Poured Concrete Foundation and Structure Contractors (NAICS 23811) — U.S. Industry Primer

1. Overview

This is the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) industry code 23811 — Poured Concrete Foundation and Structure Contractors — the specialty subcontractors who dig, set forms, tie steel reinforcing bar ("rebar"), and pour the wet concrete that hardens into the footings, foundation walls, slabs, columns, and decks holding a building up.[4] It sits at the very front of the construction cycle: foundations get poured before framing, wiring, or finishing, which makes the trade an early, high-beta read on building activity and a direct beneficiary of the mid-2020s construction story — data centers, power, and factory reshoring. It is a labor-intensive, thin-margin, cyclical business with almost no pricing power.

This is a single-child level: NAICS 23811 contains exactly one national industry, 238110, with the same name and the same scope. For every practical purpose the two are identical, and this page's figures are also 238110's figures. Treat this as a short pointer. For the full treatment — scope and exclusions, the investable universe, how the money works, demand drivers, regulation, consolidation, risks, and how to invest — read the 238110 primer.

2. What's inside — and why this level equals its one child

NAICS is a nested hierarchy: each five-digit industry is subdivided into six-digit national industries. Most five-digit codes split into several children. This one does not — the United States, Canada, and Mexico defined no national-level distinctions worth breaking out, so NAICS 23811 rolls up a single child:

Because there is only one child, no aggregation, weighting, or blending happens at this level. Everything true of 238110 is true of 23811. That includes the work itself — footings, foundation and basement walls, slabs-on-grade, structural columns and beams, elevated decks, tilt-up and cast-in-place walls, parking structures, industrial foundations, plus shotcrete (sprayed concrete), concrete pumping, and concrete repair — and the things federal statistics deliberately leave out, notably ready-mix concrete supply (NAICS 327320), precast and structural-steel erection (238120), masonry (238140), and heavy-civil highway and bridge concrete (237310).[4][5] See the 238110 primer for the full inclusion/exclusion table.

3. How big it is

These are this level's own ground-truth federal figures. Because 23811 has one child, they equal 238110's. They combine 2023 County Business Patterns (CBP) with the 2022 Economic Census, so they are not one perfectly comparable annual series.[1][2]

A few things fall straight out. The average firm is tiny — about $3.4 million of revenue and roughly 12 employees per establishment.[1][2] Average pay is about $70,500 per worker per year.[1] And the trade is seasonal: first-quarter payroll ($4.10 billion) runs well below a flat one-quarter share of the $19.24 billion annual total, reflecting the winter slowdown in northern markets where you cannot pour in a hard freeze.[1] (The concentration ratios CR4–CR50 are the revenue share of the largest 4, 8, 20, and 50 firms; the HHI is a standard 0–10,000 concentration index — see §8.)

Undercount caveat. CBP and the Economic Census count employer establishments with paid employees; they exclude the self-employed and payroll-free businesses, which are numerous in the concrete trades and tracked separately in Census's Nonemployer Statistics.[6] So the true number of operating outfits exceeds 23,350, though their revenue share is small. Separately, a great deal of foundation and structural-concrete work never lands in this code at all — homebuilders and general contractors (GCs) who self-perform book it internally, and public-infrastructure concrete is captured inside heavy-civil contractors under other codes. Read $78.7 billion as the specialty-subcontractor slice, not total U.S. spending on poured concrete.

4. The investable universe

Where value concentrates is identical to the child, because they are the same industry. There is no pure public play — the largest poured-concrete contractors in America are private, and no listed company reports a clean NAICS 23811 revenue line. Public-market investors reach the theme indirectly:

• Closest operating exposure: Orion Group Holdings (ORN, NYSE) self-performs foundations and tilt-wall structures in its Concrete segment;[21] Sterling Infrastructure (STRL, Nasdaq) owns residential and commercial concrete-foundation businesses inside a data-center-heavy infrastructure firm.[22]
• Pour-volume "picks-and-shovels": Concrete Pumping Holdings (BBCP, Nasdaq), the leading U.S./U.K. concrete-pumping service.[23]
• Broader engineering-and-construction (E&C) books that self-perform structural concrete: Tutor Perini (TPC), Granite Construction (GVA), Primoris Services (PRIM).[24][25]
• Upstream material suppliers — a common indirect play with different economics (quarries, pricing power, capital intensity, not labor): Vulcan Materials (VMC), Martin Marietta (MLM), CRH plc (CRH), Eagle Materials (EXP), Knife River (KNF).[29]

The competitive top tier is private and employee-owned: Baker Construction Enterprises (Engineering News-Record's #1 concrete contractor for 17 straight years), Lithko Contracting (backed by The Pritzker Organization), Concrete Strategies (Clayco), Suntec, Structural Group, Ceco, Kent Companies, and self-performing employee-owned builders such as DPR, PCL, and McCarthy.[19][20][26] Full company tables, revenue estimates, and the private-firm roster are in the 238110 primer.

