Construction Business Loans in Dickinson, ND: Excavators and Materials

Retainage is the part of each progress payment that an owner or a general contractor holds back until the job is finished and accepted. The labor and the material behind that held-back share were paid for weeks earlier, so the money leaves the contractor long before it returns. A business line of credit matches that shape: draw for materials when a phase starts, then pay the line down as the progress payment and, later, the retainage arrive.

Illustration only, invented figures: a framing subcontractor bills $180,000 on a job that carries 10% retainage. The owner keeps $18,000 until the punch list is closed, although the subcontractor's lumber yard and crew were paid in full. The next job needs $26,000 of lumber before its first billing, so a $35,000 line covers the order, and the retainage check pays part of that draw back when it clears.

In 2023 Stark County, ND counted 139 establishments under Construction (NAICS 23), a code that takes in heavy and civil engineering as well as home builders and the trades, and 91 of those 139, or 65.5%, had fewer than five employees (County Business Patterns). With a crew of four, the retainage on one finished job is money the owner cannot put into the next one until the punch list closes.

Two articles pick up where this page stops: one on an operator or owner stretching its payment terms, and one on whether a contractor tries a bank, a credit union or an online lender first.

Equipment financing pays for a machine and takes that machine as collateral, so an excavator secures its own payments. A funding partner can look at the dealer quote, the hours and age of a used unit, and the business's bank statements, and it can set a term close to the years the excavator is expected to dig. The equipment financing page explains down payments, used machines and titles in more detail.

Illustration only, invented figures: an excavating contractor in Stark County, ND prices a used 20-ton excavator at $168,000 and puts $18,000 down. On the $150,000 balance, an annual rate of 9.5% over 60 months gives a monthly payment of $3,150.28. Sixty of those payments total $189,016.80, so the interest over the term is $39,016.80. The payment calculator runs the same math on a real quote.

Specialty Trade Contractors (NAICS 238) held 95 of the county's 139 construction establishments in 2023, and Construction of Buildings (NAICS 236) held 35 (CBP). The excavating trade sits inside the first group under Site Preparation Contractors (NAICS 238910), with 13 Stark County, ND establishments that year.

A heating and air-conditioning crew can carry two costs at the same time: a mini excavator or trencher for underground line runs, and cash kept in the account while it bids larger work, some of which calls for a bond. The machine is an equipment financing question of its own. The cash balance is a working capital question, kept separate so that the machine payment never eats into the money held for the bid.

Illustration only, invented figures: a $58,000 mini excavator financed for 48 months at an annual rate of 10.25% would mean 48 payments of $1,478.00, or $70,944.00 in all.

The trade is a small one in the county. Stark County, ND had 16 establishments under Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors (NAICS 238220) in 2023, and 9 of them had fewer than five employees (CBP). Counted by the ZIP of the physical address, 13 establishments under that code sat in ZIP 58601 (ZBP 2023).

A general contractor can raise two needs in one call: a compact track loader for cleanup and backfill, and the materials bill for the next phase. The loader belongs with equipment financing. The materials go on a line of credit or a working capital advance, so the loader payment and the materials draw stay on separate schedules.

The county's general builders sit under two Census codes. Residential Building Construction (NAICS 2361) had 26 establishments in Stark County, ND in 2023, 22 of them with fewer than five employees, and Nonresidential Building Construction (NAICS 2362) had 9 (CBP). In a separate count, Nonemployer Statistics found 68 residential building businesses with no paid employees in the county in 2024.

The Census Building Permits Survey shows how much new housing those builders had to work on: Stark County, ND authorized 65 new privately owned housing units in 2025, all of them single-unit, after 27 in 2024 and 70 in 2023. More county figures for businesses in Dickinson, ND sit on the city page, and the industries page covers electrical and landscaping crews in short sections.