Every figure on this page links to the organization that produced it, and each was re-checked against that source before publishing. How U.S. painting contractors market themselves and use video, and the evidence behind it: our own read of 129 painting contractor websites, where homeowners research a paint job, how many painting businesses and painters there are and what they earn (including Florida), what homeowners spend, what Sherwin-Williams, Home Depot, Lowe's and the painting franchises report, the EPA lead-paint rule and state licensing, and where the popular painting numbers came from.
Only 20.9% of 129 independent U.S. painting contractor websites we read in November 2026 showed any video; 15.5% linked to a YouTube channel and 68.2% had neither. (Mark Studios)See details
15.5% of those sites showed a before-and-after gallery and 6.2% mentioned EPA lead-safe certification, although HUD estimates 30.9 million pre-1978 homes have lead paint. (Mark Studios; HUD)See details
The U.S. had 41,350 painting and wall covering establishments with employees in 2025, employing 200,369 people; jobs were 4.9% below 2019 (BLS; our calculation). (BLS; Mark Studios)See details
Painters earned a median $49,400 in May 2025, and 31.3% were self-employed, 5.4 times the all-worker rate. (BLS; Mark Studios)See details
Florida had 5,299 painting establishments in 2025, 12.8% of the U.S. total, and its painting jobs rose 31.6% from 2015 (BLS; our calculation). (BLS; Mark Studios)See details
Among U.S. DIYers who researched home improvement on social media in late 2025, 83% used YouTube. (HIRI)See details
Contractors helped with 88% of exterior and 82% of interior paint projects in HIRI's research. (HIRI)See details
The "107% ROI" for painting has no findable original; its supposed source polled about 500 agents, and NAR's 2025 cost-recovery list (led by a steel door at 100%) has no painting project. (HomeGain; NAR)See details
How do painting contractors use video, and where do homeowners look?
Nobody publishes a measured count of how many painting contractors post video. We checked the Painting Contractors Association, the painting software vendors (PaintScout, DripJobs, Estimate Rocket), Jobber's Home Service Economic Report, Housecall Pro, Sherwin-Williams and PPG, and none has released a survey of painters' video, social media or AI use. What exists is evidence about where homeowners research a paint job, and a few platform rules. Our own read of franchise location pages, below, is the closest thing to a direct measurement.
When homeowners research home improvement on social media, video dominates. Among U.S. DIYers who used social media for project research in the fourth quarter of 2025, 83% used YouTube (Home Improvement Research Institute). HIRI lists local service providers and contractors among the things customers primarily look for when they plan a painting project (HIRI). YouTube's own trends team counts home renovation as a creator genre: one channel, Mr. Kate, has earned over 400 million views for its renovation videos (YouTube). That is one creator, not a category total.
Search and reviews decide who gets the call. In a late-2025 survey of 2,000 U.S. homeowners aged 25 and over who had hired a trades professional in the past 18 months, run by the marketing firm Scorpion, 83% started their search online and 22% used AI tools (Scorpion); 87% would not hire a home services business rated below four stars (Scorpion). BrightLocal, which sells local-search software, found in its 2026 survey of 1,002 U.S. adults that 97% read reviews of local businesses (BrightLocal) and 41% always do (BrightLocal). Google's share as a review source fell to 71% from 83% a year earlier (BrightLocal), while use of ChatGPT and other AI tools for local recommendations rose to 45% (BrightLocal). Neither survey breaks out painters.
Word of mouth still matters. Nextdoor says 79% of its users have been influenced by a neighbour's recommendation on the platform to use a business (Nextdoor), and in a separate May 2023 survey 79% said they were more likely to hire a business that is a "Neighborhood Fave" (Nextdoor). The two 79% figures measure different things.
What the platforms allow
Google lists "Painter" among the U.S. service categories eligible for Local Services Ads, the pay-per-lead ads with the Google Verified badge (Google).
