Brookharbor Lenders in Charleston, West Virginia passes funding requests from Kanawha County builders and specialty trades to funding partners. This page covers progress payments, equipment, lender choices, retainage, county contractor counts and the records a partner may read.
At a glance
- Construction employers
Construction, Kanawha County, WV: 319 employer establishments (CBP 2023)
- Specialty trade contractors
Specialty trade contractors, Kanawha County, WV: 208 employer establishments (CBP 2023)
- Construction payroll
Construction, Kanawha County, WV: about $268.4 million annual payroll (CBP 2023)
Contractor Business Loans for Kanawha County, WV Crews Waiting on Progress Payments
A subcontractor on a commercial job bills monthly through pay applications, and the general contractor pays after the owner pays it. In between, the crew is paid weekly and suppliers want their money on their own terms. The gap can run for several weeks on every pay cycle.
A contractor business loan sized to that gap, or a line of credit drawn and repaid each cycle, carries the crew through it. A partner will want the contract, the schedule of values and the payment history on similar jobs, because the strength of the request depends on who is paying and how reliably.
Construction Equipment Financing for Excavators, Lifts and Trailers
Excavators, skid steers and compact track loaders, scissor and boom lifts, trailers and work trucks are the core of a construction equipment request. The machine usually secures its own loan or lease, and a partner looks at its price, age and hours if used, and how much work the contractor has lined up for it.
Site preparation contractors alone had 35 employer establishments in Kanawha County, WV in 2023 (County Business Patterns). Loans and leases for machines are explained on the equipment financing page.
Financing Companies for Contractors Versus a Charleston, WV Bank
Banks and credit unions lend to contractors, often with a relationship that includes a line of credit and an equipment loan. Equipment finance companies and dealer programs focus on the machine. Online lenders and funding services can review requests outside a banking relationship.
The differences are in what each reads and how it prices the risk. A bank may want years of financial statements and a bonding history; an equipment lender may focus on the machine and the contractor's backlog. The West Virginia lender types guide sets the same lenders against one another.
Bonding, Retainage and Payroll: Where Contractor Cash Gets Tied Up
Contractor cash gets tied up in three places. Retainage holds back a percentage of each pay application until the work is accepted. Bonding requirements can call for collateral or working capital that the surety wants to see. And payroll runs every week whether or not a pay application has cleared.
Each is predictable once a contract is signed, so the funding can be sized from the contract: list the expected pay dates, the retainage held and the weekly payroll, and the gap shows itself.
Builders, Specialty Trades and Heavy Civil Firms in the Kanawha County, WV Count
County Business Patterns counted 319 construction employer establishments in Kanawha County, WV in 2023, with 3,529 employees and an annual payroll of about $268.4 million; 156 of them, or 48.9%, had fewer than five employees.
| Group (NAICS) | Employer establishments |
|---|---|
| Construction of buildings (236) | 93 |
| Residential building construction (2361) | 73 |
| Residential remodelers (236118) | 49 |
| Nonresidential building construction (2362) | 20 |
| Specialty trade contractors (238) | 208 |
| Building equipment contractors (2382) | 96 |
| Plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors (238220) | 46 |
| Electrical contractors (238210) | 41 |
| Site preparation contractors (238910) | 35 |
| Heavy and civil engineering construction (237, our arithmetic) | 18 |
Rows are nested: residential remodelers are part of residential building construction, which is part of construction of buildings. The heavy and civil figure is our arithmetic, the sector total less the other two groups. The Building Permits Survey counted 97 new housing units authorized in the county in 2025, 93 of them in single-unit buildings.
An Invented Retainage Gap on a Commercial Tenant Finish in Charleston, WV
Illustration only, invented figures: a specialty contractor in Charleston, WV signs a $180,000 tenant-finish contract with 10% retainage. In this invented case, over four monthly pay applications, $18,000 is held back until the owner accepts the work, while the contractor pays its crew and suppliers in full.
In this invented case the contractor draws $18,000 on a line of credit to cover the retainage and repays it when the final payment arrives. If the line costs an invented annual rate of 12% and the retainage is held for three months after completion, the interest is about $540 (our arithmetic, simple monthly interest).
Pay Applications, Lien Waivers and Backlog Reports a Partner May Want
- Signed contracts and schedules of values for current work.
- Recent pay applications and the dates each was paid.
- A receivables aging that shows retainage separately.
- Lien waivers issued and received, if the partner asks.
- A backlog report: contracts signed but not yet billed.
- Machine quotes, plus hours and serial numbers if the machine is used.
A partner may ask for only some of these. Pull them together once a partner says which it needs.
By Brookharbor Lenders · Updated