M&A activity snapshot
Plumbing is consolidated mostly as part of multi-trade residential platforms rather than on its own. No public data provider tracks plumbing-only deal counts. The closest series covers the broader category: Houlihan Lokey counted 348 facility and residential services deals in 2024 and 335 through Q3 2025, and says the market is in the nascent stages of consolidation.
Plumbing-first platforms are forming alongside the multi-trade groups. In September 2026, Team First Home Services, a residential plumbing platform backed by Grove Mountain Partners, partnered with Holloway Plumbing in the Texas Hill Country. Earlier in 2026, FoW Partners-backed ResiXperts added Option One Plumbing across California and Arizona.
Who is buying
Multi-trade residential platforms are the largest buyer group. Blackstone agreed to acquire Champions Group, a residential services platform specializing in HVAC, plumbing and electrical services, in February 2026. The Wrench Group, majority-owned by Leonard Green, describes itself as specializing in HVAC, plumbing, water and electrical services. These platforms often add plumbing to existing HVAC brands so one truck network can serve both.
Plumbing-first PE platforms such as Team First buy single-market plumbers and expand by region. Franchise systems own national plumbing brands: Authority Brands acquired Clockwork, the parent of Benjamin Franklin Plumbing, Mister Sparky and One Hour Heating & Air. Small-cap acquirers also buy at the low end: Kingsway Financial bought M.L.C. Plumbing for an enterprise value of $6.3 million in March 2025.
What buyers look for
Buyers want non-discretionary repair work. Houlihan Lokey notes that nondiscretionary services are demonstrating resilient performance given the lower likelihood of voluntary deferrals, even as consumer-facing residential services face organic growth pressure.
Licensing is a structural issue in plumbing. In Texas, a Responsible Master Plumber may act as the master of record for only one company at a time and must carry at least $300,000 of commercial liability coverage. If the selling owner is that license holder, the buyer needs a replacement before close. Specialty certifications add recurring compliance work: Texas backflow testers need a 40-hour training course and renew every three years with 24 hours of continuing education.
Labor depth is the other constraint. O*NET reports 504,500 plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters employed in 2024, with 44,000 projected openings over 2024-2034. Buyers pay for businesses that can recruit and keep licensed technicians.
What makes a strong company
Plumbing businesses that draw platform interest typically show:
- A high share of service and repair revenue (drain, water heater, leak and repipe calls) relative to new-construction rough-in work.
- More than one licensed master plumber, or a non-owner master of record.
- Technicians paid and tracked on per-call metrics such as average ticket and conversion.
- A maintenance or membership program that brings customers back.
- Adjacent lines buyers can extend, such as backflow testing, water treatment or sewer line work.
- No reliance on a single builder or general contractor.
Valuation and deal structure
No public source publishes a plumbing-only multiple. Because most buyers are multi-trade platforms, the closest benchmark is HVAC services, where average multiples settled at 9.5x EV/EBITDA between 2024 and YTD 2026, down from 13.3x in 2021-2023. Capstone adds that buyers have increasingly pursued smaller bolt-on acquisitions that typically trade at lower multiples than platform acquisitions.
For smaller deals, a general lower-middle-market benchmark is more realistic: GF Data's average for $10M-$500M LBOs was 7.2x EBITDA from 2023 to H1 2025, as cited by Cascade Partners. Both are proxies, not plumbing-specific figures.
Rollover is common in platform deals. In the Champions Group transaction, Odyssey and management retained a significant minority investment. No public source tracks earnout or rollover rates for plumbing.
Outlook
Expect continued add-on buying by multi-trade platforms and more plumbing-first platforms forming in regional markets. Lead pipe replacement is a longer-term demand source: EPA requires water systems to identify and replace lead pipes within 10 years, with inventories and replacements due to start by November 1, 2027, and $15 billion in federal funding for replacement projects. That work flows mainly through utilities, so its value to a residential plumber depends on local contracts. Near term, residential services face organic growth pressure, which favors sellers with repair-heavy revenue.
Own a plumbing business? Run the valuation tool or read what buyers look for in detail. Part of Home Services M&A. See also: the search fund deal sourcing playbook.