Can a brownstone restoration owner make more by scaling crews?
Yes—Brownstone Restoration Service can pay the owner more if added crews stay productive and quality holds. In the researched case, revenue rises from about $1.142 million to $5.546 million as staffing expands from 1 master mason to 3, 1 master carpenter to 2, and apprentices from 0 to 4; EBITDA moves from $66,000 to $2.557 million. The catch is real: more payroll risk, more supervision, more insurance exposure, more cash tied up in jobs, and a bigger reserve need.
Upside drivers
More crews can lift revenue fast.
Higher EBITDA follows scale.
Productivity must stay tight.
Quality protects repeat work.
Owner gets pulled into ops
Shift from craft to estimating.
Spend more time on project control.
Hire and supervise more closely.
Watch cash and reserves daily.
How much revenue does a brownstone restoration business need to pay the owner?
For Brownstone Restoration Service, you should work backward from the owner’s pre-tax pay target, not from revenue alone. First-year known overhead is $392,500 in wage payroll, $234,600 in fixed expenses, and $45,000 in marketing, before any owner draw. Here’s the quick math: at a 70% gross margin, every $100,000 of owner pay needs about $142,857 of extra gross revenue, before reserves and reinvestment.
Revenue floor
$392,500 wage payroll
$234,600 fixed expenses
$45,000 marketing spend
Total known overhead: $672,100
Owner pay math
Work backward from owner pay
$100,000 pay needs $142,857 revenue
That is before reserves and reinvestment
Base model: $1.142 million revenue, $66,000 EBITDA
What costs affect brownstone restoration owner income?
Owner income gets squeezed first by fixed labor: Brownstone Restoration Service can carry $125,000 for a senior project manager, $115,000 for a master mason, $105,000 for a master carpenter, and $47,500 for a half-time preservation consultant, plus $19,550 per month in fixed overhead; see How Increase Brownstone Restoration Service Profits?. Direct job costs then cut margin through 180% specialty materials, 80% niche subcontractors, 30% permits, and 10% project insurance. Estimating mistakes, warranty work, idle crews, and scaffolding delays turn revenue into trapped cash instead of owner income.
Fixed payroll
$125,000 senior PM
$115,000 master mason
$105,000 master carpenter
$47,500 half-time consultant
Margin drains
180% specialty materials
80% niche subcontractors
30% permits
10% project insurance
Want to see the six income drivers?
1
Project Value
$165-$225/hr
Higher billing rates lift revenue on each job before payroll and overhead eat into EBITDA.
2
Project Volume
120-140 hrs/mo
More billable hours per active customer spread fixed costs and push more cash to the owner.
3
Gross Margin
70%-75%
Keeping materials, subcontractors, permits, and insurance in range leaves more pre-tax owner income.
4
Change Orders
$66K-$2.56M
Tighter estimates and faster change orders protect EBITDA and reduce revenue leakage on every job.
5
Crew Productivity
$392K-$995K
If the same payroll produces more billed work, take-home rises without adding headcount as fast.
6
Overhead Reserve
$19.6K/mo
Holding fixed spend near this level and keeping cash above $620K helps protect payback and owner income.
Brownstone Restoration Service Core Six Income Drivers
Average Project Value And Service Mix
Average Project Value
Owner income climbs when the mix shifts from small repair work to bigger facade restoration and full exterior jobs. Here’s the quick math: 160 billable hours at $185 an hour is about $29,600 per facade job in year one, and 180 hours at $225 is about $40,500 in the mature year.
The catch is margin. Interior woodwork at $165 to $205 an hour and ironwork repair at $175 to $215 can still pay well, but larger jobs only help take-home income if scope is tight. Weak estimates can turn premium revenue into rework, slower cash, and profit that never reaches the owner.
Protect the Hourly Mix
Track job type mix, billed hours, and realized rate by service line. If facade jobs are priced above repair-only work but hours slip below plan, the extra revenue may not show up in profit. Use pre-job scope checks, written assumptions, and clear change-order rules before crews start.
