Framing Contractors (U.S.) — NAICS 23813

This is a short rollup page. NAICS (the North American Industry Classification System) 23813 is a five-digit industry that contains exactly one six-digit national industry, 238130 — so the two levels describe the same set of businesses and the same dollars. For the full treatment of the trade — economics, demand drivers, regulation, the investable universe, and risks — see the child primer for 238130 (Framing Contractors). This page states the level's own ground-truth federal figures and points you down one rung.

1. Overview

Framing contractors build the skeleton of a building — the wood or light-gauge-steel structure of floors, walls, and roofs that everything else (drywall, roofing, windows, finishes) is fastened to. They are specialty-trade subcontractors, hired by a homebuilder, developer, or general contractor to erect the frame and paid by the square foot, by the house, or by the job.[1] It is one of the most labor-intensive trades in construction and one of the most fragmented industries in the entire U.S. economy. Framing sits at the front of the residential-construction cash cycle and is a near-pure play on U.S. homebuilding: when building rises, framers are the first trade on site; when higher interest rates cool it, they feel it first.

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

NAICS is a nested system: each five-digit industry splits into one or more six-digit national industries. Framing Contractors is one of the cases where that split does not actually divide anything — the five-digit code 23813 maps to a single six-digit child, 238130, with no siblings. The United States chose not to subdivide framing into narrower national industries (there is no separate code for, say, wood versus light-gauge-steel framing), so the child inherits the parent's entire scope one-for-one:

Because the mapping is one-to-one, every statistic, company, and dynamic at this level is the same as at 238130. The scope covers structural framing and sheathing "using materials other than structural steel or concrete" — wood framing, cold-formed light-gauge steel framing, post-frame ("pole barn") construction, and on-site fabrication of trusses and components — across new construction, additions, alterations, and repairs.[1] It excludes structural-steel and precast-concrete erection (NAICS 238120), factory truss and component manufacturing (NAICS 321214), the follow-on finishing trades (roofing, drywall, finish carpentry), and the homebuilders that hire framers (NAICS 2361-series).[1] The rest of this page reports the rollup's own figures; for everything else, read 238130.

3. Size (this level's rollup figures)

These are our ground-truth federal statistics for NAICS 23813. They combine 2023 County Business Patterns (CBP) with 2022 Economic Census concentration data and should not be read as a single-year series. Because 23813 has one child, they are identical to the 238130 figures.

This is an atomized industry. Average receipts work out to roughly $2.2 million per firm, the average establishment has about 7 employees, and average payroll runs near $58,000 per worker — all derived from the federal totals above.[2][3] Concentration confirms it: the top four firms (the CR4, or four-firm concentration ratio — the combined revenue share of the largest four) hold just 5.9%, the top eight 9.0%, the top 20 16.0%, and the top 50 only 25.1%. The Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) — a standard concentration measure that runs up to 10,000 — is 20, about as close to textbook perfect competition as any industry in the economy gets.[3]

Undercount caveat. These federal counts capture only employer businesses. CBP excludes the self-employed, businesses without payroll or without an employer identification number, and most government workers, and the Census Bureau does not estimate establishment undercoverage.[5] For framing the bigger gap is the very large population of non-employer framers — self-employed carpenters and small crews with no payroll, plus workers paid as 1099 "independent contractors" or through labor brokers — because ownership here is overwhelmingly small and individual. So the true number of people and micro-businesses doing framing work is materially larger than the ~13,000 firms and ~87,000 payroll employees shown; the output dollar figure is more reliable than the business head-count. Our data for this level do not include non-employer receipts, average contract size, capacity utilization, or industry-specific margins, so those are omitted rather than estimated.

