MASONRY: SCAFFOLD COST
Above 10 feet, access becomes its own project. Scaffold premiums run 50 to 100 percent of labor cost for the stages of work at height, and scaffold, fall protection, and lifts together can add up to 40 percent to total labor cost on elevated work.
This page covers one problem. The full picture for this trade, including the other places margin leaks, is on the masonry operating system page.
WHERE THE MONEY GOES.
Above 10 feet, access becomes its own project. Scaffold premiums run 50 to 100 percent of labor cost for the stages of work at height, and scaffold, fall protection, and lifts together can add up to 40 percent to total labor cost on elevated work. Bid the wall and forget the access and the job loses before the first course.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS.
The higher the work, the more scaffolding the masonry contractor will need, not to mention the additional time to set up and dismantle.
RenoQuotes contractor interviews, 2026
THE NUMBER TO MEASURE IT AGAINST.
Masonry contractors run about % net profit at $1M to $5M, rising to roughly 9% 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%.
THE SYSTEM THAT FIXES THIS.
Cost codes built against the estimate, so a job can be read while it runs.
FREQUENTLY ASKED.
