Who would buy my plumbing business?

If you are thinking about selling a plumbing business to private equity, start with who actually buys companies your size. At Main Street size, the IBBA's Q4 2025 survey of business brokers found first-time buyers made 46% and serial entrepreneurs 32% of acquisitions. Even in the lower middle market, individuals made 44% of deals and private equity about one fifth. Fulkerson Advisors counted 31 PE-backed groups and their 571 local companies and found they run about 0.9% of US HVAC and plumbing contractor locations, or 1.3% once you add public and other multi-site groups. Most plumbing owners will sell to someone other than a platform.

The headlines tell a different story because they count announced deals, and announced deals are mostly the big ones. Salt Creek Advisory reports that 62.8% of 2026 HVAC, plumbing and electrical deals had a PE-backed buyer. Both things are true. PE is the most active buyer of larger plumbing companies, and individuals and local shops still buy most of the small ones that never make the news.

Which buyers look at a company your size

Size is the first filter. Here is what the published sources say:

BizBuySell's plumbing sales from 2021 to 2025 had a median price of 2.24x seller's discretionary earnings (SDE), on median revenue of $1,174,514. Individual buyers are also capped by the loan: SBA 7(a) loans top out at $5M, and lenders discount builder and home warranty work and check who holds the license.

What this means for you: a $1.5M shop where you hold the only master license and still run calls will mostly hear from individuals and the competitor across town. A $7M service company with three masters on staff, a service manager and $1M of EBITDA can expect add-on buyers too.

Every kind of buyer, side by side

No buyer is right for everyone. Deal terms here are typical patterns, not promises.

A few sourced details behind the table. Since June 2025 the SBA requires a 10% equity injection from the buyer, and a seller note counts toward it only if it sits on full standby for the life of the loan. Lenders also check your numbers against IRS transcripts. Holding companies such as Kingsway and Chisel often pay partly with seller notes and earnouts, and where an earnout paid anything, the median payout was 43 cents on the dollar (SRS Acquiom data via Salt Creek). Salt Creek also notes that 3 of the 6 new plumbing platforms formed since 2025 are commercial: Shore, Green Heron and Broadtree. For the employee and family paths, read selling to employees and selling to family. For every exit path compared, see exit options.

Kingsway's two plumbing purchases

Kingsway Skilled Trades, part of a public company, published the numbers on two plumbing buys, which is rare. Southside Plumbing had $4.0M of revenue and $0.9M of adjusted EBITDA. M.L.C. Plumbing, which does business as Bud's Plumbing in Evansville, Indiana, had $6.0M of revenue and $0.8M of adjusted EBITDA and sold for $5.0M plus a working capital adjustment, funded with cash and a $1.25M seller note. Its president stays for a one-year transition. That price works out to about 6.25x adjusted EBITDA. Across its plumbing buys, Salt Creek puts Kingsway's base prices at 5.0x to 6.25x EBITDA, with 71% to 86% in cash at closing.

Two lessons for a smaller owner. First, those are companies with $0.8M to $0.9M of adjusted EBITDA and managers in place, so the multiple does not carry over to a $1.5M shop priced on SDE. Second, part of the price was not cash at closing. Ask any buyer how much you get on closing day.

Active platforms we track

These groups buy plumbing companies, and most also buy HVAC and electrical. Facts are as stated on the cited pages. Location counts come from Fulkerson unless noted.

Backers and location counts for TurnPoint, Heartland, Redwood, Legacy, Leap and Service Experts are from Fulkerson Advisors. Southern Home Services' backer is from Salt Creek Advisory.

What some of them say they want, on those pages:

• Redwood: 100% residential, non-new-construction HVAC, plumbing and electrical, and owners keep some equity.
• TurnPoint: residential and light commercial maintenance, repair and replacement.
• Sila: HVAC, plumbing and electrical, with key people kept on.
• Kingsway: asset-light, recurring revenue and a leading local position.
• Leap: a 45-day process, with offers that can include money up front and substantial earnouts.

