Contractor markup: how much to mark up subs, and why 10 and 10 isn't enough

Published November 3, 2026 · Numbers checked November 2026

• Free. The calculator (Google Sheets or Excel) and the printable markup to margin chart (PDF) come by email.
• Deepsel is our product: free estimate, invoice and scheduling software for contractors (scheduling, quotes, invoicing, card payments, a price book). The section before the FAQ says what it does with cost and markup, and what it doesn't.
• Not tax or accounting advice. Have your accountant check your overhead and labor burden numbers.

The right contractor markup is the one your own overhead needs. Add up what the business costs to run for a year, including your pay for the hours you don't bill to a job, divide it by the sales you expect, add a profit target, and turn that margin into a markup. 10 and 10 (10% for overhead, then 10% for profit) is a 21% markup that keeps 17.4% of the price, well under the 29.9% gross margin the average remodeler kept in NAHB's latest study.^{1, 2} The owners I read mark up subs anywhere from 15% to 67%, most of them between 20% and 50%.

The free calculator does the arithmetic. Make your own copy in Google Sheets or download the Excel version (.xlsx). Enter your overhead, a sales guess, a profit target and the job's sub, material and labor costs, and it gives you the markup, the price, what's left for you, and the same job at 10 and 10. The second tab is a markup to margin chart, also as a printable PDF for the truck, with a worksheet on the back for working out your own markup. Pick a format, enter your email and I'll send the links.

I wrote this for general contractors and remodelers in their first year with a licence. "How much to mark up subcontractors" is one of the oldest arguments on r/Contractor. When a one-man GC and handyman asked it there in October 2025, the answers ran from 1.2 to 2 times the sub's price.³ Below is the arithmetic behind those answers, one small job worked end to end, and what the numbers people quote actually measure.

Markup vs margin: the arithmetic

Markup is a percentage of your cost. Margin is a percentage of your price. Same dollars, different base, and owners mix them up all the time.

Say the subs and materials on a job cost you $10,000 and you add 50%. The price is $15,000. The $5,000 you added is 50% of the cost but only 33.3% of the price. That 33.3% is your margin, and it has to pay for the truck, the insurance, your own time and any profit.

• Margin = markup ÷ (1 + markup). A 50% markup is a 33.3% margin.
• Markup = margin ÷ (1 − margin). A 35% margin needs a 53.8% markup.
• Price = cost × (1 + markup), or cost ÷ (1 − margin).

A multiplier is the same markup written as one number: a 50% markup is "1.50," and the price is cost times 1.50. Owners use all three forms, sometimes in one breath. A retired GC on r/Contractor: "Markup on subs 50%. My markup on my work - 67%. Sound extreme but that amounts to a 38% gross profit. Overhead was 28%, net profit 10%." Another reply in the same thread, at 72 points: "A 10–30% markup isn't the same as 10–30% profit."⁴ In an electrical contractor's thread on the same mix-up: "You're not making a 20% margin because the item now costs $120."⁵ A $100 item sold at $120 is a 20% markup and a 16.7% margin.

Your overhead and profit are paid out of the price, so the target is a margin. Your estimate is built from costs, so you apply a markup. The chart further down converts one into the other.

Why 10 and 10 isn't enough

"10 and 10" means 10% for overhead and 10% for profit, often written 10/10 O&P (overhead and profit). Compounded, cost × 1.10 × 1.10, it's a 1.21 multiplier: a 21% markup and a 17.4% margin. Added flat to cost it's 1.20, a 16.7% margin. Either way you keep less than 18 cents of each dollar the client pays.

It's a real convention, and you'll meet it in print. Zonda's Cost vs. Value report, the yearly study of what remodels cost and return at resale, puts "a standard markup of 10% on materials and 10% on labor" into its cost data, and JLC's own write-up calls that "a starting point" that "may be considered low by many contractors."⁶ Markup and Profit, a site that sells pricing books and classes, says "people started believing that a 10% overhead and 10% profit is the industry standard for construction jobs," and spends the article arguing it isn't.⁷

Owners are blunter. "I would really like to find the person who started the 20% or 10/10 O&P BS," one wrote on r/GeneralContractor.⁸ Another allows it for one kind of work: "New build, yes. You can do 10+10 all day to get around 21%."⁹ A third kept the name and changed the number: "I recently changed the 10 and 10 to 10 and 25. The 10 is still profit but the 25 is all the overhead."¹⁰ On r/Handyman, under a homeowner's question about a quote, a commenter answered "Your mistake is the 10 and 10," and added that "Small/medium companies (think $1M - $3M/yr companies) will be closer to 25-40% overhead and 5-15% profit."¹¹

The measured numbers back them. NAHB's average remodeler in 2024 kept a 29.9% gross margin, then spent 23.6% of revenue on operating expenses, owner's pay included, before a 6.3% net profit.² Operating expenses alone are bigger than everything 10 and 10 leaves you.

