HVAC and Plumbing Company
Valuation Multiples (2026)

How HVAC and plumbing companies are priced: SDE versus EBITDA

Two different earnings measures drive trade-company valuations, and mixing them up is the most common way an owner misreads a multiple.

Seller's discretionary earnings (SDE) starts with pre-tax profit and adds back the full compensation of one working owner, plus interest, depreciation, amortization and personal or one-time expenses. It assumes the buyer will step into the owner's role. Brokers use it for small shops.

Adjusted EBITDA adds back the same non-operating items but keeps a market-rate salary for whoever runs the business after the sale. Private equity buyers and strategic acquirers price on it because they will hire a manager, not drive a truck.

Because SDE is the larger number for the same company, an SDE multiple is always lower than the EBITDA multiple that produces the same price. The International Business Brokers Association (IBBA) and M&A Source Market Pulse survey switches from SDE to EBITDA at a $2 million purchase price, which shows where business brokers draw the line. For a fuller explanation of both measures, see EBITDA and Business Valuation Basics and EBITDA Add-Backs: A Seller's Guide to What Holds Up.

What the transaction data says, by size

No public dataset with a stated sample gives HVAC-specific or plumbing-specific EBITDA multiples by company size. What exists is a ladder built from different sources, each measuring something slightly different. Read the table from top to bottom as a rough picture of how price rises with size and quality.

Table sources: BizBuySell, IBBA and M&A Source, Schneider Downs, Mercer Capital, Capstone Partners, July 2026, Capstone Partners, October 2026, ServiceMag. All figures are third-party published figures attributed to their sources and are not Salt Creek Advisory valuations.

Owner-operated shops

BizBuySell's HVAC benchmark page reports a median sale of 2.58x SDE for HVAC businesses sold on BizBuySell from 2021 through 2025, with the middle half between 1.99x and 3.33x, and an average of 2.75x over the five years (2.68x in 2025). The typical business in that data is small: a median sale price of $800,000 in 2025 ($750,000 across the five years), and median revenue of about $1.48 million and median owner earnings (SDE) of about $304,000 across 2021 to 2025. These figures cover HVAC businesses sold on, and reported to, BizBuySell, as shown on its page on October 13, 2026; the median revenue and SDE figures are from an archived copy of the page dated June 10, 2026. Measured against revenue, the same sales averaged 0.59x over the five years (0.62x in 2025). Treat them as the anchor for an owner-operated shop with about $1.5 million of revenue, not for a company with a management team.

$2 million to $50 million deals

The IBBA and M&A Source Q2 2026 survey, an advisor survey, covers all industries. It shows about 2.0x SDE under $500,000 of purchase price, 2.8x for $500,000 to $1 million and 3.1x for $1 million to $2 million. Above $2 million it switches to EBITDA: 4.0x for $2 million to $5 million and 5.8x for $5 million to $50 million. Part of the jump from 3.1 to 4.0 is the change of measure, not a change in value. The bands are by purchase price, not revenue.

Private equity middle market

GF Data collects deal terms from private equity firms. Its sample covers private equity deals of $10 million to $500 million in enterprise value, so many $2 million to $10 million revenue companies fall below it. In Schneider Downs' summary of GF Data's Q1 2026 figures, companies valued at $100 million to $250 million traded at 9.0x EBITDA, 3.0 turns higher than companies valued at $10 million to $25 million, which implies about 6.0x. Add-on acquisitions eased to 6.5x trailing EBITDA from 6.9x for full-year 2025. The same summary breaks GF Data's Q1 2026 figures out by industry: business services deals averaged 5.7x EBITDA at $10 million to $25 million of enterprise value, 7.7x at $25 million to $50 million and 7.0x overall, across 25 deals. GF Data's categories do not name HVAC or plumbing, so treat that as a nearby reference, not a trade figure. Mercer Capital's fall 2026 update reports GF Data's all-industry average at 7.0x EBITDA in 2Q26, down from 7.3x in 1Q26, and notes that multiples varied by deal size: about 6.8x for $10 million to $50 million transactions versus about 7.6x for $50 million to $250 million. Mercer does not say which period the size figures cover. These are all-industry figures, and the bands are by deal value, not by revenue or EBITDA.