5. How the money works

A poured-concrete contractor is a labor-and-materials business bidding fixed-price work: owner/developer → GC or construction manager → concrete subcontractor → ready-mix, rebar, pumping, and formwork suppliers. Jobs are priced lump-sum, unit-price (dollars per cubic yard or per square foot of slab), cost-plus, or design-build; the contractor lives or dies on estimating accuracy and eats overruns from labor, weather, or site surprises. Gross margins run roughly 20%–35%, but net margin after overhead, insurance, bonding, and owner pay typically lands near 5%–10%, with weak pricing power because the industry is so fragmented.[31] Profit comes from crew and formwork utilization across a steady backlog; idle crews, weather delays, and irreversible rework destroy margin. Contractors carry working capital — they pay before the customer does, and owners hold "retainage" (often ~5%–10%) until completion — so mechanics-lien rights and surety bonding matter. The right input-cost gauge is the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Producer Price Index (PPI) for ready-mix concrete, steel, and fuel — not factory capacity utilization.[11] The 238110 primer works this through in full.

6. What drives demand

Demand tracks the volume of things being built, weighted to the early foundation stage:[7][8][9][10]

• Housing — foundations and slabs are the first thing built; single-family activity is rate-sensitive.[7]
• Data centers and power — the standout — the AI-driven buildout is the fastest-growing construction segment and the biggest current tailwind for large commercial concrete contractors.[9]
• Commercial and industrial — warehouses, plants, hospitals, parking structures; the chip-fab and battery-plant reshoring wave cooled off its 2023–24 peak into 2025–26.
• Public infrastructure — the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) supports bridges and transit; its surface-transportation authorization lapses around late 2026, a forward risk.[8]
• Financing conditions — interest rates gate both homebuying and commercial development, making the trade sharply cyclical.[10]

7. Regulation

Concrete contracting is regulated for worker safety and building integrity, not prices or market entry: Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) rules on respirable crystalline silica dust (29 CFR 1926.1153), fall protection, trenching (Subpart P), and concrete/masonry work (Subpart Q);[14][15] building codes (the International Building Code and International Residential Code, whose concrete provisions rely on American Concrete Institute standard ACI 318);[17] Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) stormwater and concrete-washout rules under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES);[16] Davis-Bacon prevailing wages on covered public work;[18] state and local licensing, bonding, and insurance; and a growing federal "Buy Clean" push toward lower-carbon concrete. Nothing here differs from the child level. Details are in the 238110 primer.

8. Competitive dynamics and consolidation

This is one of the most fragmented industries in the economy. The federal concentration data — identical at this level and its child — make the point: the four largest firms account for just 5.2% of revenue, the top 50 for only 19.1%, and the HHI is 12.8, against antitrust guideline thresholds where anything under 1,500 is already "unconcentrated."[2] A nuance from the operating model (not a published statistic): because wet concrete cannot travel far, local market concentration runs materially higher than the national figures suggest. Two forces reshape the top of the pyramid — scale advantages at the large-commercial end (bonding, safety records, owned pumping/formwork fleets), and private-equity roll-ups and employee-stock-ownership plans (ESOPs) consolidating an aging, labor-short, fragmented base.[19][20][30] See the 238110 primer for the full discussion.

9. Risks

Same risks as the child: cyclicality (foundations are cut first when a project slips); fixed-price bid risk on irreversible work;[25] a deep skilled-labor shortage worsened by immigration enforcement;[12][13] input-cost volatility in ready-mix, rebar/steel, and diesel, with cement tariffs adding pressure;[11] thin margins / no pricing power; weather and site conditions; payment and counterparty risk (retainage, slow pay, GC or developer insolvency); safety and warranty liability (silica, trench collapse, latent foundation defects);[14][15] customer and project concentration; substitution by precast/prefabrication; M&A integration risk in roll-ups;[30] and a public-funding cliff if IIJA surface-transportation authorization expires in late 2026.

10. How to invest, and the outlook

Because 23811 equals 238110, the routes are the same. Public-market investors choose proxies, trading directness for liquidity — start with Orion (ORN) and Sterling (STRL) for the closest operating exposure, Concrete Pumping Holdings (BBCP) for pour-volume without bidding risk, the E&C names (TPC, GVA, PRIM) for broader contractor exposure, and the aggregates/cement/ready-mix producers (VMC, MLM, CRH, EXP, KNF) as the most liquid indirect route — always adjusting valuation for the non-concrete businesses.[21][22][23][24][29] Private investors — where the industry genuinely lives — own or operate regional contractors, back or build PE roll-up platforms, buy into ESOP-style models, or provide equipment leasing and private credit; the best targets have strong local relationships, disciplined job-cost accounting, clean safety records, adequate bonding, and a succession plan. The trade rewards hands-on operators, not passive capital.

Near-term outlook: a fragmented, cyclical, labor-scarce business that is unusually bifurcated into 2026 — strong demand for firms levered to data centers, power, and large commercial structural work; a rate-dependent, gradual recovery for those levered to single-family housing; and cooling manufacturing-megaproject concrete — with a deep skilled-labor shortage and volatile cement/steel costs favoring the larger, better-capitalized, more productive operators.[7][8][9][10]

For everything on this page in full depth, see the child primer: NAICS 238110 — Poured Concrete Foundation and Structure Contractors.