Videos on a Google Business Profile must be up to 30 seconds long, up to 75 MB and 720p or higher (Google). A short before-and-after clip or crew introduction fits; a full project walkthrough has to be cut down.
What the trade itself has filmed
In July 2019 the Painting Contractors Association launched a 15-episode video series on painting fundamentals such as cleaning, taping and masking, aimed at training new painters (Remodeling, reporting PCA). Benjamin Moore pledged $100,000 to the association and TEACH Construction for a painter workforce program that included a beginner video course (Remodeling, reporting Benjamin Moore). Recruiting is the trade's chronic problem: in American Painting Contractor's 2018 reader survey, 35% of contractors named hiring and retention as their greatest challenge (American Painting Contractor), and in the PCA's 2022 member survey (335 responses) 52% of member companies used W-2 employees, with recruiting and retention their main concern (PCA).
How painters marketed before video: in the same 2018 APC survey, 46% used their vehicles to advertise (APC) and 26% were adding to their marketing budgets (APC). APC did not publish its sample size, and its 2018 figures still circulate in 2026 vendor roundups as if they were current.
How many painting contractor websites show video?
About one in five, in our read. On November 2, 2026, Mark Studios read 129 independent U.S. painting contractor websites listed in OpenStreetMap, one page each (normally the homepage). Only 20.9% showed any video: 13.2% embedded a player and 8.5% ran a background video. 15.5% linked to a YouTube channel, and 14 of the sites linked to a channel without showing a video on the page. 68.2% had neither a video nor a channel link.
What the page showed (129 independent painting contractor websites, Nov 2026)
Painters sell a visible result, yet fewer than one site in six showed a before-and-after gallery, and only 6.2% mentioned lead-safe certification, although about half of pre-1978 homes contain lead paint (see the rules section below). The per-site file is published as homepages.csv (CC BY 4.0).
How we measured it. We took every website on a U.S. OpenStreetMap object tagged craft=painter: 246 distinct sites, all attempted. We dropped dead domains, sites whose robots.txt disallows ClaudeBot or all crawlers, bot walls, businesses that are not painting contractors and duplicates, and analysed the rest; three CertaPro office pages in the frame are excluded from the shares. A flag means a rule matched the rendered page; video matches were checked by hand. OpenStreetMap is mapped by volunteers, so the sample leans to states with active mappers (Colorado, Oregon, Illinois, California and Washington lead) and to businesses that still keep a site up. It is not a random sample of U.S. painters, and one page per site makes every share a floor for the whole site.
How many painting contractors are there in the U.S.?
About 41,000 with employees, plus a large self-employed tail. The BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages counted an average of 41,350 private painting and wall covering contractor establishments (NAICS 238320) in 2025, employing 200,369 people at an average annual pay of $60,645 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). Average weekly pay was $1,166 (BLS).
By our calculation establishments rose 14.5% from 2015 to 2025, but jobs fell 4.9% from their 2019 level, so the average shop got smaller: 4.8 jobs per establishment in 2025. Over the full decade jobs rose only 5.6%. Average pay rose 29.6% from 2019 to 2025, before inflation.
Census counts agree. County Business Patterns found 38,280 painting and wall covering employer establishments in 2023, with 208,201 employees and an annual payroll of $11,485,346 thousand (U.S. Census Bureau). Most are very small: 28,745 had fewer than five employees (U.S. Census Bureau), or 75.1% of the total, and another 5,240 had five to nine (U.S. Census Bureau).
The 2022 Economic Census counted 38,153 employer establishments with receipts of $33,027,179 thousand, about $33.0 billion (U.S. Census Bureau), or about $865,650 per establishment.
Kind of business, NAICS 238320 employer establishments, 2022
Census does not split painting receipts by residential and commercial customers for 2022, and it publishes nonemployer counts only for the wider building finishing group (NAICS 2383), so one-person painting businesses without payroll are missing from every establishment count on this page. The occupation data below fills part of that gap.