Sector figures from advisors

Capstone Partners, an investment bank, publishes the most-cited HVAC average. Its July 2026 HVAC services update reports 9.5x EV/EBITDA and 2.0x EV/Revenue from 2024 through mid-2026, down from 13.3x and 2.3x in 2021 to 2023. Capstone reports that broader HVAC valuations averaged 11.4x EV/EBITDA from 2024 through year-to-date 2026, down from 13.4x in 2021 to 2023. Capstone's October 2026 residential services report puts the average for all residential services, including pest control and landscaping, at 12.0x EV/EBITDA over the last twelve months. That is just under Capstone's 12.4x average for the total U.S. M&A market over the same period, so it does not show a home-services premium over the market as a whole.

PKF Investment Banking's summer 2026 HVAC update, which notes a consolidation wave among full-service mechanical and electrical contractors, says HVAC services deal multiples overall “have remained elevated (i.e., north of 10x EBITDA),” particularly for businesses with high revenue visibility, high margins and a large service component. This is an advisor's published view, not deal data, and it gives no size band. PKF also says larger companies typically trade higher and sorts HVAC services deals into EBITDA cutoffs of under $3 million, $3 million to $5 million, $5 million to $10 million, $10 million to $25 million and over $25 million. It does not attach a multiple to each cutoff.

Two disclosed commercial deals

Public companies sometimes disclose enough to calculate a multiple. Limbach Holdings paid an initial $23 million for Consolidated Mechanical, a Kentucky mechanical, plumbing and industrial services firm expected to contribute about $4 million of EBITDA a year, plus up to $2 million in earnouts. That is 5.75x on the initial price, or 6.25x if the earnouts pay in full, by our arithmetic. Limbach then paid $66.1 million at closing for Pioneer Power, a Midwest industrial mechanical contractor expected to contribute about $10 million of adjusted EBITDA from 2026, or about 6.6x forward EBITDA by our arithmetic. Both are commercial and industrial deals, and our multiples use the EBITDA Limbach expects each business to contribute. The releases do not disclose the sellers' trailing earnings, so multiples on past results could be different.

The platform deals at the top

In February 2026 Blackstone agreed to buy Champions Group, which provides home HVAC, plumbing and electrical services. According to Blackstone's announcement, as summarized in Capstone Partners' October 2026 residential services report, the company has about 150,000 active members and more than 1,800 field technicians. Latham & Watkins, which advised the seller, Odyssey Investment Partners, says terms were not disclosed and that Odyssey and management are retaining “a significant minority investment alongside Blackstone,” which is rollover equity at platform scale. Capstone lists the enterprise value at $2.5 billion, about 18.5x EV/EBITDA. Those figures trace to press reports: ServiceMag notes that Bloomberg reported the roughly $2.5 billion value, citing people familiar with the matter, and that Blackstone has not confirmed the multiple. It is an estimate for a national platform, not a benchmark for a regional company.

Why the headline HVAC averages sit above what most owners will see

Capstone's 9.5x and PKF's “north of 10x” are accurate as published, but three mechanics push them above what a $2 million to $75 million revenue company usually receives.

Disclosure bias. Our reading: averages built from deals with disclosed terms overweight public acquirers and large sponsor deals, because small private sales rarely publish terms. Capstone does not publish a deal count or methodology for its average.

Platform versus add-on pricing. Capstone itself says bolt-on acquisitions “typically trade at lower purchase multiples than platform acquisitions.” It counts private equity add-ons as 41.3% of HVAC services deals year to date in its July 2026 update (38 transactions), while new platform creations fell from 10 to nine. Add-ons outnumbered new platform deals 38 to nine, so many owners in this size range will be selling to a platform as an add-on. In Q1 2026, GF Data figures reported by Schneider Downs put all-industry add-on pricing at 6.5x trailing EBITDA, down from 6.9x for 2025. GF Data covers only deals of $10 million or more in enterprise value.