One small job, priced four ways

Here's a job a new GC might bid in the first year. The numbers are made up, so replace them with yours. A solo GC with no office staff prices a hall bathroom remodel: the tub stays, everything else is new, and most of the work is subbed out. The costs, from written sub quotes and a materials list:

Then the year. The truck costs $14,000 (payment, fuel, insurance, repairs), business insurance $4,500, and the licence, phone and software, accountant, marketing, tools and storage another $11,500. That's $30,000 of business overhead. The owner also wants $50,000 for the hours that never show up on a job: selling, estimating, scheduling subs, buying, supervising, the books. Total, $80,000. Planned sales are $320,000, so overhead and pay take 25% of every dollar billed. Add a 10% profit target and the job needs a 35% margin, which is a 1.54 multiplier (a 53.8% markup).

At 10 and 10 the bathroom sells for $19,118. Take out the job costs and this job's share of the truck, insurance and phone, and $1,526 is left to pay you for selling it, estimating it, scheduling four subs, buying the vanity, meeting the inspector and walking the punch list. Your planned pay for that work is $2,987, so the job comes up $1,462 short before it makes a cent of profit. A 28% markup is still $632 short. At 1.50 the job pays its overhead and pays you, with 8.3% profit. At 1.54 it hits the 10% target.

Run the whole year at 10 and 10 and it gets worse. Bill the $320,000 you planned and you keep 17.4% of it, $55,537, against $80,000 of overhead and pay. That's $24,463 short, with nothing for profit. At those prices, $320,000 of sales also takes about 17 bathrooms like this one instead of 13.

On this one job the gap between 10 and 10 and the price the shop needs is $5,190. That's the number a new GC worries about when the client compares bids, and it's the money that pays for the truck and the evenings spent on estimates. The Example tab of the calculator has this job filled in, so you can change one number at a time and watch what moves.

What goes into the job cost

The markup only works on a complete cost. Leave something out and you've cut your margin without knowing it.

Subs and materials

Use the sub's written quote, not a number from a phone call. Add delivery and the sales tax you pay on materials, the permit, the dumpster, equipment rental and anything else you'll pay out for this job. Subs take the same markup as everything else. A sub working for you is a cost like lumber, and the job still has to carry your overhead, your time and your risk if their work fails. The landscaping estimate template shows one way to split it, with separate markups on labor, materials and dump fees and the margin per crew-hour for each option.

Your own hours on the tools

If you swing a hammer on the job, cost those hours at the wage you'd pay someone else to do them, plus burden. A GC on r/GeneralContractor put it as a rule: "If you self perform always bid it as if you were having to pay someone else."¹² That way the job pays for the work whoever does it, and the markup is left to pay for running the business. In the example, the 40 hours of demo, blocking and punch list sit in the job cost at $35 an hour plus 30%.

Labor burden

Labor burden is what an employee costs you on top of the wage. Your half of Social Security and Medicare is 7.65% of wages.¹³ Then come federal and state unemployment insurance, workers comp (the part that swings most by state and trade), and any benefits or paid time off. In June 2026 BLS put the average private construction employer's cost at $36.13 an hour in wages plus $15.84 in benefits, 44% on top of the wage. The legally required part alone, Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance and workers comp, was $4.42, about 12%.¹⁴ A small shop without a health plan or retirement match pays less than that average.

Owners on Reddit use 25% to 35%. One reply on r/Handyman worked it out line by line: "Labor burden (varies by trade) 32% x $400 = $128."¹⁵ On r/GeneralContractor, about a price that left it out: "he's not covering labor burden (25% of labor cost".¹⁶ Get your workers comp rate from your insurance agent and use your real number in the burden column.

Overhead and profit: where your own wage goes

The cost owners leave out most is their own time off the tools. A handyman put it plainly: "I charge/make about $80/hr, which sounds great. But I'm only paid when I work, I don't get paid for my admin time, supply runs, etc."¹⁷ A GC spends even more of the week on hours nobody is billed for: selling, estimating, scheduling subs, buying, meeting inspectors, the books. Give that time a yearly figure and put it in overhead. Leave it out and the price pays you nothing for running the business.