Watch for scope creep on full exterior packages. One clean rule: if the work is not in writing, it is not in the price. That protects gross margin, keeps cash moving, and makes owner pay more predictable.
Track realized hourly rate by job
Compare planned vs billed hours
Approve changes before work starts
Review rework on every facade job
1
Annual Completed Project Volume
Annual Completed Project Volume
Completed project volume is the number of projects fully finished and billed in a year. For this kind of work, backlog alone does not pay the owner; cash only turns on when jobs close. In the model, revenue rises from $1,142 million to $2,267 million to $5,546 million as capacity expands, so more profitable completions can lift owner income fast.
The ceiling is operational, not just sales. Permitting, landmark filings, inspections, weather, scaffolding windows, and skilled labor supply can slow completions, and if crews sit idle or jobs stack up unfinished, take-home falls even when signed contracts look strong. Marketing spend also rises from $45,000 to $85,000 while CAC improves from $4,500 to $3,500, so growth has to turn leads into finished work.
Track Starts To Closeouts
Measure signed jobs, started jobs, and completed jobs every month. The gap between started and completed work is trapped cash. If that gap widens, revenue slips, overhead stays in place, and owner pay gets squeezed even with a healthy pipeline.
Track permit lead time, inspection dates, scaffold availability, and crew utilization before booking new work. If a job cannot finish inside the weather and scaffold window, phase it or delay it. That keeps billing on schedule and protects margin on each completed project.
Track completions per crew.
Track weeks from start to closeout.
Track unfinished backlog aging.
Track CAC against completed jobs.
2
Job-Level Gross Margin
Job-Level Gross Margin
Gross margin is the cash left after direct job costs, before overhead and owner pay. The stated first-year direct-cost load is 300% of revenue, split across 180% materials, 80% subcontractors, 30% permits, and 10% project insurance; mature-year direct costs fall to 248%, lifting the stated margin to 752%.
One margin point matters. At the disclosed $5.546 million revenue level, each point of gross margin is about $55,460 before overhead and owner pay. If labor productivity slips, materials waste rises, or scope gets fuzzy, that margin turns into rework and slower cash.
Cut Direct-Cost Leakage
Track job margin by trade, not just by total project. Use quoted materials, subcontractor pricing, permit fees, project insurance, scaffold use, and scope notes to build each estimate, then compare budget to actual on every closeout.
Measure materials by job
Log subcontractor bids
Flag scope changes fast
Allocate scaffolding by job
Review rework weekly
Here’s the quick math: when direct costs stay at the planned 248% to 300% range, more of each billed dollar reaches overhead coverage and owner draw. If change orders are signed late or waste is ignored, the owner pays for that leak through lower take-home income.
3
Estimating And Change Orders
Estimating and Change Orders
Historic facades often hide damaged masonry, failed anchors, rot, and old patchwork, so the estimate has to start with a real inspection, not a guess. Income is won or lost before the first crew day: documented assumptions, contingency allowances, and signed change orders protect the job from turning into unpaid extra scope.
That matters because the model’s first-year EBITDA margin is 58%. With a margin that tight, even small estimating misses can cut owner take-home, and not every overrun can be recovered from the client. Price in direct costs, schedule risk, permits, insurance, and warranty exposure before work starts.
Price the unknowns before work starts
Track the inspection findings, labor hours, material takeoff, subcontractor quotes, permit fees, insurance, and a written contingency. The estimate should show what is included and what triggers a change order, so crews do not start extra scope without signed approval.
Log hidden damage before pricing
Write assumptions into every bid
Require signatures before extra work
Protect schedule risk in the price
If the estimate is vague, the owner funds the gap. Clear scope control keeps revenue collectible and protects cash flow when field conditions change.
4
Crew Productivity And Skilled Labor
Crew Productivity And Skilled Labor
This driver is about how many billable hours trained crews can finish without hurting historic detail. Labor grows from $392,500 in year 1 to $995,000 in the mature year, so payroll helps income only when foremen keep crews productive and rework low. If projects pause, that wage base stays fixed and owner take-home drops fast.