Platforms publish what they want too. Salt Creek lists criteria such as 10 or more full-time technicians (PipeDreams), 30% or more recurring revenue (Ridge and Valley) and 20% EBITDA margins (National Mechanical Services). Redwood's purchase of Sierra came with more than 19,000 service agreements. A listing here is not an endorsement, and a platform active in your state does not mean it wants your company.

Where plumbing buyers are busiest

The Midwest is the active zone right now. Salt Creek found that at least 9 of 34 plumbing deals announced from January 2025 to October 2026 included a Midwest company (Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Nebraska). Indiana has the highest share of PE-backed HVAC and plumbing contractors of any state, 1.8%, and Chicago drew three platform buyers from August 2025 to March 2026, per Salt Creek. More bidders nearby usually means more than one offer to compare. See the Illinois and Ohio pages for local detail.

The Southeast and Texas are where new commercial plumbing platforms formed, in Sarasota, Houston, Durham and Tampa Bay, so commercial service companies there have more buyers. See Florida, Texas and North Carolina.

Union shops have a narrower pool. This is our view, not a published figure: in heavily unionized commercial markets such as Chicago, New York and Boston, union commercial shops mostly sell to mechanical strategics or to their own employees through an ESOP. Residential platforms rarely buy union shops. If you run a union shop, plan earlier and look hard at the employee and strategic paths. See New York and Massachusetts.

Rural shops usually sell to an individual or a nearby competitor at Main Street SDE multiples (also our view). That is a fine outcome if you plan for it.

Should you answer that letter?

Usually it costs nothing to listen, and it costs a lot to sign something early. A letter means a platform is building a list in your area. It is not an offer. Before you reply, know your earnings, who holds the license after you leave, and what you want after the sale: stay, leave or keep some ownership. Then you can ask good questions and say "not now" without guessing. Our guide to answering private equity outreach explains what a first call, an indication of interest and a letter of intent look like. If you want a starting number first, the free plumbing estimate takes about 5 minutes.

What happens to your people and customers

Owners ask this more than anything else. One plumbing owner put it plainly in a public thread: sell to someone local who will keep it going, not private equity. We did not find published data on what happens to prices, plumber pay or customers after a PE purchase, so we will not guess. What the sources do say:

• PE platforms and add-ons that run several trades want one call center serving every home need and count on selling HVAC and electrical to your customers, per Raincatcher. Salt Creek notes that PE buyers weigh your brand and reviews when they keep the local name. Ask about pay plans, benefits and sales targets for your plumbers.
• Individual buyers usually keep things as they are at first and need you around to hand over customers and the license.
• Local competitors may fold your crews and office into theirs. Ask early what happens to your office staff.
• Employees and family keep the culture, but only if the price and the license plan work.

Whoever buys, put the people terms in writing: who stays, at what pay, and any retention bonuses tied to the sale. A buyer who cannot tell whether your masters will stay will price that risk, so this protects your price too.

Sources

1. PR Newswire, IBBA and M&A Source Market Pulse Q4 2025
2. Fulkerson Advisors, Private Equity in HVAC and Plumbing: 0.9% of Contractors
3. Salt Creek Advisory, Who Buys Plumbing Companies in 2026
4. Salt Creek Advisory, Who Buys HVAC Companies in 2026
5. BizBuySell, Plumbing Business Valuation Multiples and Financial Benchmarks
6. Raincatcher, Private Equity in Plumbing
7. Midas Partners, Financing a plumbing company acquisition
8. CapBench, SBA SOP 50 10 8 rule changes 2025 to 2026
9. Nasdaq, Kingsway Announces Acquisition of Southside Plumbing
10. Newswire, Kingsway Announces $5.0 Million Acquisition of M.L.C. Plumbing LLC
11. Business Wire, Apex Service Partners and Alpine Investors, Apollo minority investment
12. Wrench Group, Brands
13. Sila Services
14. TurnPoint Services, Grow Your Business
15. Heartland Home Services, Business Owners
16. Redwood Services
17. Legacy Service Partners
18. Leap Partners, Our Process
19. Southern Home Services, One Company. One Team.
20. Reddit r/Plumbing, Looking to sell company in MA. How?