The rest of overhead is what the business costs whether or not you have a job this week: the truck, insurance, licence and bond, phone and software, the accountant, marketing, tools, a shop or storage unit, office help if you have it. Twelve months of bills you already pay, or have been quoted, is a fair first list. It's where many new owners stall; one asked r/GeneralContractor for help because he was "struggling to figure out how to account for overhead (salaries, tech, insurance, admin...) when estimating a job."¹⁸

NAHB counts it the same way. The 23.6% of revenue remodelers spent on operating expenses includes "owner's compensation," and the 6.3% net profit is what's left after the owner is paid.² So profit, in this article, means money left after your pay. What's left for you is also before income tax and the 15.3% self-employment tax on your net earnings.¹⁹

Two things move your overhead percentage. The first is the sales guess: $80,000 of overhead and pay on $320,000 of sales is 25%, but on $240,000 it's 33%. Guess low in year one, and replace the guess with real numbers every quarter. The second is job size. A $2,000 job takes nearly as many calls, trips and site visits as a $20,000 one, so a percentage that works on bathrooms is thin on small jobs. In the r/Contractor markup thread, the owner who called "20% markup on over $500k of work" solid said 20 or 30% on a $2,000 job "is a waste of your time."³

How much do general contractors mark up subcontractors?

Twelve owners in the threads I read gave their own markup on subs. The range is 15% to 67%, and most sit between 20% and 50%. A sample of them:

• "If I have a sub come do work on a job I'm doing I usually mark it up 15%"²⁰
• "Normally I do 28% markup. But it just feels weird for one trade." (a new GC with one concrete sub on the job)²¹
• "For remodels we aim for roughly 1/3 markup ... 20% is about right for new homes, but not remodels."³
• "Residential remodel, 50%. Results in a 33% gross margin"²²
• "We do 1.65x as well, do about $4-5mil in residential remodels."³
• "1.67 to 2X depending on how busy I am, size of the job, how much baby sitting I need to do, etc."³
• "Markup on subs 50%. My markup on my work - 67%."⁴

Read that list with care. These are people who chose to post their numbers, and owners who are doing well post more, so treat it as a range. It isn't an average. About four of the twelve turn up again and again across threads. One pattern holds anyway: new homes and very large jobs carry less, remodels carry more. "Usually in the range of 1.2x - 2x the sub costs. 20% is reasonable on a huge house renovation."³ And one GC who subs out every job put it in bank terms: "I sub everything out and I make 35-40% clear in my bank account on every project."²³

Use the range as a check on your own number. If your calculator says 1.25 for a remodel, look at your overhead list again before you bid with it.

What NAHB's remodeler numbers imply

NAHB's Remodelers' Cost of Doing Business Study is the one measured source I found. The 2026 edition covers fiscal 2024:^{1, 2}

• Average revenue: $2.7 million.
• Cost of sales (labor, materials, subs): 70.1% of revenue. Trade contractors alone were 30% of revenue, down from 36% in 2021.
• Gross profit margin: 29.9%.
• Operating expenses, owner's pay included: 23.6%.
• Net profit margin: 6.3%, the highest since 1996.

A 29.9% gross margin is a 1.43 multiplier on cost of sales, a 42.7% markup (my arithmetic). That's what the average established remodeler got after everything, in a good year. It isn't your target. A firm doing $2.7 million isn't a solo shop: its overhead is bigger in dollars but spread over about eight times the sales of the GC in my example. I couldn't find a measured margin for firms under five people.

Markup and Profit's 1.50, and other rules of thumb

The ranges you'll run into come from Michael Stone at Markup and Profit: remodeling contractors 1.50 to 1.70, specialty contractors 1.35 to 1.50, new home builders 1.26 to 1.30. He adds, "If you haven't been achieving an 8% net profit, your price is too low."²⁴ These are one consultant's ranges from a long career, first published in 2009 and updated in 2021, on a site that sells books, classes, software and consultations. No sample or method is given. Stone himself tells readers, "You need to calculate your own markup based on your business needs."²⁴

Treat his ranges the way you treat the owners' range: as a sanity check. The number you bid with comes from your overhead.