Size. Every dataset above that reports by size shows multiples rising with it. In Schneider Downs' summary of GF Data's Q1 2026 figures, the gap between companies valued at $10 million to $25 million and those valued at $100 million to $250 million is 3.0 turns. Competition rises with size too: in the IBBA and M&A Source Q2 2026 Market Pulse (255 business brokers and M&A advisors reporting 181 transactions, all industries), 87% of deals over $5 million drew at least three offers, and 33% drew 10 or more.

Plumbing company valuation: what the data does and does not show

For small shops there is one plumbing-only figure. BizBuySell plumbing sales from 2021 through 2025 had a median of 2.24x seller's discretionary earnings (SDE), an average of 2.49x and a middle half of 1.66x to 3.15x, as reported by Auxo Capital Advisors. BizBuySell blocks automated access, so this figure comes via an archived copy of Auxo's page dated August 4, 2026. It is slightly below the 2.58x HVAC median on the same marketplace, and it measures small Main Street sales on an SDE basis, not EBITDA. For companies large enough to be priced on EBITDA, we could not find a published plumbing-only multiple from GF Data or PitchBook. Plumbing usually shows up inside combined “HVAC, plumbing and electrical” deal counts and mechanical-contractor figures. The only side-by-side EBITDA numbers come from firms that publish their own ranges.

HVAC versus plumbing side by side

Sources: CT Acquisitions, Main Street Wealth, BizBuySell HVAC, BizBuySell plumbing (via Auxo's archived page), Capstone Partners. These are not Salt Creek Advisory valuations.

Both firms that publish side-by-side EBITDA ranges put plumbing slightly below HVAC, and BizBuySell's small-shop medians point the same way. Treat that as directional, not a measured gap. The economics of plumbing service work can be strong: Roto-Rooter, a national plumbing and drain-cleaning business, reported a 50.4% gross margin and a 21.1% adjusted EBITDA margin for Q2 2026. A small private shop will not match a national operator, but it shows why buyers want drain, repair and replacement work.

What moves a company up or down the range

Service work versus project work

PKF O'Connor Davies' illustrative, qualitative framework for HVAC services companies, which it says is based on its own deal experience, runs from a 5.0x to 6.0x EBITDA column to a 10.0x+ column across many attributes. Attributes such as mostly project work and low earnings visibility or backlog quality push a company toward the low end, while repeatable service work and multi-year earnings visibility push it toward the high end. PKF says a business mix “largely based on project work may push the valuation multiple more toward the low-end of the contemplated range.” It also says preventive service work, “especially if contractually locked in over multiple years, is seen more favorably than lumpy project work,” and values direct-to-owner work above general contractor bid work, because owner-direct revenue includes repair, maintenance and replacement and is less sensitive to the economy. A plumbing or HVAC company that earns most of its profit from new-construction bids for a few builders sits near the low end.

This is about predictability, not always margin. EMCOR reported a 12.5% operating margin in its U.S. mechanical construction and facilities services segment in Q2 2026, against 7.6% in U.S. building services. Buyers pay for revenue they can count on next year.

Memberships and recurring customers

Champions Group, which Blackstone agreed to buy in February 2026 at a reported $2.5 billion enterprise value (about 18.5x EV/EBITDA, per Capstone Partners), runs a membership model with 150,000 active members, per Capstone citing the company's press release. Neither source says how much of that price the membership base explains, so treat a maintenance-agreement premium as a direction, not a number, and be skeptical of any specific “turns” figure attached to it. What Capstone does say is that attractive targets pair non-discretionary recurring revenue with dense routes, stable labor and modern back-office systems.

Owner dependence and the license

Capstone reports that buyers check whether customer relationships and technician retention are “institutionalized within the organization or remain concentrated with the founder,” and that businesses whose relationships transfer cleanly “have commanded premium valuations.” PKF lists owner dependency, license-holder risk and key-man risk as valuation factors.