How many painters are there, and what do they earn?
About 327,000 jobs, nearly a third of them self-employed. BLS counted about 326,900 jobs for construction and maintenance painters in 2025, including the self-employed (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook). Only 42% were employed by painting and wall covering contractors (BLS), and 31% were self-employed (BLS). The Employment Projections table puts the self-employed share at 31.3% (BLS), against 5.8% for all occupations (BLS): painters are 5.4 times as likely to work for themselves as the average worker.
The OEWS survey, which counts wage-and-salary workers only, estimated 225,190 painters in May 2025 (BLS), with a mean wage of $26.64 an hour (BLS) or $55,420 a year (BLS), and a median of $23.75 an hour (BLS). The annual median was $49,400 (BLS); the lowest-paid tenth earned under $37,440 (BLS) and the highest-paid tenth over $78,810 (BLS).
Who employs the painter matters. Painters working for painting contractors had a median of $48,830 in May 2025 (BLS), while painters in government had the highest median of the main employers, $69,660 (BLS). Painters' helpers (SOC 47-3014, a group that also covers paperhangers', plasterers' and stucco masons' helpers) numbered 7,490 (BLS), with a mean of $42,440 (BLS) and a median of $19.46 an hour (BLS).
BLS projects painter employment to grow 3 percent from 2025 to 2035 (BLS), to 336,700 jobs (BLS), with about 24,900 openings a year, mostly to replace painters who leave (BLS). Helpers held 7.6 thousand jobs in 2025 (BLS).
How many painting contractors are in Florida?
About 5,300 with employees, and the trade is far more concentrated there than nationally. BLS counted 5,299 private painting and wall covering establishments in Florida in 2025 (BLS), with 21,032 jobs (BLS) and average annual pay of $49,883 (BLS), or $959 a week (BLS). That is 12.8% of U.S. establishments and 10.5% of U.S. jobs. Florida's location quotient for the industry was 1.79 for establishments (BLS) and 1.65 for employment (BLS): its share of the state's private businesses is about 1.8 times the national share. Pay was 82.3% of the U.S. average.
The Florida trade grew much faster than the nation's. In 2015 the state had 4,122 establishments (BLS), 15,984 jobs (BLS) and pay of $32,485 (BLS); in 2019, 5,297 (BLS), 19,752 (BLS) and $35,644 (BLS). Florida jobs rose 31.6% from 2015 to 2025, against 5.6% nationally.
Census County Business Patterns counted 4,421 Florida employer establishments in 2023 (U.S. Census Bureau) with 17,838 employees (U.S. Census Bureau). The 2022 Economic Census found 4,394 establishments (U.S. Census Bureau) with receipts of $2,922,759 thousand (U.S. Census Bureau), 8.8% of the U.S. total. Sherwin-Williams' Southeastern Division, which covers Florida's region, ran 1,232 paint stores at the end of 2025, its largest division (Sherwin-Williams 10-K).
Florida does not license painters. State law lists painting among the jobs for which no county or city may require a contractor licence (Florida Legislature); the only exception is rooftop painting above three stories where a local licence existed before January 1, 2021 (Florida Legislature).
How often do homeowners hire a painter, and what do they spend?
Most larger paint jobs go to a contractor. In research by the Home Improvement Research Institute, an industry-funded nonprofit, 88% of U.S. exterior painting or staining projects were done with a contractor's help (HIRI) and 82% of interior paint projects (HIRI). HIRI's figures come from homeowners who spent at least $5,000 on a project in the past 12 months; among them the median interior painting job cost $12,000 (HIRI) and the median spend on exterior paints and stains was $8,000 (HIRI). HIRI estimates the U.S. professional paint market grew 6.3% in 2025 to about $14.6 billion while the DIY market shrank (HIRI), and 60% of contractors in its fourth-quarter 2025 tracker expected the market to grow (HIRI). HIRI does not publish sample sizes on these pages.