The key inputs are crew utilization, foreman output, apprentice mix, and callback time. One slow crew can turn premium work into dead payroll. One clean one-liner: if the crew is idle, the owner is paying for waiting.
Protect Billable Hours
Track billable hours per foreman, rework hours, and apprentice supervision time. The mature payroll of $995,000 is about $82.9k per month, so even a short gap in work hurts cash. Keep schedules tight around permits, scaffolding windows, inspections, and material delivery so skilled labor stays on site.
Measure billed hours weekly.
Flag rework by crew.
Limit apprentice overload.
Cut idle days between jobs.
Use apprentices to build capacity, but only if quality stays clean. If added labor raises training time, supervision, or callback work faster than it raises output, owner income falls instead of rising. The best crews finish specialized work faster and leave less damage behind.
5
Overhead, Insurance, And Reserves
Fixed Overhead And Cash Reserves
$19,550 per month in fixed overhead means the shop burns $234,600 a year before owner pay. Here’s the quick math: rent, equipment maintenance, general liability insurance, utilities, portfolio work, software, and historic database access all stay due even when jobs slow. In project work, profit can look fine while cash is tied up in work-in-process, so weak reserves can delay or shrink the owner’s draw.
$620,000 of minimum cash by Month 6 is the safety line, not extra profit. It has to cover slow periods, callbacks, project delays, and money trapped in unfinished work. The first-year $45,000 scaffolding and safety systems, $55,000 vehicle, and $35,000 woodworking equipment spend hits cash too, so a healthy P&L still won’t fund paychecks if reserve discipline is loose.
Track Cash Runway, Not Just Revenue
Measure overhead as a share of monthly gross profit and watch reserve days on hand. If overhead stays at $19,550, track whether billings, deposits, and collections refill cash before the next job starts.
Review cash weekly.
Age work-in-process monthly.
Separate reserve cash from profit.
Match insurance renewals to forecasts.
Fund equipment before pay draws.
What this hides: one bad delay or callback can trap cash fast, so the owner should set a floor for reserves before taking distributions.
6
Compare ramp, scale, and mature owner-income scenarios
Owner income scenarios
Income rises as the project mix and margins improve, but the model still needs Month 7 breakeven, 18-month payback, and $620,000 minimum cash.
Compare low, base, and high owner-income cases across ramp, scale, and mature operating years.
Scenario
Low CaseLow Case
Base CaseBase Case
High CaseHigh Case
Launch model
A first-year ramp with $1.142 million revenue and about $66,000 EBITDA.
A scale-year model with $3.128 million revenue and about $1.157 million EBITDA.
A mature-year model with $5.546 million revenue and about $2,557,000 EBITDA.
Typical setup
Year 1 uses $45,000 marketing, $392,500 payroll, and $234,600 fixed overhead, with 70.0% direct margin before breakeven.
Year 3 uses $65,000 marketing and $665,000 payroll, with 72.6% direct margin and a 37.0% EBITDA margin.
Year 5 uses $85,000 marketing and $995,000 payroll, with 75.2% direct margin and a 46.1% EBITDA margin.
Cost drivers
45k marketing
392.5k payroll
234.6k fixed overhead
70.0% direct margin
65k marketing
665k payroll
72.6% direct margin
37.0% EBITDA margin
85k marketing
995k payroll
75.2% direct margin
46.1% EBITDA margin
Owner income rangeBefore owner reserves
$66,000Low Case
$1,157,000Base Case
$2,557,000High Case
Best fit
Use this to stress-test a first-year ramp or slower permit flow.
Use this as the working plan for a normal scale-up.
Use this to test what happens if the shop hits mature capacity.
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Planning note: These scenario ranges are researched planning assumptions, not guaranteed earnings, salary promises, tax advice, or distributions. Month 7 breakeven, 18-month payback, and $620,000 minimum cash still matter.