The license is the trade-specific version of that risk. In Florida, if the only certified or registered qualifying agent leaves, the business has 60 days to employ another and may not take on contracting in the meantime, unless the state grants a temporary certificate that lets it finish incomplete contracts. In Texas, an air conditioning and refrigeration contracting company must notify the state within 30 calendar days when an assigned licensee leaves. Rules vary by state. A buyer will ask who qualifies the business after you step back. See How to Reduce Owner Dependence Before You Sell.

Technicians

Capstone calls qualified labor “a primary growth constraint” and says buyers “have increasingly valued businesses that have institutionalized recruiting, training, and technician retention.” Projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as published on O*NET, show about 40,600 projected job openings for HVAC mechanics and installers and 42,000 for plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters for 2025 to 2035, counting both new jobs and replacements. The TechForce Foundation's 2026 supply-and-demand report estimates that postsecondary HVAC/refrigeration program completions cover about 63.8% of annual demand for HVAC technicians (roughly 41,000 positions a year). A company with a training pipeline and low technician turnover is selling something buyers struggle to build.

Seasonality and working capital

Demand in the residential central air conditioning replacement market is typically highest in the second and third quarters, and demand for heating equipment is usually highest in the first and fourth, according to Watsco's Form 10-K for fiscal 2024. That swing moves receivables and inventory through the year, which matters when the buyer sets a working capital target. Commercial contractors carry another item: on federal construction contracts, retainage withheld from progress payments may not exceed 10% of the approved estimated amount (FAR 32.103), and contracting officers withhold it only when progress is unsatisfactory. See Working Capital Peg in M&A.

Who is buying

Private equity is the largest buyer group, but not a majority, in HVAC services: Capstone's July 2026 update counts 47 deals by financial sponsors and 45 by strategic buyers out of 92 year to date. Apex Service Partners, which describes itself as the nation's largest residential HVAC, plumbing and electrical services business, says it operates 75 local brands across 46 states. Platforms also buy each other's smaller roll-ups: Altas-backed Redwood Services bought the Sierra Platform, adding five partner companies, in May 2026. When Goldman Sachs Alternatives agreed to buy a majority stake in Sila Services in November 2024, the release said Sila management would “retain a significant minority stake.” Keeping a stake like that is what rollover equity looks like in practice.

Public strategic buyers are increasingly active. Capstone's July 2026 update counts 11 HVAC services deals by public strategics year to date, up from five in the same period a year earlier. At the smaller end, individual buyers and search funds often finance with SBA loans, and the SBA 7(a) program caps a loan at $5 million. Stanford GSB's 2026 search fund study reports a $16 million median purchase price for search fund acquisitions in 2024 and 2025, across all industries; see Selling to a Search Fund or Independent Sponsor. For how these buyers differ, see Strategic Buyer vs. Private Equity Buyer and the Best M&A Advisors for HVAC Companies and Best M&A Advisors for Plumbing Companies guides.

How a headline price turns into cash

Private equity offers for home-services companies commonly mix cash with rollover equity and sometimes an earnout. CT Acquisitions, a firm paid mainly by buyers, says cash at close is typically 60% to 80% of total deal value in institutional deals (private equity, family office or strategic) for home services companies with $1 million to $5 million of EBITDA. Across all industries, in mostly smaller deals, the IBBA and M&A Source Q2 2026 survey found that sellers received most of their proceeds at closing, with buyer equity and senior debt making up about 83% to 92% of transaction value.

Earnouts are becoming more common in smaller deals. SRS Acquiom's 2026 study, which covers private-target deals in its own dataset and excludes life sciences, found earnouts in 30% of 2025 lower middle market deals (valued at $50 million or less), up from 23% in 2014 to 2022. Across deals of all sizes with U.S. private equity buyers, the figure was 24%, up from 13%. In SRS Acquiom's 2020 to 2025 lower middle market data, where an earnout paid anything, the median payout was 43 cents on the dollar. Across all earnout deals, including those that paid nothing, SRS Acquiom finds sellers receive roughly one in five potential earnout dollars. If you are holding an offer now, read Someone Wants to Buy My Business: How to Evaluate an Unsolicited Offer and Earnouts, Escrows, and Holdbacks.

A hypothetical worked example

Every figure in this example is invented to show the arithmetic. None is a market benchmark.