4. Investable universe (where value concentrates)

Since 23813 is identical to 238130, so is the way to invest, and the punch line is the same: there is no large, clean, publicly traded pure-play framing contractor. Virtually the entire industry sits under the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) size standard of $19 million in average annual receipts, so it qualifies almost entirely as small business.[4] Public-market investors therefore buy proxies — the companies that supply framers and the builders that hire them: framing-component and hardware makers such as Builders FirstSource (BLDR), UFP Industries (UFPI), and Simpson Manufacturing (SSD); homebuilders such as D.R. Horton (DHI), Lennar (LEN), PulteGroup (PHM), and NVR (NVR); and lumber/oriented-strand-board producers such as Weyerhaeuser (WY) and Louisiana-Pacific (LPX).[7][8][9] The operating scale actually lives in private hands — distributors and platforms such as US LBM, 84 Lumber, and Carter Lumber, and operators such as US Framing.[15][16][17][19] Because the level is a single child, value concentrates exactly where the 238130 primer describes it — see that page for the full company-by-company map.

5. How the money works

Identical to 238130. Framers are subcontractors selling labor and, on turnkey jobs, materials. Residential framing is bid per square foot of floor area — installed framing typically runs about $8–$16 per square foot, with the labor portion around $4–$10 — and crews are often paid piece-rate (per square foot or per house), tying labor cost to output.[20][21] Margins are thin: gross margins commonly run ~10–20% and net margins are low single digits.[21] The business is asset-light, cyclical, and exposed to lumber-price swings on fixed bids, to retainage and slow-pay risk, and to change-order recovery. See 238130, Section 5, for the full unit economics and the private-buyer diligence checklist.

6. Demand drivers

Same engine as the child: new residential construction (single-family and multifamily starts) is the primary swing factor, followed by repair/remodeling/additions, light commercial, and disaster reconstruction, all filtered through interest and mortgage rates and a chronically short, heavily foreign-born labor supply.[6][22][23][24] Full detail — current starts, permit, mortgage-rate, and labor figures — is in 238130, Section 6.

7. Regulation

Same as the child, and practical rather than sectoral: workplace safety under the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), with fall protection generally required at six feet in residential work; building codes (the International Residential Code and International Building Code) that dictate how frames are fastened and drive demand for engineered connectors; state-by-state permitting and licensing; worker-classification rules (employee vs. independent contractor); and prevailing-wage law (federal Davis-Bacon) on public work.[21][22][24][23] See 238130, Section 7.

8. Consolidation

Same picture: the installation trade is close to perfectly competitive (HHI of 20, CR4 under 6%), so the consequential consolidation is happening above the framers — in factory-made components, where prefabricated truss penetration has climbed to an estimated 30–40% of the market and suppliers such as Builders FirstSource and UFP Industries are rolling up truss and wall-panel producers.[3][7][8][20] On the operator side, corporate owners have picked up individual framers one at a time. Full narrative in 238130, Section 8.

9. Risks

Same as the child, in one list: housing cyclicality and interest rates; labor scarcity and immigration enforcement; lumber-price volatility on fixed bids; thin margins and payment/retainage risk; execution and rework risk; customer concentration; safety and liability in a high-hazard trade; weather and catastrophe risk; gradual substitution as panelization moves labor off-site; and data risk, since employer-based federal statistics undercount owner-operators and no-payroll firms.[5][22][20] See 238130, Section 9.

10. How to invest and the outlook

Because 23813 equals 238130, the routes and the outlook are the child's. Public-market exposure is indirect — component and hardware makers (BLDR, UFPI, SSD) give the closest listed read on framing volumes and benefit from prefabrication taking share; homebuilders (DHI, LEN, PHM, NVR) give demand- side exposure; lumber/OSB producers (WY, LPX) track the raw material.[7][8][9] Private-market exposure is where the industry actually lives: buying, building, or backing a local or regional framing company, running a framing-plus-components platform, or lending against receivables and backlog — almost always at small-business scale given the $19 million SBA size standard.[4] Tickers, dividend yields, and valuation multiples belong to the listed proxies; framing contractors themselves have none. Near-term demand leans soft on the single-family side with mortgage rates near 6.5%, while remodeling is a steadier stabilizer and chronic labor scarcity supports the long-run case for prefabrication.[22][23][24] For the numbers behind that outlook, read 238130.

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Sources

Drawn from the child primer (238130); numbering preserved so cross-references line up.