Painting is the most common upgrade. In an Ipsos survey commissioned by the brokerage Redfin (4,000 U.S. adults, November 2025), 47% of people who renovated in the past year painted (Redfin). Houzz's 2026 study of 10,176 homeowners who renovated in 2025 (Houzz sells to renovation pros) found 19% painted their exterior (Houzz), at a median of $2,500, up 25% (Houzz); 28% hired a painter directly (Houzz), and 62% bought paint, the most-bought product (Houzz). Among U.S. adults planning a home project in the next three months, YouGov Profiles found 13% planned interior painting (YouGov), the most common plan, 6% exterior painting (YouGov), and 16% of rural planners interior painting (YouGov).
Federal data cannot isolate painting. The Census Bureau's American Housing Survey counts only jobs above a cost line: a 1992 Census brief on the 1987 survey noted that painting a room counted as an improvement only if materials cost $500 or more (U.S. Census Bureau). Across all project types, owners did 50 million of 140 million projects themselves over 2021-2023 (U.S. Census Bureau and HUD). Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies puts professional work at a record 84.1% of owners' improvement spending in 2023 (Harvard JCHS), with DIY outlays at $64 billion (Harvard JCHS) and total improvement and repair spending at $611 billion in 2022 (Harvard JCHS).
What the lead-generation sites quote
The price ranges below are published by companies that sell leads to painters. They are list ranges and model estimates, not paid invoices, and they change without notice.
HomeAdvisor also estimates that labour is 85% of a professional painter's cost (HomeAdvisor), without saying how. Neighborly, which sells Five Star Painting franchises, says its franchises averaged $4,439.87 in gross sales per job, citing its 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document (Neighborly).
Painting before a sale
The National Association of REALTORS, a trade association, surveys its members for its Remodeling Impact Report. In the 2025 edition, 50% of REALTORS recommended painting the entire home before selling, the most-recommended project (NAR), 41% recommended painting one room (NAR), and 32% had seen more demand for whole-interior painting in two years (NAR). Homeowners who painted one room gave it a "Joy Score" of 9.3 out of 10 (NAR) and exterior siding painting 8.8 (NAR), down from 10 (NAR) and 9.8 (NAR) in 2022, when one-room painting also scored 10 (NAR). Across all projects, 24% of owners did the whole job themselves (NAR). The 2025 report publishes no cost or value-recovered figure for painting.
What do paint companies and franchises report about the trade?
The biggest public window on painting contractors is Sherwin-Williams. Its Paint Stores Group ran 4,853 company-operated stores in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean at the end of 2025 (Sherwin-Williams 10-K), each serving "architectural and industrial paint contractors and do-it-yourself homeowners", up from 4,694 in 2023 (Sherwin-Williams) and 4,180 in 2016 (Sherwin-Williams), a rise of 16.1%. It opened 80 net new stores in 2025 (Sherwin-Williams) and planned 80 to 100 more for 2026 (Sherwin-Williams). Segment sales were $13,605.9 million in 2025 (Sherwin-Williams), same-store sales rose 1.7% (Sherwin-Williams), and pre-tax income was 22.5% of sales (Sherwin-Williams). Residential repaint sales grew by a low-single digit percentage in the fourth quarter of 2025 (Sherwin-Williams) and a mid-single digit percentage in the third quarter of 2026 (Sherwin-Williams), when segment sales were $4,015.8 million (Sherwin-Williams). The company gives ranges, not exact figures, for each end market.
The big-box stores sell paint to pros too. Home Depot's paint department sold $10,977 million in fiscal 2025, 6.7% of its sales (Home Depot 10-K), and its 10-K names painters among its Pro customers (Home Depot). Lowe's sold $5,000 million of paint, 5.8% of its sales (Lowe's 10-K), and paint was one of five of 14 categories with comparable-sales growth, which Lowe's credits to Pro customers and online (Lowe's). Together that is $15,977 million. PPG left the U.S. and Canadian paint store business: it sold its architectural coatings unit, which had $1,878 million of 2024 sales (PPG 10-K), for a transaction value of about $550 million (PPG 10-Q) and received $516 million in December 2024 (PPG). Graco's Contractor segment, which sells paint sprayers, was about 48 percent of its sales (Graco 10-K), $1,071,878 thousand in 2025 (Graco), and Graco says its strategy is converting contractors who paint by hand to spray technology (Graco).
