Where sitework contractors lose money
6 things cost sitework contractors money without ever becoming a line item, and each one traces to a step you can install. Sitework contractors average 18% gross margin, 15% overhead and 3% net profit at $1M–$5M of revenue. The CFOS target at that size is 24% gross margin, 14% overhead and 10% net, and the 7 points left on the table is where those mechanisms live. Figures for all 7 revenue bands are in the table below.
Sitework ranks 9th of 11 in civil and earthwork on net profit, and it has leaner overhead than the 48-trade average. Here is every figure, across all 7 revenue bands.
Sitework 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 | 18% | 20% | 22% | 24% | 26% | 27% | 28% | 24% |
| Net profit | 3% | 6% | 9% | 12% | 15% | 17% | 19% | 10% |
| Metric | $1M–$5M | $5M–$10M | $10M–$25M |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overhead | 14% | 13% | 12% |
| Gross margin | 24% | 23% | 24.5% |
| Net profit | 10% | 10% | 12.5% |
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: Sitework. 2026. Sulphur Prairie Operations, LLC. https://runoncfos.com/trades/sitework. 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 sitework
You bill five weeks of mass grading, then watch six weeks of operators and iron wait on a wet well that couldn't be ordered until the shop drawing came back approved. The city holds the grading permit, the engineer is redlining the civil set, and your silt fence has to pass inspection before a blade touches dirt. The rock price held all year. Your last retention check is stuck behind seed germinating in October, and germination depends on mother nature no matter when the work finished.
Each one below points at the item, the unit, the clock, or the party that makes it a sitework problem, and it says which step fixes it.
| Mechanism | Why it's specific to this trade | Step |
|---|---|---|
| Your Fastest Billable Work Comes Before the Pipe Gets There | Every other trade mobilizes after its long-lead item is already ordered, often already delivered to site. Sitework mobilizes in week one, burns the unrestricted scope first, and then hits the procurement wall with crews and machines already assigned. Utility-side supply chains still haven't normalized, so a submittal turnaround that slips two weeks moves your production hole two weeks and no other trade on the schedule feels it. | Project management |
| Permit Review Rewrites the Job You Already Signed For | A site package gets bought out early because the site contractor has to mobilize first, which means the subcontract is executed off bid-set quantities. Every trade behind you signs against permit drawings. You signed against drawings that were still under review, so the quantity delta turns into a fade in your unit costs, and there's no revision postdating your signature to point at. | Estimating system |
| Haul Miles Are Your Commodity Price, and They Moved | There's no drawing revision behind a haul route change, so there's nothing to attach a change order to. The design held still and the truck didn't. Fuel adjustment clauses are standard on DOT work and almost never appear on a private site package, which leaves the sub holding the entire move between bid day and buyout. | Equipment cost basis |
| Retention Releases When the Grass Hits Seventy Percent | Every other trade's retention is gated by its own completion. Yours is gated by biology and a regulator's inspection, on scope that finished a year and a half earlier. Meanwhile the erosion control bond stays posted and the 7-day BMP maintenance obligation keeps running on a job that stopped producing revenue long ago. | Monthly cadence |
| The Job Needs Five Mobilizations and You Priced Two | A trade that comes once and leaves can't be damaged by the trades that follow it. Your product is the dirt everybody else works on, which turns your finished work into a haul road for the rest of the job. Rework at fine grade gets performed under a contract priced for one pass, and it gets charged to the original grading phase because no code was ever opened for it. | Project management |
| You Bid in Cubic Yards and Pay in Machine Hours | A trade that bids labor and material can read a job's whole story from labor cost per unit. Your largest cost line is iron, and iron doesn't appear in a labor hour or a material invoice. Until every machine has an hourly rate charged to the job, a rain month and a job blown on production rate look identical in the P&L. | Equipment cost basis |
Sitework against the other 47 trades
| Metric | Sitework | Civil and earthwork average | All 48 average | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overhead | 15% | 15% | 15.1% | 17th of 48 |
| Gross margin | 18% | 20.7% | 22.1% | 44th of 48 |
| Net profit | 3% | 5.7% | 7% | 46th of 48 |
Sitework sheds 6 points of overhead between $1M–$5M and $500M+, against 6.2 for civil and earthwork as a group. Inside that group, SWPPP and erosion control is the most profitable at 10%, and Civil, Excavation, Paving, 1 more all run 14% overhead, the leanest. Sitework is neither, which is the usual position and the one with the most room in it.
Other civil and earthwork trades
What owners ask
What overhead should a sitework contractor run?
Sitework 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's level with the civil and earthwork average. 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 sitework contractor run?
Sitework shares its gross margin figure with 4 other trades at this revenue, which is what the published data resolves to. It averages 18% at $1M–$5M and 28% at $500M+, as a percentage of revenue. That is 2.7 points below the civil and earthwork average of 20.7%. The CFOS target at $1M–$5M is 24%. 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 sitework contractor run?
Sitework shares its net profit figure with 1 other trade at this revenue, which is what the published data resolves to. It averages 3% at $1M–$5M and 19% at $500M+, before taxes, as a percentage of revenue. That is 2.7 points below the civil and earthwork average of 5.7%. The CFOS target at $1M–$5M is 10%. 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 sitework business run?
Owners usually mean net profit when they say profit margin, and for sitework at $1M–$5M that's 3%. Gross margin is a different number, 18%, and it's what's left after job costs but before overhead. Overhead is the 15% between the two. A small sitework business holding 3% net is at the published figure for its size, and the CFOS target at that revenue is 10%.
Does sitework get more profitable as it grows?
Overhead is the number that moves. Sitework sheds 6 points between $1M–$5M and $500M+, which is in line with the 6.2 points civil and earthwork sheds as a group. Net profit starts 4 points under the 48-trade average, so the room is in the overhead line before it's anywhere else.
Where does sitework rank against the other trades?
Sitework ties 1 trade in civil and earthwork on net profit, all at 3%. SWPPP and erosion control is the most profitable at 10%. Civil, Excavation, Paving, 1 more run the leanest overhead at 14%. Gross margin ranks 44th of 48 and overhead ranks 17th.
That's the industry average and the CFOS target for sitework 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 sitework 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.