If you’re looking to diversify in 2026, starting a concrete lifting business may sound enticing. However, it involves more of an investment than just buying a truck. Professional concrete lifting businesses require real liquidity to manage high startup and recurring costs.

This guide details the startup costs for a full polyurethane rig setup and explores how you can maximize your concrete lifting profit margins.

Concrete Lifting Polyurethane Business Startup Cost

Traditional mudjacking is a common method, but investing in polyurethane foam jacking offers numerous long-term advantages. While the initial investment might be higher, polyurethane’s durability, precision and lighter weight often lead to greater customer satisfaction and higher profit margins.

There are various costs you need to consider when starting a polyurethane business, including:

• Truck: You’ll need a suitable vehicle to mount a rig or pull a trailer, such as a van or a pickup truck.
• Rig: Quality polyurethane equipment is specialized. There are proprietary tools, like foam injection guns, which are worth investing in to ensure precision and efficiency.
• Training: Taking a class can teach you everything from estimating and bidding on jobs to maintaining equipment. A two-day discovery training seminar is $595.
• Initial materials: The cost of materials is around $2.30 per pound, but may vary.
• Administrative: Factor in accounting costs, phone bills and other necessary admin expenses.
• Marketing launch: To find jobs, you need leads. Spending around 5% of your total revenue on marketing is a good place to start.

The table below shows industry estimates for what you can expect to pay to start a concrete lifting business using a polyurethane rig. The bottom line is that the startup costs are high. However, this business isn’t a side hustle. Starting a polyurethane concrete lifting business requires serious capital.

The costs are based on a standard work year of 200 working days, to account for some downtime. Assuming you can get four jobs a day, making $1,200 per job, you’ll make $4,800 in revenue a day.

With these costs in mind, your first year in a concrete lifting business could set you back around $96,000 at a daily cost of $480 across 200 working days.

This initial outlay often focuses on getting equipped for common, entry-level projects. For a startup, typical projects would primarily involve residential work like lifting sunken driveways, sidewalks, patios and garage floors, as well as smaller commercial slabs creating trip hazards.

While your business might eventually scale to tackle more complex challenges like foundations or infrastructure, that kind of growth typically happens after gaining significant experience and capital.

Recurring Costs

Recurring costs can also affect concrete lifting profit margins. In addition to general liability insurance, you’ll need pollution or environmental riders, since you’re injecting material into the ground. This specialized insurance can be higher than standard contractor insurance.

You also need to monitor your customer acquisition cost. Buying a polyurethane rig setup and paying for an initial marketing campaign is just the start. You have to budget for local ads and lead generation as a monthly cost. In areas with more competitors or during busier seasons, you may need to scale your marketing costs to compete.

Your cost of goods sold is another variable to consider. While a job could hypothetically bill for $1,500, you have to account for the $200 to $300 in chemical materials used.

Another high recurring cost is salary. If you’re an owner-operator, you can lower your overhead by doing all the work yourself. But if you’re running a crew or plan to scale up in the future, you’ll need to factor in regular wages.