Painting franchises
FirstService, which owns CertaPro Painters, traces its franchise business to 1989, when it bought College Pro Painters (FirstService). Its annual information forms count CertaPro franchises in the U.S. and Canada at 345 for 2015 (FirstService), 370 for 2020 (FirstService) and 333 for 2025 (FirstService), a net change of 3.5% down over ten years. CertaPro's own site says "more than 350" businesses (CertaPro); we treat the filing as the firmer count and show both. CertaPro completes about 115,000 projects in a typical year (FirstService), FirstService runs three of the operations itself (FirstService), and it lists painting among services whose demand tracks property values and consumer confidence (FirstService). The site claims over 80,000 five-star reviews (CertaPro).
Franchisors' own counts, from pages that sell franchises: Five Star Painting has 255+ North American locations on Neighborly's franchise page (Neighborly) and "more than 260" on its consumer site (Five Star Painting), with an initial investment from $81,450 (Neighborly). Fresh Coat Painters lists 180+ locations (Fresh Coat), said in May 2026 it had a 190-plus unit network (Fresh Coat) and awarded eight new franchises in the first quarter of 2026 (Fresh Coat). WOW 1 DAY PAINTING's franchise fee is $40,000 to $60,000 (WOW 1 DAY PAINTING), with investment starting at $96,050 (WOW 1 DAY PAINTING).
The Painting Contractors Association's 2022 member survey (335 responses) put average revenue per member company at $1.86M (PCA), with 57% of respondents primarily residential (PCA). Members of a trade association are larger than the typical shop, so this is not an industry average.
What rules apply to painting contractors?
The EPA lead rule is the one that reaches almost every residential painter. Anyone paid to disturb paint in homes, child-care facilities or preschools built before 1978 must be certified and follow lead-safe practices (U.S. EPA), including sole proprietors working in pre-1978 housing (before 1978) (U.S. EPA). Firms have needed certification since April 22, 2010 (eCFR).
The stakes are large. HUD's American Healthy Homes Survey II (2018-2019) estimates that 34.6 million U.S. homes have lead-based paint somewhere (HUD), including 30.9 million homes built before 1978, about half of them (HUD), and 85.4% of homes built before 1940 (HUD). Under the 2019 dust standard, 29.0 million homes have significant lead-based paint hazards (HUD), 3.3 million of them with children under six (HUD).
15 states and one tribe run their own programs in place of EPA's (U.S. EPA). The maximum civil penalty is 49,772 dollars per violation (eCFR) for penalties assessed on or after January 8, 2025 (eCFR). The largest cases involve the retailers' installation businesses: Home Depot agreed to a $20.75 million penalty, which EPA called the highest civil penalty under the rule to date (U.S. EPA), recorded in its 10-K as a 20.75 million dollar consent decree in December 2020 (Home Depot 10-K), and Lowe's agreed in November 2025 to a $12.5 million penalty (U.S. EPA), 12,500,000 dollars in its own filing (Lowe's 10-K).
EPA's 2024 rule lowered the dust-lead hazard standard to any reportable level (Federal Register) from January 13, 2025 (Federal Register), and cut the floor clearance level from 10 to 5 μg/ft² (Federal Register). Those standards govern lead inspections and abatement clearance, not the cleaning steps painters follow under the renovation rule.
