Where tile and stone contractors lose money
4 things cost tile and stone contractors money without ever becoming a line item, and each one traces to a step you can install. Tile and stone contractors average 22% gross margin, 14% overhead and 8% net profit at $1M–$5M of revenue. The CFOS target at that size is 24.5% gross margin, 13% overhead and 11.5% 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.
Tile and stone ranks 1st of 6 in interiors and finishes on net profit, and it has leaner overhead than the 48-trade average. Here is every figure, across all 7 revenue bands.
Tile and stone 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 | 22% | 23% | 24% | 25% | 26% | 28% | 29% | 24.5% |
| Net profit | 8% | 10% | 12% | 14% | 16% | 19% | 21% | 11.5% |
| Metric | $1M–$5M | $5M–$10M | $10M–$25M |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overhead | 13% | 12% | 11% |
| Gross margin | 24.5% | 25.5% | 26.5% |
| Net profit | 11.5% | 13.5% | 15.5% |
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: Tile and stone. 2026. Sulphur Prairie Operations, LLC. https://runoncfos.com/trades/tile-stone. 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 tile and stone
One purchase order has to cover the entire floor, and it gets placed before the GC has a slab. Crew is mobilized, the container is on site, and the floor reads 3/16 in 10 feet. Bid 4,200 square feet, buy seven pallets, and the difference stays in the warehouse until somebody hauls it off. The GC compressed the schedule and wants more men on the floor, but the floor is set and waiting on grout.
Each one below points at the item, the unit, the clock, or the party that makes it a tile and stone problem, and it says which step fixes it.
| Mechanism | Why it's specific to this trade | Step |
|---|---|---|
| The Dye Lot Forces You To Buy The Whole Job Up Front | A plumber buys fixtures in phases and nothing about the third order looks different from the first, so he can pace his buying against his cash. Tile has no phase option, because the material is the job's appearance, so the buy is all at once and it happens months ahead of installation. Natural stone tightens it further: a slab bundle comes off a single block, the vein match dies with that block, and a distributor holds the bundle only 7-30 days without a deposit of roughly 50%. | Job cost structure |
| Setting Over A Bad Slab Means You Just Bought It | Three conditions gate tile and none of them are yours. Flatness belongs to the concrete sub, while permanent HVAC and the calendar belong to the GC. ASTM F2170 in-situ RH probes can't go in until the slab has been at service temperature and humidity for 48 hours, then need 24 hours to equilibrate, and your setting materials have a 50 degree minimum that has to hold through cure. No other finish trade has its warranty, its start date, and its callback exposure all keyed to conditions somebody else controls. | Project management |
| The Leftover Pallet Is Margin You Already Spent | Most trades sell and buy in units close enough that the estimate and the purchase order can be compared line for line. Tile sells in square feet and buys in pallets and whole slabs, and it loses material to layout, tile size, and block yield in ways one blended waste percentage can't describe. Using a single waste factor across a straight lay restroom and a herringbone lobby guarantees the estimate and the purchase order drift apart job by job, and nothing at month end closes that loop. | Estimating system |
| Ten Guys Can't Beat A 24 Hour Cure | Every other trade recovers schedule with bodies. A framer doubles the crew and the wall goes up twice as fast; tile runs at the speed of chemistry whether one man or ten is on the slab. So tile is the trade that can't answer a compressed schedule with manpower, and it's also the trade whose scope gets fractured into separate trips by the sequence of everybody else's work. | Estimating system |
Tile and stone against the other 47 trades
| Metric | Tile and stone | Interiors and finishes average | All 48 average | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overhead | 14% | 13.3% | 15.1% | 6th of 48 |
| Gross margin | 22% | 19.7% | 22.1% | 20th of 48 |
| Net profit | 8% | 6.3% | 7% | 8th of 48 |
Tile and stone sheds 6 points of overhead between $1M–$5M and $500M+, against 5.3 for interiors and finishes as a group. Inside that group, Acoustic ceiling, Tile and stone all keep 8%, the most in the group, and Acoustic ceiling, Drywall, Interiors and 1 more all run 13% overhead, the leanest. The first of those is this trade.
Other interiors and finishes trades
What owners ask
What overhead should a tile and stone contractor run?
Tile and stone 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 0.7 points above the interiors and finishes average of 13.3%. 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 tile and stone contractor run?
Tile and stone 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 2.3 points above the interiors and finishes average of 19.7%. 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 tile and stone contractor run?
Tile and stone shares its net profit figure with 12 other trades at this revenue, which is what the published data resolves to. It averages 8% at $1M–$5M and 21% at $500M+, before taxes, as a percentage of revenue. That is 1.7 points above the interiors and finishes average of 6.3%. The CFOS target at $1M–$5M is 11.5%. 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 tile and stone business run?
Owners usually mean net profit when they say profit margin, and for tile and stone at $1M–$5M that's 8%. Gross margin is a different number, 22%, and it's what's left after job costs but before overhead. Overhead is the 14% between the two. A small tile and stone business holding 8% net is at the published figure for its size, and the CFOS target at that revenue is 11.5%.
Does tile and stone get more profitable as it grows?
Overhead is the number that moves. Tile and stone sheds 6 points between $1M–$5M and $500M+, which is in line with the 5.3 points interiors and finishes sheds as a group. Net profit is already above the 48-trade average, so the room is in holding it while revenue climbs.
Where does tile and stone rank against the other trades?
Tile and stone ties 1 trade in interiors and finishes on net profit, all at 8%. Nothing publishes more, and Acoustic ceiling matches it. Acoustic ceiling, Drywall, Interiors and 1 more run the leanest overhead at 13%. Gross margin ranks 20th of 48 and overhead ranks 6th.
That's the industry average and the CFOS target for tile and stone 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 tile and stone 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.