Texas Working Capital for Concrete Contractors

Who we see in Texas

Texas concrete work lives on hot schedules and tighter margins than most people see from the outside. In Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, and the I-35 corridor, we fund slab-on-grade homes, warehouse and tilt-wall pads, parking lots, site concrete, repairs after settlement, and fast-turn commercial pours. The buyer is usually an owner-operator, estimator, or office manager trying to keep crews, pump trucks, rebar, and ready-mix moving while a progress draw, retainage, or a new PO is still in the queue.

Most of the requests come from small and mid-sized concrete shops that are already booked and need cash to bridge the gap between mobilization and payment. In Texas that usually means payroll, fuel, formwork, rebar, pump fees, supplier deposits, concrete washout, and the kind of insurance or tax bill that shows up at the same time a crew is waiting on an owner’s inspector. The deal size is usually sized to a single job or a short run of active jobs, not a full recapitalization of the business.

What Texas changes

Texas is a weather-and-permit state. Hot pours, long dry stretches, sudden storms, and Gulf humidity can make scheduling and curing a moving target, especially on exposed slabs, flatwork, and exterior site work. In the coastal and Gulf markets, storm season can wipe out a week of production or push a pour window around an owner’s deadline. On the paperwork side, local building departments, municipal inspectors, and project-specific specs matter more than one clean national template, and mixed-scope work often means coordinating with Texas-licensed electricians, HVAC contractors, or plumbers on the same site. On highway or public work, TxDOT specs can be strict about mix design, testing, and documentation. That is why we look hard at the job file, the draw schedule, and the actual trade sequence, not just the revenue line.

How we structure it

For Texas concrete contractors, working capital usually makes more sense as an unsecured term loan or a revolving line than as a lease. A term loan fits a one-time push: mobilization, a supplier deposit, a payroll bridge, or a burst of backlog growth. A line of credit fits repeating gaps when retainage and progress draws do not line up with your material schedule. Leasing is useful when the spend is really equipment, but it is not the right tool for payroll, fuel, taxes, or a down payment on ready-mix and formwork. Most of these deals are short amortization with weekly or monthly payments, because the point is to match the cash cycle of a job, not stretch it over years.

On the strongest files, pricing can look like SBA-style capital, with 8-11% APR and 2-3% origination, but the exact cost depends on credit, cash flow, and how much of the work is already under contract. We care less about whether the company is busy on paper and more about whether the next few pours are already sold, priced correctly, and close enough to cash in.

What we ask for

If you want SBA-style paper, we usually want at least 24 months in business, a 640+ FICO, 2 to 6 months of bank statements, roughly 1.25x debt service coverage, and no more than about 40 to 45% of gross monthly revenue already committed to debt service. When the file is clean, approval and funding can move in 30 to 45 days, but Texas contractors who wait on missing documents usually slow themselves down more than the lender does.

Have your Texas entity records, EIN, recent business and personal tax returns, AR and AP aging, an open job schedule, signed contracts or subcontracts, insurance certificates, lien waivers, and the local permit or inspection records for the job you want to finance. If your work touches plumbing, HVAC, or electrical scopes, include those subcontractor credentials too. We underwrite the work the way a superintendent does: what is already sold, what still has to be poured, and what still has to be paid before the draw clears.