Where siding contractors lose money
3 things cost siding contractors money without ever becoming a line item, and each one traces to a step you can install. Siding 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.
Siding 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.
Siding 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.
SPM The Construction CFO. SPM Trade Benchmark Reference: Siding. 2026. Sulphur Prairie Management, LLC. https://runoncfos.com/trades/siding. 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.
3 problems specific to siding
You ordered the wall, the wall came up two boards short, and the reorder is a different lot. The mockup wall went up in a day, and then the crew waited three weeks on an architect who was never on your payroll. Building A was wrapped and occupied last summer, and the retention on it is still parked in the GC's account waiting on paving and punch.
Each one below points at the item, the unit, the clock, or the party that makes it a siding problem, and it says which step fixes it.
| Mechanism | Why it's specific to this trade | Step |
|---|---|---|
| Prefinished siding gets bought by the lot, weeks early | Primed lap and stock colors stay at the yard, and most trades can send a truck back for one more bundle at noon. A prefinished siding order is a manufacturing run reserved for you, so the insurance stock is a financing decision that gets recorded as a waste factor. It repeats on every prefinished job, which makes the money structural and puts it in the estimate, not in a bad-buy story you tell yourself once a year. | Estimating system |
| Two clocks gate your start and you own neither | Siding is the trade that covers the evidence, so both gates fall right on your start date. Framing gets inspected and keeps moving, while cladding can't begin until the layer underneath it has been photographed, walked, and signed. The mockup compounds it, because you build real work that has no line to bill against and no clock you can push. | Project management |
| Building A's retainage waits on the landscaper | Siding falls mid-schedule on a job whose completion date belongs to the sitework contractor, so your scope closes out long before the project does. A tail trade like flooring or final paint ages its retention a few months and gets whole. Siding ages more than a year on the earliest buildings, which is why your balance sheet shows a receivable the bank discounts and the field already spent. | Monthly cadence |
Siding against the other 47 trades
| Metric | Siding | Envelope and structure average | All 48 average | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overhead | 14% | 15.1% | 15.1% | 6th of 48 |
| Gross margin | 21% | 22.8% | 22.1% | 33rd of 48 |
| Net profit | 7% | 7.6% | 7% | 21st of 48 |
Siding 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%. Siding 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 siding contractor run?
Siding 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 1.1 points below the envelope and structure average of 15.1%. 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 siding contractor run?
Siding 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 1.8 points below the envelope and structure average of 22.8%. 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 siding contractor run?
Siding 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 0.6 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 siding business run?
Owners usually mean net profit when they say profit margin, and for siding 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 siding business holding 7% net is at the published figure for its size, and the CFOS target at that revenue is 10.5%.
Does siding get more profitable as it grows?
Overhead is the number that moves. Siding 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 siding rank against the other trades?
Siding 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 33rd of 48 and overhead ranks 6th.
That's the industry average and the CFOS target for siding 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 siding 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.