Plumbing Contractor Revenue by Building Type: Where the Industry’s $298 Billion Comes From

Where the index stands

The Economic Census asks every contractor to break its revenue down by the type of building and the type of work: new construction, additions and alterations, or maintenance and repair. For plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors (NAICS 238220) that produces a map of where the money in the trade actually comes from. The census does not split plumbing from HVAC in this table, so the figures describe the combined industry.

Source: Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census, product lines by industry (ECNNAPCSIND2022), NAICS 238220, all establishments. Grouping of product lines into work types and building classes by The Plumbing Brief from the line labels. Lines too small to publish are excluded, so groups sum to slightly less than the total.

The underlying series, sourced

1. Maintenance and repair of single detached residential buildings: $28.3 billion, 9.5 percent of revenue, reported by 38,239 establishments (33.4 percent); coefficient of variation 3.8 percent. Source: Census Bureau.
2. New single detached residential buildings: $24.5 billion, 8.2 percent of revenue, reported by 27,631 establishments (24.1 percent); coefficient of variation 3.9 percent. Source: Census Bureau.
3. Additions, renovations, and alterations to single detached residential buildings: $15.1 billion, 5.1 percent of revenue, reported by 24,593 establishments (21.5 percent); coefficient of variation 6 percent. Source: Census Bureau.
4. All other new nonresidential buildings: $14.0 billion, 4.7 percent of revenue, reported by 8,355 establishments (7.3 percent); coefficient of variation 5.4 percent. Source: Census Bureau.
5. New apartment buildings (two or more units), excluding condominiums: $11.6 billion, 3.9 percent of revenue, reported by 10,365 establishments (9.1 percent); coefficient of variation 6.9 percent. Source: Census Bureau.
6. New office buildings and data centers: $9.0 billion, 3.0 percent of revenue, reported by 11,566 establishments (10.1 percent); coefficient of variation 4 percent. Source: Census Bureau.
7. Additions, renovations, and alterations to all other nonresidential buildings: $8.7 billion, 2.9 percent of revenue, reported by 6,974 establishments (6.1 percent); coefficient of variation 6.1 percent. Source: Census Bureau.
8. New health care and institutional buildings: $8.6 billion, 2.9 percent of revenue, reported by 7,794 establishments (6.8 percent); coefficient of variation 3.7 percent. Source: Census Bureau.
9. Sewer, septic and related lines (new, alterations and repair): $11.0 billion. Source: calculated from Census Bureau product lines.

Reading the series

How the index is constructed

Repair work is the most widely shared revenue line

Formula. Share of establishments reporting each product line.

Calculation. Maintenance and repair of single-family detached homes is reported by 33.4 percent of establishments, more than any other line; new single-family construction by 24.1 percent.

Finding. Most plumbing and HVAC contractors earn at least some revenue from residential repair, while large commercial project types are concentrated in fewer, bigger firms. Repair is the industry’s common ground.

Limitations. A firm reporting a line may earn only a small share of its revenue from it.

Homes edge out commercial buildings

Formula. Sum of residential building product lines against nonresidential building lines.

Calculation. Residential $151.3 billion (50.8 percent); nonresidential $135.1 billion (45.4 percent).

Finding. Residential work is just over half the industry’s revenue. No single commercial building type comes close to residential repair, but offices, schools, hospitals, warehouses, factories and stores together nearly match the residential total.

Limitations. Some revenue is classified as ‘all other products and services’ or suppressed, and is excluded from both groups.

The number to quote

• Residential work: 51 percent of plumbing and HVAC contractor revenue (2022).
• Maintenance and repair: 29 percent; new construction 37 percent.
• Repair of single-family homes: $28.3 billion, the largest single product line.

Download the data

Every published product line with revenue, establishment counts, coefficients of variation and our work-type and building-class grouping. Published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Attribution: The Plumbing Brief.

Plumbing/HVAC contractor revenue by product line, 2022 Economic Census (CSV)

How this report was built

Methodology

Source. US Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census and 2017 Economic Census, files downloaded from www2.census.gov on 4 October 2026. Product lines by industry dataset ECNNAPCSIND2022, NAICS 238220, US, all establishments, all tax statuses. Lines were grouped by the wording of their labels: ‘maintenance and repair’, ‘additions, renovations, and alterations’, ‘new’; residential where the label names single-family, apartment or condominium buildings.

Derived figures. Shares, growth rates, per-firm and per-employee values are calculated by The Plumbing Brief from the published tables.

Retrieval date. 4 October 2026.

Data limitations

• The Economic Census counts employer establishments only. Businesses with no employees are covered by Nonemployer Statistics, reported separately.
• This table does not split plumbing from HVAC. For that split by contractor type, see our plumbing industry revenue report.
• Product-line revenue is collected from a sample of establishments and carries sampling error; coefficients of variation are published and included in the CSV.
• Grouping into work types depends on label wording and is the publisher’s, not the Census Bureau’s.

Source quality ranking

Tier 1. US Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census (construction sector files EC2223KOB, EC2223BASIC and the firm-size and product-line datasets ECNSIZE2022 and ECNNAPCSIND2022) and the 2017 Economic Census equivalents, downloaded from www2.census.gov.

Tier 2. None used. Tier 3. None used.

Excluded. Paid market-research estimates of plumbing industry size, which do not publish their method and differ widely from one another.

Briefing note

Residential work accounted for 50.8 percent of the $297.6 billion earned by US plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors in 2022, according to product-line data from the Census Bureau’s 2022 Economic Census analysed by The Plumbing Brief. Maintenance and repair of single-family detached homes was the largest single line at $28.3 billion, reported by 33.4 percent of contractors; maintenance and repair of all building types made up 29.3 percent of revenue and new construction 37.4 percent.

Story angles

1. Where plumbing and HVAC money actually comes from
2. Fixing houses is the trade’s biggest business
3. Homes still edge out commercial buildings for plumbing contractors
4. Sewer and septic work: the Census number

Common questions about the index

What share of plumbing work is residential? 50.8 percent of plumbing, heating and AC contractor revenue in 2022 came from residential buildings (Census Bureau).

Do plumbers make more from repair or new construction? Maintenance and repair was 29.3 percent of revenue, new construction 37.4 percent, and additions and alterations 26.5 percent.

What is the biggest revenue source for plumbing contractors? Maintenance and repair of single-family detached homes, $28.3 billion in 2022.

How much revenue comes from sewer and septic work? $11.0 billion across new, alteration and repair lines.

Does this separate plumbing from HVAC? No. The product-line table covers NAICS 238220 as a whole.

How to cite this report

The Plumbing Brief, “Plumbing Contractor Revenue by Building Type: Where the Industry’s $298 Billion Comes From”, https://theplumbingbrief.com/plumbing-contractor-revenue-by-building-type/, accessed [date].

Last reviewed: 2026-10-04.