Contractor markup calculator (free spreadsheet)

The workbook has four tabs. The Calculator tab is blank and works in five steps. Step 1 takes your overhead and pay for the year, your sales guess and your profit target, and gives the margin and markup you need. Step 2 is the job's costs, one line per sub, material buy, labor or fee, with a burden column for labor. Step 3 gives the price, gross profit, what's left for you and net profit, with a line that says whether the price carries its share. Step 4 prices the same job at 10 and 10. Step 5 checks a price you've already quoted.

Leave the margin cell in step 3 blank and the sheet uses the margin you need; type a different one to see what it does to what you keep. The Example tab is the bathroom above, filled in. The Markup to margin tab is the chart below, live: type any markup or margin and the row recalculates. The Notes tab explains each formula and what the benchmarks measure.

Markup to margin chart

The common conversions. The printable version has the full chart and a fill-in box for working out your own markup by hand.

Cost-plus: the general contractor fee percentage

On a cost-plus job the client pays your costs plus a fee, and the fee is a markup under another name. Owners quote 15% to 20%. "GC here. I do cost plus 20%," one wrote, adding that he passes material discounts on to his customers.²⁵ Another: "We charge 18%. Plenty of larger GC's charging 15%."²⁶ A 20% fee is a 16.7% margin. That can work because the client carries the risk of overruns, but the overhead arithmetic doesn't change. If your supervision hours aren't billed as a cost, the fee has to pay for them. The owner who moved from 10 and 10 to 10 and 25 splits his the same way: 10 for profit, 25 for overhead.¹⁰

What to do on the next bid

1. Work out your markup from your own overhead before you bid, not while the client waits.
2. Apply it to the whole job cost, subs included. If you mark up each trade and also add an O&P line on the total, run the final price through step 5 so you know the margin you actually quoted.
3. Quote a price, not your markup. Remodelers who sell fixed prices say it outright: "fixed price with allowances ... anything to avoid them seeing your markup. We aim for 35-40% markup (or 25-30% margin, if you prefer) on remodels."²⁷
4. Expect subs to price you higher at first. A GC told a new builder on r/GeneralContractor that "lots of subs will mark up rates or the best subs won't want to work with you, until you're established some."²⁸ That's a cost. It goes in step 2, and your markup goes on top of it.
5. After the job, compare the real costs with the estimate, and update step 1 with real numbers every quarter. The right markup on the wrong cost is still the wrong price.

Where Deepsel fits

Deepsel's price book keeps an internal cost next to each item's price, and the item form shows the markup and gross margin those two numbers make. When you add a price book item to an estimate, a job or an invoice, its cost comes along as an internal unit cost that the owner sees in a column beside the price. The customer's copy shows prices and line totals only. Deepsel doesn't calculate a price from a markup percentage, and it doesn't total the margin across an estimate, so the markup still comes from the calculator: work it out there, then type the price into the item. Estimates go out with options, the customer approves and signs on screen, and an optional card deposit taken at approval is credited on the final invoice. The price book, estimates and invoices are on the Free plan, free up to 30 estimates and 30 invoices a month. Pro is $29 a month for unlimited estimates and invoices, and every plan is on the pricing page.

Frequently asked questions

What is a reasonable markup for subcontractors?

The one your overhead needs. Add up a year of overhead plus your pay for the hours you don't bill to a job, divide by the sales you expect, add a profit target, and convert that margin to a markup. Twelve owners on Reddit reported their own sub markups, from 15% to 67%, most between 20% and 50%, with new homes and very large jobs at the low end and remodels higher. In the worked example on this page, a solo GC with $80,000 of overhead and pay on $320,000 of sales needs a 54% markup.

Is 30% markup the same as 30% margin?

No. A 30% markup on $10,000 of cost gives a $13,000 price, and the $3,000 you added is 23.1% of the price. To keep a 30% margin you need a 42.9% markup. Margin = markup ÷ (1 + markup). Markup = margin ÷ (1 − margin).

What does 10 and 10 mean in construction?

10% for overhead and 10% for profit, sometimes written 10/10 O&P. Applied one after the other it's cost × 1.21, a 17.4% margin. Added together it's cost × 1.20, a 16.7% margin. Zonda's Cost vs. Value report builds 10% on materials and 10% on labor into its cost data, and JLC calls that a starting point that may be low for many contractors. For a small remodeler it rarely covers overhead and the owner's pay: NAHB's average remodeler spent 23.6% of revenue on operating expenses in 2024.

What is the typical profit margin for a general contractor?

