15% | 14.6% | 15.1% | 17th of 48 |
| Gross margin | 22% | 21.8% | 22.1% | 20th of 48 |
| Net profit | 7% | 7.2% | 7% | 21st of 48 |
Precast concrete 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. Precast concrete 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 precast concrete contractor run?
Precast concrete shares its overhead figure with 14 other trades at this revenue, which is what the published data resolves to. It averages 15% at $1M–$5M and 9% at $500M+, as a percentage of revenue. That is 0.4 points above the concrete and masonry average of 14.6%. The CFOS target at $1M–$5M is 14%. The CFOS target is one point leaner than your trade's industry average at your revenue.
What gross margin should a precast concrete contractor run?
Precast concrete shares its gross margin figure with 12 other trades at this revenue, which is what the published data resolves to. It averages 22% at $1M–$5M and 29% at $500M+, as a percentage of revenue. That is 0.2 points above the concrete and masonry average of 21.8%. The CFOS target at $1M–$5M is 24.5%. 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 precast concrete contractor run?
Precast concrete 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 precast concrete business run?
Owners usually mean net profit when they say profit margin, and for precast concrete at $1M–$5M that's 7%. Gross margin is a different number, 22%, and it's what's left after job costs but before overhead. Overhead is the 15% between the two. A small precast concrete business holding 7% net is at the published figure for its size, and the CFOS target at that revenue is 10.5%.
Does precast concrete get more profitable as it grows?
Overhead is the number that moves. Precast concrete 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 precast concrete rank against the other trades?
Precast concrete 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 20th of 48 and overhead ranks 17th.
That's the industry average and the CFOS target for precast concrete 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 precast concrete 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.