Consider a hypothetical residential HVAC and plumbing company with $14 million in revenue and $1,510,000 in reported EBITDA. The owner's pay is $450,000. A general manager to replace the owner would cost $200,000. The books also carry $40,000 of personal vehicle and family expenses and $60,000 of one-time legal fees. The company rents its shop from the owner at $120,000 a year, and market rent is $180,000.

Adjusted EBITDA. $1,510,000 reported EBITDA + $250,000 excess owner pay + $40,000 personal expenses + $60,000 one-time legal fees − $60,000 rent adjustment to market = $1,800,000 adjusted EBITDA.

SDE for comparison. Adding back the $200,000 manager salary gives $2,000,000 of SDE. The same price expressed against SDE is a lower multiple, which is why the two must never be compared directly.

Enterprise value. At a hypothetical 6.0x adjusted EBITDA, enterprise value is $1,800,000 × 6.0 = $10,800,000. That equals 5.4x SDE ($10,800,000 ÷ $2,000,000). Applying Capstone's 9.5x average instead would imply $17,100,000, which is why that figure should not anchor a company of this size.

Equity value. The company has $600,000 of truck and equipment loans paid off at closing, and delivers working capital $150,000 below the agreed target. The owner keeps the company's cash. $10,800,000 − $600,000 − $150,000 = $10,050,000 equity value.

Cash at closing. The buyer structures the deal with a $1,000,000 earnout, $2,000,000 of rollover equity in the buyer's platform and a $500,000 escrow. $10,050,000 − $1,000,000 − $2,000,000 − $500,000 = $6,550,000 cash at closing, before advisory and legal fees and taxes. That is $4,250,000 less than the headline enterprise value, and 61% of it. If the earnout paid out at all, SRS Acquiom's 43-cent lower middle market median for earnouts that paid something would mean about $430,000. It could also pay nothing; at the roughly one in five potential dollars SRS Acquiom finds across all earnouts, it would be about $200,000. The escrow may be released later, and the rollover has value only when the platform sells. For what is left after fees and taxes, see What You Keep After Selling Your Business.

How HVAC and plumbing compare with other sectors

Home-services trades sit inside business services on most buyers' maps; see what business services companies sell for. For other recurring-revenue sectors, compare MSP valuation multiples and manufacturing valuation multiples. For how serial acquirers change negotiating leverage, see how buy-and-build roll-ups work.

Getting a preliminary read on what your company is worth

Salt Creek Advisory is a family-owned investment bank run by brothers Jack Pitts and Connor Pitts, who work directly with owners of companies with about $2 million to $75 million in revenue and roughly $500,000 to $5 million in EBITDA. For standard M&A engagements there is no upfront retainer, and the fee is earned only when a transaction closes.

If you want a starting range before talking to anyone, the Value My Business tool asks a few quick questions and lets you choose residential HVAC, plumbing or a multi-trade shop. It uses the profit figure you enter, or estimates EBITDA from your revenue and an industry margin assumption if you leave profit blank, then applies published industry transaction multiple ranges to give a ballpark range. Those ranges are Salt Creek's working estimates, not the third-party figures cited above, and the result is a directional estimate, not a formal valuation or appraisal. If you are holding an unsolicited offer, a conversation about how it compares with the data above costs nothing and commits you to nothing.

Frequently asked questions

What multiple do HVAC companies sell for? It depends on size and measure. HVAC businesses sold on BizBuySell from 2021 through 2025 went for a median of 2.58x SDE (seller's discretionary earnings), and that data is skewed to very small businesses. Larger companies are priced on adjusted EBITDA. Across all industries, GF Data's Q1 2026 private equity figures, as summarized by Schneider Downs, imply about 6.0x EBITDA for companies valued at $10 million to $25 million (enterprise value, not revenue), and add-ons averaged 6.5x trailing EBITDA. Capstone Partners' published 9.5x EV/EBITDA average for HVAC services deals from 2024 through mid-2026 gives no size band. Because it can only count deals with public terms, it likely leans toward larger transactions.

