Flooring subcontractors carry overhead driven by material handling logistics, moisture testing and substrate preparation expertise, and the scheduling coordination required to protect finished floors from subsequent trade damage.
These benchmarks are drawn from SPM's work with commercial flooring contractors and industry data. Calculate your actual overhead rate — total G&A expenses divided by total revenue for the trailing 12 months — and compare to your revenue band below.
How to use this data: If you're above the top of the range, specific categories need review. If you're below the bottom, you may be underinvesting in systems and staff. Use the benchmark as a target range, not a single number.
Trade note for Flooring Contractors: Flooring contractors are uniquely exposed to damage from subsequent trades — HVAC, plumbing, and painting contractors working after flooring installation creates protection and warranty overhead that other finish trades don't carry. Damage claim management, protection material costs, and warranty coordination are real overhead components for flooring contractors.
Temporary floor protection — cardboard, ram board, corner guards — used to protect installed floors from subsequent trade damage is a real job cost that's often coded to general overhead. High-traffic, multi-trade projects require more protection and should reflect that cost.
Moisture vapor testing, calcium chloride tests, and substrate preparation coordination create overhead and direct job costs that many flooring contractors underestimate in bids. Substrate failures and moisture warranty claims are expensive — the prevention overhead is worth tracking.
Maintaining installer certifications across multiple flooring product manufacturers — Shaw, Mohawk, Armstrong, Karndean — requires training, fees, and continuing education overhead that single-manufacturer flooring contractors don't carry.
Floor protection material costs are coded to specific jobs in ControlQore rather than to overhead — revealing which projects require above-average protection investment and supporting better protection cost estimation on future similar scopes.
Moisture vapor testing, calcium chloride tests, and substrate preparation costs for specific projects are coded to those jobs in ControlQore. Substrate preparation overhead belongs in the job — not in general G&A.
Manufacturer certification and training costs are tracked as a dedicated overhead category in ControlQore — supporting decisions about which manufacturer platforms to maintain certification in based on revenue generated from each product line.
Find out in a free 30-minute call. Josh will tell you straight where your overhead rate stands and what to do about it.
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