Where roofing contractors lose money
5 things cost roofing contractors money without ever becoming a line item, and each one traces to a step you can install. Roofing 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.
Roofing ranks 6th 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.
Roofing 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% | 27% | 28% | 30% | 24.5% |
| Net profit | 7% | 9% | 11% | 13% | 16% | 18% | 21% | 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.
SPM The Construction CFO. SPM Trade Benchmark Reference: Roofing. 2026. Sulphur Prairie Management, LLC. https://runoncfos.com/trades/roofing. 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 compiled by SPM The Construction CFO, validated against published CFMA and JMCO benchmarks. The CFOS targets beside them are from the book CONTROL: The 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.
- SPM Trade Benchmark Reference, Sulphur Prairie Management, 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 roofing
The tapered package was drawn for one building and cut at the plant. You priced fastening off field of roof density because that's what the takeoff shows. Shingles and polyiso reprice on 30 days notice. You dry the building in so every other trade can start, then wait on 10% until the whole job closes and a manufacturer's inspector you don't employ signs off.
Each one below points at the item, the unit, the clock, or the party that makes it a roofing problem, and it says which step fixes it.
| Mechanism | Why it's specific to this trade | Step |
|---|---|---|
| That tapered package is spent before you bill it | Membrane rolls and flat board are stock items with restocking value behind them. A tapered layout has one building it fits and zero salvage, so the entire cancellation risk is on the roofer and no other trade on the job has anything like it. Other trades stack material in a conditioned space and wait out a schedule, while your wet-material clock starts the minute the truck gets to the site. | Project management |
| The corner takes twenty fasteners and your bid priced twelve | Most trades submit product data and get a stamp back. Roofing submits an assembly and gets an engineered fastening schedule back that changes the quantity of work after the price is locked. The person setting your hours per square is a manufacturer's technical reviewer protecting a warranty his company has to honor, and he has no reason to care what your bid priced. | Estimating system |
| Price letters move faster than your contract | A trade where material is a third of the job can absorb a feedstock move inside its labor productivity. Roofing can't, because half the contract value is a petrochemical commodity somebody else prices on a letter. It's also the one trade that routinely signs a number at a storm and installs it months later against a price list it has no seat at. | Estimating system |
| You finish in month two and get paid in month eighteen | Trades that finish late get their retention released not long after they demobilize. Roofing finishes first and waits longest, which makes it the widest distance on the whole site between work performed and cash received. Then a third party inspection falls between you and the release, and his punch list is written months after your crew went somewhere else. | Job cost structure |
| Whoever punctured it, the call comes to you | No other trade's completed work becomes the deck that every other crew walks on for the next year. That's why roofing eats service calls that are really damage claims from other subs. The evidence window closes in hours: the moment the trade that made the hole seals it up, your proof is gone and the call becomes a warranty call by default. | Standards and accountability |
Roofing against the other 47 trades
| Metric | Roofing | Envelope and structure average | All 48 average | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overhead | 15% | 15.1% | 15.1% | 17th of 48 |
| Gross margin | 22% | 22.8% | 22.1% | 20th of 48 |
| Net profit | 7% | 7.6% | 7% | 21st of 48 |
Roofing sheds 6 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%. Roofing is neither, which is the usual position and the one with the most room in it.
Other envelope and structure trades
What owners ask
What overhead should a roofing contractor run?
Roofing 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 0.1 points below the envelope and structure average of 15.1%. 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 roofing contractor run?
Roofing 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 30% at $500M+, as a percentage of revenue. That is 0.8 points below the envelope and structure average of 22.8%. 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 roofing contractor run?
Roofing 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 21% at $500M+, before taxes, as a percentage of revenue. That is 0.6 points below the envelope and structure average of 7.6%. 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 roofing business run?
Owners usually mean net profit when they say profit margin, and for roofing 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 roofing business holding 7% net is at the published figure for its size, and the CFOS target at that revenue is 10.5%.
Does roofing get more profitable as it grows?
Overhead is the number that moves. Roofing sheds 6 points between $1M–$5M and $500M+, which is in line with the 6.3 points envelope and structure 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 roofing rank against the other trades?
Roofing ties 1 trade in envelope and structure on net profit, all at 7%. Curtain wall and glazing, Waterproofing are the most profitable at 9%. Framing runs the leanest overhead at 13%. Gross margin ranks 20th of 48 and overhead ranks 17th.
That's the industry average and the CFOS target for roofing 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, andCONTROL is the order to do it in. If you would rather buy the finished result, SPM The Construction CFO does this work for roofing 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.