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Sources

1. U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns (2023): NAICS 238110 — establishments, employment, annual and first-quarter payroll. https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp.html
2. U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census — Concentration & Receipts, NAICS 238110 (firms, receipts, CR4/CR8/CR20/CR50, HHI). https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/economic-census/year/2022/data.html
3. U.S. Small Business Administration, Table of Small Business Size Standards (2023), NAICS 238110 = $19 million. https://www.sba.gov/document/support-table-size-standards
4. U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 NAICS — 238110 Poured Concrete Foundation and Structure Contractors, Definition. https://www.census.gov/naics/?details=238110&year=2022
5. U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 NAICS — Specialty Trade Contractors (Subsector 238), scope and cross-references. https://www.census.gov/naics/?details=238&year=2022
6. U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns Methodology and Nonemployer Statistics (coverage of businesses without paid employees). https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp/technical-documentation/methodology.html
7. U.S. Census Bureau, Monthly New Residential Construction, June 2026 — housing starts (SAAR). https://www.census.gov/construction/nrc/current/index.html
8. U.S. Census Bureau, Monthly Construction Spending, May 2026 — residential/nonresidential/public. https://www.census.gov/construction/c30/current/index.html
9. U.S. Department of Energy, Report Evaluating Increase in Electricity Demand from Data Centers (2024) — 176 TWh (2023); 325–580 TWh (2028). https://www.energy.gov/articles/doe-releases-new-report-evaluating-increase-electricity-demand-data-centers
10. Associated General Contractors of America, 2026 Construction Industry Outlook. https://news.agc.org/economics/2026-construction-industry-outlook/
11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Producer Price Index — Ready-Mix Concrete and Related Products; Gordian, Concrete Cost Updates (cement tariff impact). https://www.bls.gov/ppi/
12. Associated Builders and Contractors, 2026 Construction Workforce Shortage (~349,000 additional workers needed). https://www.abc.org/News-Media/News-Releases
13. Associated General Contractors of America / Construction Dive, Workforce Shortages and Immigration Enforcement as a Cause of Project Delays (2025). https://www.agc.org/news
14. U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Respirable Crystalline Silica — Construction, 29 CFR 1926.1153. https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/regulations/standardnumber/1926/1926.1153
15. U.S. OSHA, Concrete and Masonry Construction (29 CFR 1926 Subpart Q) and Excavations (Subpart P). https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/regulations/standardnumber/1926
16. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Stormwater Discharges from Construction Activities (NPDES) and concrete-washout guidance. https://www.epa.gov/npdes/stormwater-discharges-construction-activities
17. International Code Council, 2024 International Building Code, Chapter 19: Concrete (references ACI 318). https://codes.iccsafe.org/content/IBC2024V1.0/chapter-19-concrete
18. U.S. Department of Labor, Davis-Bacon and Related Acts. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/government-contracts/construction
19. Baker Construction, Baker Named ENR's #1 Concrete Contractor for the 17th Consecutive Year (2025). https://bakerconstruction.com/
20. Siteline, Top Concrete Contractors (2025) — private-firm revenue and headquarters. https://www.siteline.com/blog/top-concrete-contractors
21. Orion Group Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: ORN), Form 10-K and Investor Relations — Concrete segment. https://www.oriongroupholdingsinc.com/
22. Sterling Infrastructure, Inc. (Nasdaq: STRL), Building Solutions / Form 10-K (Tealstone, Drake Concrete). https://www.strlco.com/what-we-do/building-solutions/
23. Concrete Pumping Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: BBCP), Form 10-K / Investor Relations — segments, fleet, ~1,000-participant U.S. pumping market. https://ir.concretepumpingholdings.com/
24. Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE: GVA), Form 10-K / Investor Relations. https://investor.graniteconstruction.com/
25. Tutor Perini Corporation (NYSE: TPC), Form 10-K / Investor Relations. https://www.tutorperini.com/
26. Lithko Contracting / The Pritzker Organization — platform ownership and acquisition strategy. https://lithko.com/inside-lithko/
27. Clayco / Concrete Strategies — integrated self-perform concrete subsidiary. https://claycorp.com/
28. Employee-owned self-perform builders: DPR Construction (https://www.dpr.com/), PCL Construction (https://www.pcl.com/), McCarthy Building Companies (https://www.mccarthy.com/).
29. Cemnet, Vulcan Materials Completes Acquisition of U.S. Concrete (2021); Pit & Quarry, producer results and ready-mix divestitures. https://www.cemnet.com/News/story/171315/vulcan-materials-co-completes-acquisition-of-us-concrete.html
30. Construction Dive / Capstone Partners, Construction M&A and Private-Equity Roll-Up Activity, 2024–2025. https://www.constructiondive.com/news/private-equity-risk-construction-affiliated-contractors/822534/
31. HomeGuide, How to Price Concrete Jobs (per-square-foot pricing); Foundation Software, What Profit Margin Should Construction Companies Aim For? (gross/net margin ranges). https://homeguide.com/articles/how-to-price-concrete-jobs