What is the difference between an SDE multiple and an EBITDA multiple? SDE adds back the full pay of one working owner, while adjusted EBITDA keeps a market-rate manager salary. SDE is the bigger number, so an SDE multiple is lower for the same price. The IBBA survey switches from SDE to EBITDA at a $2 million purchase price.

Do service agreements raise the value of an HVAC or plumbing company? Yes, directionally. PKF Investment Banking's illustrative, qualitative framework spans 5.0x to 6.0x EBITDA at the low end to 10.0x+ at the high end. Business mix is one of many factors in it: mostly project work pushes toward the low end and repeatable service work toward the high end. We found no primary source that puts a specific premium on maintenance agreements, so treat any exact “turns” figure with caution.

What if I hold the master or qualifying license? Buyers treat it as a transfer risk. In Florida, if the only certified or registered qualifying agent leaves, the business has 60 days to employ another and may not take on contracting in the meantime, unless the state grants a temporary certificate that lets it finish incomplete contracts. In Texas, an air conditioning and refrigeration contracting company must notify the state within 30 calendar days when an assigned licensee leaves. Rules vary by state; confirm yours with licensing counsel and plan who will qualify the business after closing.

Do plumbing companies sell for less than HVAC companies? The available figures point that way, but the gap is not measured. On BizBuySell, small plumbing shops sold at a median of 2.24x SDE from 2021 through 2025, against 2.58x for HVAC. Two firms that publish side-by-side EBITDA ranges also put plumbing slightly lower: CT Acquisitions at 4x to 6x EBITDA versus 4x to 7x for HVAC, and Main Street Wealth at 5.5x to 8.8x versus 6.2x to 9.9x. There is no verified plumbing-only EBITDA dataset.

Should I sell to private equity or a strategic buyer? Both are active. In Capstone's July 2026 count of 92 HVAC services deals year to date, financial sponsors did 47, often as add-ons that pay part of the price in rollover equity, and strategic buyers did 45. Public strategic buyers are increasingly active: Capstone counts 11 HVAC services deals by public strategics year to date, up from five in the same period a year earlier. Compare offers by cash at closing and risk retained, not headline multiple.

Why is the 9.5x HVAC average higher than my offer? Capstone's 9.5x is an average of HVAC services deals from 2024 through mid-2026. It gives no size band, and it includes platform deals, which Capstone says trade above bolt-ons. Private equity add-ons were the largest group of HVAC services deals in Capstone's count (41.3%), and add-ons outnumbered new platform deals 38 to nine. GF Data's all-industry add-on average was 6.5x trailing EBITDA in Q1 2026, which is a closer reference for a company being bought as an add-on. GF Data covers only deals of $10 million or more in enterprise value.

How much of the price will I get at closing? Less than the headline. Debt, the working capital adjustment, escrow, rollover equity and any earnout all come out of the price before you see cash at closing. In the hypothetical example above, $6.55 million of a $10.8 million enterprise value arrived as cash at closing.

Are earnouts common in HVAC and plumbing deals? SRS Acquiom found earnouts in 30% of 2025 lower middle market deals (valued at $50 million or less, excluding life sciences). In its 2020 to 2025 lower middle market data, the median earnout paid 43 cents on the dollar where any amount was paid. Counting earnouts that paid nothing, sellers collect roughly one dollar in five. HVAC-specific earnout data is not published.

How long does it take to sell an HVAC or plumbing company? In the IBBA and M&A Source Q2 2026 survey (all industries), Main Street sales averaged six to 10 months from engagement to close, and lower middle market deals 11 to 12 months. The $2 million to $5 million segment lengthened from nine to 11.5 months. Clean financials and a quality of earnings review done before going to market shorten diligence. See How Long to Sell a Business.

How many times revenue is an HVAC company worth? Revenue multiples are a rough cross-check, not how buyers price a deal. HVAC businesses sold on BizBuySell from 2021 through 2025 averaged 0.59x revenue, in data skewed to shops with about $1.5 million of revenue. Capstone Partners' published HVAC services average is 2.0x EV/Revenue for 2024 through mid-2026, with no size band. Two companies with the same revenue but different margins will sell for very different prices, which is why buyers work from SDE or adjusted EBITDA.