For remodelers, NAHB's 2026 Remodelers' Cost of Doing Business Study reports a 29.9% average gross margin and a 6.3% average net margin for fiscal 2024, after the owner's pay, among firms averaging $2.7 million in revenue. Markup and Profit, which sells pricing books and classes, says to aim for at least 8% net. I found no measured figure for firms of one to five people.

How much should a contractor mark up materials?

The math is the same as for subs. Materials are a job cost, and the markup that covers your overhead goes on them too. Some owners split it: a retired GC on r/Contractor used 50% on subs and 67% on his own work. If you pass materials through at cost, the rest of the job has to carry a higher markup to reach the same margin.

What is a typical general contractor fee percentage?

On cost-plus jobs, owners report fees of 15% to 20% of cost. A 20% fee is a 16.7% margin. Cost-plus moves the risk of overruns to the client, which is why the fee can run lower than a fixed-price markup, but your supervision time then has to be billed as a cost or covered by the fee.

Should I show my markup to the client?

Most owners quote a price and keep the markup to themselves. One remodeler on r/Contractor sells fixed prices with allowances and says the point is to avoid clients seeing the markup. On cost-plus jobs the fee is in the contract by design. In Deepsel, the cost on each line is internal and the customer's estimate shows only prices.

Sources

1. National Association of Home Builders, "Home Remodeling Profit Margin Jumps on Demand and Business Practices" - "In 2024, the average net profit margin for remodelers was 6.3%, the highest since 1996"; "Remodelers' 29.9% average gross profit margin in 2024"; trade contractor costs "dropped from 36% of revenue in 2021 to 30% in 2024." nahb.org, April 10, 2026, read November 3, 2026.
2. Rose Quint, NAHB Eye on Housing, "Remodelers Saw Profit Margin Gains in 2024" (summary of the 2026 Remodelers' Cost of Doing Business Study) - "On average, residential remodelers reported $2.7 million in total revenue for fiscal year 2024. Of that, about $1.9 million (70.1%) was spent on cost of sales (i.e., labor, materials, contractors), which translates into an average gross profit margin of 29.9%. Operating expenses (i.e., indirect construction costs, finance, S&M, G&A, and owner's compensation) cost remodelers an average of $646,000 (23.6% of revenue), leaving them with an average net profit margin of 6.3%." eyeonhousing.org, April 8, 2026, read November 3, 2026.
3. r/Contractor, "How much to mark up subcontractors" (the poster runs a one-man GC and handyman business) - "1.67 to 2X depending on how busy I am, size of the job, how much baby sitting I need to do, etc."; "20% markup on over $500k of work is solid," with 20 or 30% on a $2,000 job "a waste of your time"; "For remodels we aim for roughly 1/3 markup ... 20% is about right for new homes, but not remodels."; "We do 1.65x as well, do about $4-5mil in residential remodels."; "Usually in the range of 1.2x - 2x the sub costs. 20% is reasonable on a huge house renovation." reddit.com, October 27, 2025, checked November 2, 2026.
4. r/Contractor, two replies in a homeowner's thread about a quote - a retired GC: "Markup on subs 50%. My markup on my work - 67%. Sound extreme but that amounts to a 38% gross profit. Overhead was 28%, net profit 10%." reddit.com; and (72 points) "A 10–30% markup isn't the same as 10–30% profit." reddit.com, September 26, 2026, checked November 2, 2026.
5. r/Contractor, reply in an electrical contractor's margin vs markup thread - "You're not making a 20% margin because the item now costs $120." reddit.com, April 8, 2025, checked November 2, 2026.
6. Clayton DeKorne, Journal of Light Construction, "2025 Cost vs. Value Report: Key Trends" - "The cost data in the Cost vs. Value report does include a standard markup of 10% on materials and 10% on labor. This is a starting point. It may be considered low by many contractors who build high value into their work." jlconline.com, September 15, 2025, read November 3, 2026.
7. Markup and Profit, "How Much Should a Contractor Charge?" - "Somewhere along the line, people started believing that a 10% overhead and 10% profit is the industry standard for construction jobs. Or that a 20% markup is all a contractor needs." The site sells books, classes, software and consultations. markupandprofit.com, published 2013, updated January 11, 2022, read November 3, 2026.
8. r/GeneralContractor, reply - "I would really like to find the person who started the 20% or 10/10 O&P BS." reddit.com, October 23, 2024, checked November 2, 2026.