1. U.S. Census Bureau / NAICS. "2022 NAICS Definition: 238130 Framing Contractors" (scope, inclusions, cross-references). https://www.census.gov/naics/?details=238130&year=2022
2. U.S. Census Bureau. County Business Patterns, 2023 — establishments, paid employees, annual and Q1 payroll for NAICS 238130. https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp.html
3. U.S. Census Bureau. 2022 Economic Census — receipts, firm count, concentration ratios (CR4/CR8/CR20/CR50) and HHI for NAICS 238130. https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/economic-census.html
4. U.S. Small Business Administration. Table of Size Standards (13 CFR 121.201) — NAICS 238130, $19 million average annual receipts. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-13/chapter-I/part-121/section-121.201
5. U.S. Census Bureau. "County Business Patterns Methodology" (coverage and undercount limitations). https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp/technical-documentation/methodology.html
6. IBISWorld. "Wood Framing in the US — Market Size," 2025. https://www.ibisworld.com/united-states/market-size/wood-framing/
7. Builders FirstSource (BLDR). 2025 Form 10-K and revenue history (trusses, wall panels, Ready-Frame; acquisitions). https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001316835&type=10-K
8. UFP Industries / UFP Site Built (UFPI). "Offsite Structural Components." https://ufpsitebuilt.com/
9. Simpson Manufacturing (SSD). "Fourth Quarter and Full-Year 2025 Financial Results." https://www.simpsonmfg.com/investor-relations
10. US LBM. "Our Business" (specialty building-materials distribution; 100+ acquisitions). https://uslbm.com/about/business/
11. 84 Lumber. "About 84 Lumber" (trusses, wall panels, engineered wood). https://www.84lumber.com/about/
12. Carter Lumber. "Trusses & Wall Panels" / "Company Info." https://www.carterlumber.com/manufacturing/trusses-wallpanels
13. US Framing. "US Framing's Expertise in Large Wood Framing Projects" (company-reported scale claim), 2022. https://usframing.com/2022/05/17/introducing-us-framings-expertise-in-large-wood-framing-projects/
14. EB3 Construction. "Framing Labor per Square Foot: Is Your Commercial Bid Reasonable?" 2025. https://blog.eb3construction.com/construction/project-management/framing-labor-per-square-foot-commercial-bid-2/
15. Wexford Insurance. "Framing Contractor Pricing Guide," 2025. https://www.wexfordins.com/post/framing-contractor-pricing-guide
16. U.S. Census Bureau. "Monthly New Residential Construction, June 2026" (starts and permits, SAAR). https://www.census.gov/construction/nrc/current/index.html
17. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED). "30-Year Fixed Rate Mortgage Average in the United States." https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MORTGAGE30US
18. National Association of Home Builders. "2026 Housing Outlook" (remodeling growth). https://www.nahb.org/news-and-economics/press-releases/2026/02/2026-housing-outlook
19. National Association of Home Builders. "Concentration of Immigration in Construction Trades," 2025. https://www.nahb.org/advocacy/industry-issues/labor-and-employment/immigration-reform-is-key-to-building-a-skilled-workforce/concentration-of-immigration-in-construction-trades
20. In Practise. "Builders FirstSource and the US Truss Manufacturing Market," 2025 (truss penetration; BLDR acquisitions). https://inpractise.com/articles/us-truss-manufacturing-market-offsite-fabrication-penetration-rate
21. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). "Fall Protection in Residential Construction" (29 CFR 1926.501(b)(13)); Region 5 framing-contractor enforcement release, 2024. https://www.osha.gov/residential-fall-protection
22. International Code Council. "2024 International Residential Code — Chapter 6, Wall Construction." https://codes.iccsafe.org/content/IRC2024P2/chapter-6-wall-construction
23. U.S. Department of Labor. "Davis-Bacon and Related Acts — Construction." https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/government-contracts/construction
24. U.S. Department of Labor. "Employee or Independent Contractor Classification Under the Fair Labor Standards Act," Federal Register, 2024. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/01/10/2024-00067/employee-or-independent-contractor-classification-under-the-fair-labor-standards-act