Sources

• Capstone Partners, “HVAC Services M&A Update – July 2026”, Jul 27, 2026.
• Capstone Partners, “Private Equity Activity and Valuation Strength Persist in Residential Services M&A” (Residential Services Sector Update), October 2026.
• PKF O'Connor Davies (PKF Investment Banking), “U.S. HVAC M&A Industry Update – Summer 2026”, August 4, 2026.
• Schneider Downs Capital (citing GF Data), “Summer 2026 U.S. Middle Market M&A Review”, Summer 2026.
• Mercer Capital (citing GF Data), “Middle Market Transaction Update – Fall 2026”, Fall 2026.
• IBBA, “Market Pulse Q2 2026 Highlights” (one-page summary of the IBBA / M&A Source Market Pulse Survey), August 2026.
• IBBA and M&A Source via PR Newswire, “The Market Pulse Survey Q2 2026 Reports the Latest Trends in Business Sales up to $50M”, Aug. 25, 2026.
• BizBuySell, “HVAC Business Valuation Multiples & Financial Benchmarks”, accessed October 13, 2026; median revenue and SDE as shown in the web.archive.org copy of June 10, 2026.
• BizBuySell plumbing benchmarks, blocked source, corroborated via Auxo, “Plumbing Company Valuation Multiples | EBITDA & SDE”, updated August 3, 2026; web.archive.org copy of August 4, 2026.
• CT Acquisitions, “Pest Control Valuation Multiples: Why Pest Control Sells for 7-10x”, updated May 7, 2026.
• CT Acquisitions, “How to Sell to Home Services Private Equity”, updated October 12, 2026.
• Main Street Wealth, “Main Street Wealth | M&A Advisory for Home Services”, undated.
• Limbach Holdings, “Limbach Holdings Acquires Consolidated Mechanical”, Dec 2, 2024.
• Limbach Holdings, “Limbach Acquires Pioneer Power”, July 1, 2025.
• Latham & Watkins, “Latham & Watkins Advises Odyssey Investment Partners in Sale of Champions Group to Blackstone”, February 17, 2026.
• ServiceMag, “Blackstone to Buy Orange County's Champions Group in $2.5B Home-Services Deal”, April 21, 2026.
• Chemed Corporation, “Chemed Reports Second-Quarter 2026 Results” (Form 8-K Exhibit 99), July 28, 2026.
• EMCOR Group, “EMCOR Group, Inc. Reports Second Quarter 2026 Results” (Form 8-K Exhibit 99.1), July 30, 2026.
• The Florida Senate, “2025 Florida Statutes § 489.119”, 2025.
• Legal Information Institute, “16 Tex. Admin. Code § 75.71 - Responsibilities of the Contracting Company”, undated.
• O*NET OnLine (citing Bureau of Labor Statistics), “49-9021.00 - Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers”, undated.
• O*NET OnLine (citing Bureau of Labor Statistics), “47-2152.00 - Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters”, undated.
• TechForce Foundation, “Technician Supply, Demand & Opportunity Report” (ninth edition), 2026.
• Watsco, Inc., “Form 10-K for fiscal year 2024”, filed February 2025.
• Acquisition.gov, “FAR 32.103 Progress payments under construction contracts”, undated.
• Apollo, “Apex Service Partners and Alpine Investors Announce Strategic Minority Investment from Apollo Funds in Apex”, May 28, 2026.
• Kirkland & Ellis, “Kirkland Advises Altas-Backed Redwood Services on Acquisition of Sierra Platform from SE Capital”, 05 May 2026.
• Goldman Sachs Asset Management, “Sila Services Announces Equity Investment from Goldman Sachs Alternatives' Private Equity Business”, November 12, 2024.
• U.S. Small Business Administration, “7(a) loans”, undated.
• Stanford Graduate School of Business, “Search Funds Keep Offering a Proven Path to Ownership”, July 13, 2026.
• SRS Acquiom, “2026 M&A Earnout and Milestone Trends”, 2026.