9. r/Contractor, reply - "New build, yes. You can do 10+10 all day to get around 21%." reddit.com, May 1, 2026, checked November 2, 2026.
10. r/GeneralContractor, reply - "I recently changed the 10 and 10 to 10 and 25. The 10 is still profit but the 25 is all the overhead." reddit.com, September 29, 2024, checked November 2, 2026.
11. r/Handyman, reply in a homeowner's thread - "Your mistake is the 10 and 10."; "Small/medium companies (think $1M - $3M/yr companies) will be closer to 25-40% overhead and 5-15% profit." reddit.com, March 21, 2026, checked November 2, 2026.
12. r/GeneralContractor, reply - "Flat GC fee of 20%. If you self perform always bid it as if you were having to pay someone else." reddit.com, February 14, 2025, checked November 2, 2026.
13. Internal Revenue Service, "Topic no. 751, Social Security and Medicare withholding rates" - "The current tax rate for Social Security is 6.2% for the employer and 6.2% for the employee, or 12.4% total. The current rate for Medicare is 1.45% for the employer and 1.45% for the employee, or 2.9% total." irs.gov, read November 3, 2026.
14. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Employer Costs for Employee Compensation," Table 4, June 2026 - construction industry, private: total compensation $51.96 an hour; wages and salaries $36.13 (69.5%); total benefits $15.84 (30.5%); legally required benefits $4.42 (8.5%). Legally required benefits are Social Security, Medicare, federal and state unemployment insurance and workers' compensation. bls.gov, released September 2026, read November 3, 2026.
15. r/Handyman, reply - "Labor burden (varies by trade) 32% x $400 = $128." reddit.com, November 8, 2025, checked November 2, 2026.
16. r/GeneralContractor, reply - "he's not covering labor burden (25% of labor cost". reddit.com, March 17, 2025, checked November 2, 2026.
17. r/Handyman, reply - "I charge/make about $80/hr, which sounds great. But I'm only paid when I work, I don't get paid for my admin time, supply runs, etc." reddit.com, September 18, 2025, checked November 2, 2026.
18. r/GeneralContractor, post - "struggling to figure out how to account for overhead (salaries, tech, insurance, admin...) when estimating a job." reddit.com, July 31, 2026, checked November 2, 2026.
19. Internal Revenue Service, "Self-employment tax (Social Security and Medicare taxes)" - "The self-employment tax rate is 15.3%. The rate consists of two parts: 12.4% for social security (old-age, survivors, and disability insurance) and 2.9% for Medicare (hospital insurance)." irs.gov, read November 3, 2026.
20. r/Contractor, reply - "If I have a sub come do work on a job I'm doing I usually mark it up 15%." reddit.com, June 26, 2025, checked November 2, 2026.
21. r/GeneralContractor, post by a new GC pricing one concrete sub - "Normally I do 28% markup. But it just feels weird for one trade." reddit.com, October 1, 2026, checked November 2, 2026.
22. r/Contractor, reply - "Residential remodel, 50%. Results in a 33% gross margin." reddit.com, February 11, 2026, checked November 2, 2026.
23. r/Contractor, reply - "I sub everything out and I make 35-40% clear in my bank account on every project." reddit.com, October 12, 2025, checked November 2, 2026.
24. Michael Stone, Markup and Profit, "Markup vs Margin" - "Remodeling Contractors = 1.50 – 1.70 + / Specialty contractors = 1.35 – 1.50 + / New Home Builders = 1.26 – 1.30 +"; "If you haven't been achieving an 8% net profit, your price is too low."; "You need to calculate your own markup based on your business needs." No sample or method stated. markupandprofit.com, published 2009, updated December 6, 2021, read November 3, 2026.
25. r/Contractor, reply - "GC here. I do cost plus 20%. ... I pass along all material discounts to my customers and I don't expect any sub contractor kickbacks." reddit.com, October 11, 2025, checked November 2, 2026.
26. r/Contractor, reply - "We charge 18%. Plenty of larger GC's charging 15%." reddit.com, April 25, 2025, checked November 2, 2026.
27. r/Contractor, reply in a thread on cost-plus kitchens and baths - "fixed price with allowances ... anything to avoid them seeing your markup. We aim for 35-40% markup (or 25-30% margin, if you prefer) on remodels." reddit.com, January 8, 2026, checked November 2, 2026.
28. r/GeneralContractor, reply to a new GC building a first spec house - "lots of subs will mark up rates or the best subs won't want to work with you, until you're established some." reddit.com, August 23, 2026, checked November 2, 2026.