Masonry subcontractors operate labor-intensive businesses with scaffold and equipment overhead plus material coordination demands for multiple masonry unit types. Here is what normal overhead looks like for masonry contractors at every revenue level.
These benchmarks are drawn from SPM's work with commercial masonry 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 Masonry Contractors: Scaffold cost is the most unique overhead element for masonry contractors. Owned scaffold represents significant capital with storage, maintenance, and depreciation overhead. Rented scaffold shows up as direct job cost. The owned vs. rented scaffold decision affects overhead rate classification and should be consistent across all jobs for meaningful benchmarking.
Owned scaffold costs sit in overhead. Rented scaffold goes to jobs. Mixing the two without adjusting benchmarks creates an apples-to-oranges overhead rate comparison that makes your rate look higher or lower than peers depending on your scaffold strategy.
Labor time spent mixing grout, mortar, and admixtures is often coded to overhead rather than to the specific job. On large CMU scopes, this miscode is material.
Managing CMU, brick, stone, and architectural masonry units simultaneously — each with different lead times, suppliers, and delivery coordination — creates overhead that single-unit-type masonry contractors don't carry.
SPM establishes a consistent scaffold cost classification policy in ControlQore — owned scaffold allocated to jobs via internal rate, rented scaffold as direct job cost. This consistency makes your overhead rate comparable to benchmark and to your own historical data.
Grout and mortar mixing labor is coded to specific jobs in ControlQore rather than to general overhead. On large CMU jobs, this labor time is material and belongs in the job's direct cost.
For masonry contractors handling multiple unit types, SPM tracks material coordination cost as a distinct overhead category — separating procurement and delivery coordination overhead from general administrative overhead.
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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