SBA loans for other foundation, structure and building exterior contractors

A residual code, so the lender starts by asking what you build

NAICS 238190 is the census's catch-all for structural and exterior trades that are not poured concrete, structural steel, framing, masonry, glazing, roofing or siding. Those trades have codes of their own, and pages here: poured concrete, structural steel and precast, masonry, framing and siding. What lands in 238190 is a mix, and an underwriter cannot read the file from the code. The first page of a good package says in plain words what the company installs, for whom, and how it gets paid.

The distinction decides which risk the lender is taking. A forming sub lives on a handful of general contractors and waits for retainage; an awning shop collects deposits and carries fabrication inventory; a repair contractor carries warranty tails.

What SBA lenders approved

The 306 approvals total $120,904,300. The middle half of loans ran from $50,000 to $357,500, and the 90th percentile was $996,250, so nine in ten loans were under a million dollars. Thirty loans (9.8%) were $1 million or more.

The median company supported 4 jobs, and franchises were 2.9% of loans. The median term was 120 months, the ten-year maximum for working capital and goodwill. The 21 SBA 504 loans, median $487,000, financed owner-occupied property or long-life equipment, such as a shop or a yard; see SBA 7(a) vs 504.

Why so many Express loans, and what they cost

SBA Express loans go up to $500,000 and carry a 50% guaranty, and the lender decides them on its own credit process. For a contractor who needs money to carry payroll and materials between progress billings, Express is often what a bank offers first, and the industry's middle half, topping out at $357,500, fits inside it.

The median loan, $150,000, sits exactly on the line where a standard 7(a) guaranty drops from 85% to 75%. But on an Express loan the guaranty is 50% at any size, so the lender carries half the loss. That, and SBA's wider rate caps on small loans (the base rate plus 6% from $50,001 to $250,000, against plus 3% above $350,000), helps explain why the trade's median rate sits at 10.5% while its larger acquisition loans priced at 9.75%. The rate table on SBA loan rates shows where lenders price across the caps.

A contractor whose need comes and goes with jobs may be better served by a revolving line or contract financing than by a ten-year term loan. See lines of credit for contractors, contract financing and SBA CAPLines.

Receivables, retainage and bonding

Collateral in this trade is thin for the revenue it produces: trucks, forming systems, welding rigs and small equipment, plus what customers owe. SBA lenders do not decline for lack of collateral alone, but they take what is available, and every owner of 20% or more personally guarantees the loan. The questions that decide the file sit in the receivables.

• Retainage. General contractors often hold back part of every progress billing until the project closes. Lenders treat it as real but slow money and want a schedule of it by project and expected release.
• Pay-when-paid terms. A subcontract that pays only when the owner pays the general contractor moves the owner's credit risk onto the sub. Lenders read the subcontract, not just the aging.
• Concentration. A forming or shoring sub may work for three or four contractors; lenders ask what happens if the largest stops calling. See customer concentration and debt.
• Bonding. A bonding letter showing capacity tells the lender a surety has already reviewed the balance sheet.
• Deposits. Deposits collected for work not yet done are owed back if the job is not performed. Cash that is really deposits is not liquidity.

Hand the lender a work-in-progress schedule that ties to the balance sheet. Contractors who cannot show over- and under-billings by job are read as not knowing their own margins.

Buying a company in this trade

The 36 acquisitions are the reason the dollar total is as large as it is. Their median of $1,006,500 is nearly seven times the industry's median loan and sits above its 90th percentile: in this code, a purchase is a different kind of loan from everything else. At 9.75%, those loans priced below the industry median: at that size they are standard 7(a) loans with the 75% guaranty, above the Express ceiling and under SBA's tightest rate cap.

Three things decide a purchase here. First, the license: many states license the qualifying individual, not the company, and if that person is the seller, the buyer needs a qualified person in place before closing. Second, the seller: in a complete change of ownership the seller may consult for up to 12 months (up to 24 months under SOP 50 10 8.1 from 1 October 2026) but cannot stay on as an owner, officer or employee, so general-contractor relationships have to move to the new owner inside that window. Third, the cycle: from 1 October 2026 a change of ownership must show debt service coverage of 1.25x on historical results, and a year of unusually heavy project work does not carry a price on its own. See financing an acquisition with declining earnings.

The standard rules apply: an equity injection of at least 10% of total project costs, a seller note counting toward half of it only on full standby for the life of the loan, no earnout, and an independent business valuation wherever the amount financed, less appraised real estate and equipment, exceeds $250,000, which most purchases at this size will. From 1 October 2026 every change of ownership also needs financial due diligence. See how SBA 7(a) finances an acquisition and seller notes and full standby.

Preparing the file

SBA's list first: business tax returns for 2–3 years, a P&L and balance sheet with a year-to-date P&L through last month-end, a debt schedule with copies of any notes being refinanced, and personal tax returns and a personal financial statement for each owner of 20% or more. A purchase adds the target's latest full year of figures, never an older year, and the letter of intent.

Then the trade's own evidence: a work-in-progress schedule, signed backlog by customer, an AR aging that shows retainage separately, the subcontract terms for the largest customers, the license and whose name it is in, a bonding letter, certificates of insurance, and an equipment list with what is owned outright. A contractor who has used cash advances to bridge slow-paying jobs should say so up front; SBA will not refinance an active advance, and the route out is described in refinancing cash advances for contractors.

Transparent builds this into a lender package with the work described in plain words and the retainage and backlog laid out job by job. See the package.