Painting & Wall Covering Contractors Industry Profile

The US painting and wall covering contractors industry includes more than 30,000 establishments (single-location companies and branches of multi-location companies) with combined annual revenue of about $20 billion. Major companies include FD Thomas, Long Painting, and North American Coatings. The industry is fragmented.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Building construction, renovation, and maintenance drive demand. The profitability of individual companies depends on efficiency of operations. Large companies can have advantages in efficiency by working multiple projects concurrently. Small companies can compete effectively by specializing in unusual or difficult applications and providing superior customer service. The industry is labor-intensive: average annual revenue per worker is about $100,000.

PRODUCTS, OPERATIONS & TECHNOLOGY

Major services are painting the interiors and exteriors of buildings, and installing or removing wallpaper ("paperhanging"). Other services include wall surface preparation and repair. Painters use brushes, rollers, and/or sprayers to apply a base coat of primer and usually two coats of paint. Skilled contractors achieve special finishes by hand or by using paint with texture-creating ingredients like sand. Paperhangers apply sizing to walls and measure and cut wallpaper into long strips. Surface preparation readies walls for paint or wallpaper, typically includes cleaning, and may involve removing old paint and wallpaper. Most painters fill and sand surface irregularities. Many contractors work only on walls that are paint-ready or that require minimal preparation. Job-specific metrics are number of rooms or square footage; for example, a 7-room or 2,000-square-foot home. A common annual ...