Buying a Drywall Business
Why Searchers Target Drywall and Insulation
It is the most labor-intensive trade on this shelf and the least asset-backed: payroll runs a quarter of receipts, materials the lowest share of the six, and gross depreciable assets about fourteen percent. There is nothing here but people, trucks and a schedule, which is a hard business to differentiate and a cheap one to enter. What holds a good one together is crews that hit a finish level consistently and a general contractor who has stopped shopping the trade, and both of those are worth reading before the price.
What the Market Pays
No publisher prices this trade, and this guide says so instead of reaching. The band used here comes from sold listings in the building and construction class, 1.81x to 3.13x owner earnings with the middle at 2.43x, and that class scope sentence never names drywall or insulation. The nearest advisory reference is a general construction band from an appraisal firm, a wider population still. Watch for a dedicated page opening at the sold-listing publisher, because none exists today and that is the fact to recheck.
Bought Rarely, and at Size
Forty-eight change-of-ownership loans were approved in this trade across the federal file's five-year window, the thinnest flow of the six, at a median of $896,000, the largest median of the six. Read those two numbers together: this trade is bought seldom and, when it is, it is bought big. The practical consequence lands on the appraisal, because comparable transaction evidence will be scarce and a lender leaning on comparables will have thin ground to stand on.
Two Licenses, or None at All
Florida repealed its gypsum drywall specialty certification in May 2024 after thirty-five years, in the same rulemaking that removed glass and glazing, so anything written before mid-2024 about licensure there is wrong. California splits one federal industry into two licenses, one for drywall and one for insulation and acoustical, and a company doing both needs both. Nevada buries drywall in three different subclassifications and insulation in three more, so the license is read by its subclassification letter and not its number. Virginia names both as specialties and excludes mechanical insulation from one.
What to Verify in Diligence
Two of these are compliance artifacts nobody thinks of as diligence, and both are the cleanest record this trade produces.
- Loose-fill insulation receipts, checked for the bag count the federal rule requires on each one
- The finish level named in the last ten subcontracts, against what the punch lists actually asked for
- Fire-rated work by design number, and whether the assembly as built matches it
- Schedule of values and percent complete on every open job, billed line against cost line
- Whether spray foam formulations and equipment have moved to the current blowing agents
Financeability Notes
With payroll at a quarter of receipts, materials at thirty percent and almost no equipment, there is little collateral here beyond receivables and a few trucks, which pushes a lender onto cash flow and personal guarantees from anyone holding a fifth of the company or more. Nearly half the revenue arrives as a subcontract from another contractor, paid through pay applications behind retainage, so the buyer funds labor for weeks before a draw clears. That combination, the lowest collateral and the longest funding gap on this shelf, makes working capital the credit question and not the price.
Terms in This Industry
R-value disclosure
The receipt an insulation installer must hand every customer, and what has to be on it.
Level of finish
The contracted quality standard for taped gypsum board, from a bare fire-taped joint to a skim coat.
Fire-rated assembly
The tested build recipe, identified by a design number, that a rated wall must reproduce exactly.
Blowing agent transition
The federally mandated change in what spray polyurethane foam is blown with.
Schedule of values
The line-item breakdown a subcontractor submits with each payment application.
What the Data Says
20,760 establishments employed 250,758 people in 2023, and the 426 establishments with 100 or more employees, 2.1 percent of the trade, held 34.1 percent of the workforce.
Source: US Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023 (NAICS 238310)
$57.79 billion in receipts across 20,226 establishments in 2022, an average of $2,857,276 each, with payroll at 25.3 percent of receipts and materials at 30.4 percent, and 42.8 percent of receipts subcontracted in from other contractors.
Source: US Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census (NAICS 238310)
Four occupations cover this one trade and the spread inside it is the trade's margin: drywall and ceiling tile installers at 83,080 employed and a $58,930 median, tapers at 12,840 and $68,270, insulation workers for floor, ceiling and wall at 44,440 and $49,120, and mechanical insulation workers at 25,660 and $58,340.
Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025 (SOC 47-2081, 47-2082, 47-2131, 47-2132)
Enter earnings to apply this industry's cited band.
A sanity check against asking prices, not a valuation.
Holding a live deal in this industry? Underwrite it with the comps, cited band, and charge-off rate pre-loaded.
Compare bands across industries in the cited multiple bands by industry.
Who Else Is Buying in This Industry
No consolidator is confirmed in this trade from a primary source. Silence means unverified, not uncontested: check the current list before assuming a quiet market.
Buyers is the shelf these come from, ordered by who closed something most recently.
What It Costs to Replace the Owner
The multiples above are quoted on SDE, which adds the owner's pay back into earnings, so they hold only if you do the owner's job. Hire someone instead and the going rate for the role comes back out. For this trade that is usually the lead who runs the trade crews, paid a median of $79,920 a year nationally. Subtract it from SDE before applying any multiple, because at a 3x multiple that wage also takes about $239,760 off what the business is worth to you.
First-line supervisors of construction trades and extraction workers, BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (2025), national, all industries, before payroll taxes and benefits. Every role, and the same arithmetic worked end to end, is in Manager Wages.
The Numbers That Run This Business
- Subcontracted-in share of revenue
- Board hung per crew day
- Finish level delivered against finish level bid
- Taper hours as a share of total labor
- Percent complete against percent billed