Restoration profit margin benchmarks
The IRS reports what one-owner businesses filing Schedule C earn, by sector. Restoration falls under Waste management and remediation services. For tax year 2023, 30,817 returns reported $4.3 billion in receipts, $1.0 billion in cost of sales and $0.3 billion in net income less deficit (the table gives thousands of dollars):
| Benchmark | Value |
|---|---|
| Gross margin | 75.9% |
| Net margin, owner pay included | 7.8% |
| Average receipts per return | $140,187 |
| Average net income per return | $10,913 |
The owner's own draw is not an expense on a Schedule C, so that net margin is mostly the owner's wage, not profit on top of it.
Where the money goes in restoration
Restoration is labor, equipment days and demo, with insurance carriers setting much of the price through their estimating software. Cash waits on the carrier for weeks after the job.
Where restoration margin leaks, and how to win it back
- Drying days not documented, so not paid
- Equipment left on site longer than billed
- Slow payment from carriers
- Contents work done free
- Supplements never filed
Ways restoration companies raise margin: log readings and photos every day; file supplements for hidden damage; price contents work on its own; collect the deductible up front.
Check your restoration prices against the costs
The typical national prices from our sourced calculators are a check on whether your prices leave room for margin:
| Service | Typical | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Clean water | $3.75 | $3.38 to $4.13 a sq ft |
| Gray water | $5.28 | $4.05 to $6.50 a sq ft |
| Black water | $7.25 | $7.00 to $7.50 a sq ft |
| Emergency or after-hours call-out | $125 | $50 to $200 a job |
| Mold remediation | $17.50 | $10.00 to $25 a sq ft |
| Mold testing, basic | $300 | $250 to $350 a job |
Work out the margin on each line of your menu, not just the big jobs. The usual restoration menu: clean water; gray water; black water; emergency or after-hours call-out; mold remediation; mold testing, basic; mold treatment after water damage; drywall repair after a flood cut; contents pack-out and cleaning; smoke and soot cleaning; board-up and tarping.
Overhead comes out of the margin before profit. In restoration it includes general liability insurance, which Insureon's customers who are contractors as a group pay an average of $83 a month for; commercial auto at $270 a month on the same figures.
Work out your own margin
Put one recent restoration job into the calculator above, or switch it to "My margin for the year" to set your year next to the IRS benchmark. A 50% markup is a 33% margin; the markup calculator shows the rest.
Sources
- IRS Statistics of Income: Nonfarm sole proprietorships, Table 2, income statements by industrial sector, tax year 2023, checked October 9, 2026
- IRS: SOI tax stats, nonfarm sole proprietorship statistics, checked October 9, 2026
- Insureon: Insurance cost for contractors as a group, checked October 9, 2026
- Fixr: Water damage restoration cost, checked October 9, 2026
- Bob Vila: Water damage restoration cost, checked October 9, 2026
- This Old House, mold remediation cost, checked October 8, 2026
- HomeAdvisor, mold remediation cost, checked October 8, 2026
- Bob Vila, mold remediation cost, checked October 8, 2026
- Fixr, mold remediation cost, checked October 8, 2026
- EPA, a brief guide to mold, moisture and your home, checked October 8, 2026
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (state and national files), checked October 8, 2026
- US Census Bureau, 2020 ZIP Code Tabulation Area to county relationship file, checked October 8, 2026
Last checked October 9, 2026. This page is general information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change and differ by state and city, so confirm with the agency named before you act.