ONE PROBLEM, IN DETAIL

DEMOLITION: TIPPING FEES EAT 20 TO 30 PERCENT OF THE JOB

QUICK ANSWER

Landfill tipping fees and hauling account for 20 to 30 percent of total demolition project cost, and tipping fees jumped roughly 10 percent this year to a national average near $62 per ton. A residential teardown alone generates 50 to 150 tons. A bid built on last year's gate rate donates the increase.

This page covers one problem. The full picture for this trade, including the other places margin leaks, is on the demolition operating system page.

BY JOSH LUEBKERPublished 2026-08-06Updated 2026-08-06
WHAT BREAKS

WHERE THE MONEY GOES.

Tipping fees eat 20 to 30 percent of the job

Covered in full in the quick answer above. The sourced numbers and what controls it are below.

WHAT THE NUMBERS SAY

THE COST, SOURCED.

Sourced figures

"Landfill tipping fees and transportation costs may account for 20-30% of the total project cost." (O'Rourke Wrecking) "Tipping fees jumped 10% this year to a national average of $62.28 per ton." (Design Estimation, 2026)

WHAT THIS TRADE SHOULD EARN

THE NUMBER TO MEASURE IT AGAINST.

Demolition contractors run about % net profit at $1M to $5M, rising to roughly 7% at $5M to $10M. The CFOS target at $1M to $5M is10%, set at 10 percent before taxes or 3.5 points better than your trade's average at your revenue, whichever is higher. A problem like this one lives in the distance between those two figures rather than in a loss on any single job.

Gross margin over the same bands runs % to 22%, against a CFOS target of 10%.

Full demolition benchmark bands by revenue

WHAT CONTROLS IT

THE SYSTEM THAT FIXES THIS.

Job Profitability System

Cost codes built against the estimate, so a job can be read while it runs.

How the Job Profitability System works

COMMON QUESTIONS

FREQUENTLY ASKED.

Bid the current gate rate per ton with a dated basis, track actual tons and actual rates per job, and reconcile the variance weekly. Disposal is 20 to 30 percent of the job and the national average moved about 10 percent in a year; a stale rate assumption donates the increase on every load.
Three tiers, and which one you are in depends on how much of the work you want off your desk. Core is where you stop guessing: job costing built against the way you estimate, a 13 week cash forecast, monthly WIP, and a monthly meeting that ends in decisions, while your bookkeeper keeps doing the books. Executive is where you stop touching the books, because we run the bookkeeping and the controllership as well. Strategic is where every job shows its margin while it is still running, because the job costing and WIP platform is set up and managed for you. No payroll. No scope gaps.
Sixty days. We migrate your books back to the start of your last taxable year, set up ControlQore, and build your job costing structure from scratch. Fully operational in two months.
WHAT THIS TIES INTO
Josh Luebker, The Construction CFO
Josh Luebker
FRACTIONAL CFO · THE CONSTRUCTION CFO

Former commercial project manager and master electrician: 150+ projects worth $2.1B combined, from $50,000 to $300M. Now fractional CFO to commercial subcontractors.

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