Falls and lead exposure on the job
OSHA requires fall protection for construction workers at 6 feet (OSHA via eCFR) and on scaffolds above 10 feet (OSHA via eCFR). Its lead in construction standard limits airborne lead to 50 micrograms per cubic meter over an eight-hour day (OSHA via eCFR). Maximum penalties for violations proposed after January 15, 2025 are $16,550 for a serious violation (OSHA via eCFR) and $165,514 for a willful one (OSHA via eCFR). OSHA's site refused our requests, so its citation counts for painting contractors are not on this page.
Do painters need a licence?
It depends on the state, and most set a dollar line below which no licence is needed. California licenses painters under class C-33 Painting and Decorating (CSLB) and counted 18,130 C-33 licences in December 2023 (CSLB) among 285,142 contractor licences of all kinds (CSLB), or 6.4%. Since 2025 California work under $1,000 needs no licence if it needs no permit and no employees (CSLB), and unlicensed people may advertise jobs up to $1,000 only if the ad says they are unlicensed (CSLB). Fees are $450 to apply (CSLB), $200 for an initial sole-owner licence (CSLB) and $450 to renew (CSLB); unlicensed contracting carries administrative fines up to $15,000 (CSLB).
Nevada licenses painting contractors under class C-4 (Nevada State Contractors Board) and exempts repair work under $1,000 (Nevada Legislature). Oregon's exemption is for projects under $1,000 (Oregon Legislature), and Arizona's for a project under $1,000 (Arizona State Legislature). Florida, covered above, bars local painting licences. These are the states we confirmed at primary sources, not a 50-state survey.
What do the popular painting numbers really say?
"Interior painting returns 107% ROI"
Seller guides still print it: Redfin says interior painting returns an average ROI of 107% (Redfin), Opendoor about 107% (Opendoor), and a brokerage blog credits 107% to Angi (The Preferred Realty), whose article names no source. One aggregator page attributes the 107 percent to a 2012 HomeGain survey (aggregator page). We could not find 107% in HomeGain's archived 2012 post, whose tables are images. What that post does say is that the survey was an opinion poll of nearly 500 real estate agents (HomeGain), and that exterior painting ranked third by estimated price increase, at $2,176 (HomeGain). NAR's write-up of the same survey listed a top five led by cleaning and decluttering at 403% "potential ROI", with no painting project in it (NAR).
HomeGain's "ROI" was not a fixed measure. Its 2009 wave of nearly 1,000 agents (HomeGain) labelled interior painting at $700 cost and $1,770 gain a 250% ROI (HomeGain); its 2011 wave of nearly 600 (HomeGain) put exterior painting at a $2,222 estimated gain (HomeGain). These are agents' guesses about sale prices, not measured sales. A contractor blog's "152%" exterior figure (Hoboken Painter) has no original; the page it cites says 51-55%.
The one paint-and-price study with real sales is Zillow's 2017 analysis of more than 32,000 listing photos (Zillow): homes with light blue bathrooms sold for $5,440 more than expected (Zillow) and off-white bathrooms for $4,035 less (Zillow), compared with white walls. Zillow itself warns the result is a correlation. Clark.com repeats it accurately as $5,440 (Clark.com); Homes & Gardens turned it into a 1.3% value lift (Homes & Gardens) that is not in Zillow's release.
Use instead: NAR's 2025 Remodeling Impact Report, from 4,005 member responses (NAR), measures how often agents recommend painting (50% say paint the whole home) (NAR), not what it returns. Its cost-recovery list is led by a steel front door at 100% and contains no painting project (NAR). No current source measures a painting ROI.
"Exterior paint lasts 5 to 10 years"
The range is everywhere: Fresh Coat Painters, a franchisor, says exterior paint lasts 5 to 10 years (Fresh Coat Painters), as do Today's Homeowner (5-10 years) (Today's Homeowner) and a contractor quoted by Homes & Gardens (five to 10 years) (Homes & Gardens). Five Star Painting recommends repainting outside every 5 to 10 years (Five Star Painting). We found no primary source that measured it. The references disagree with each other: NAHB's 2007 component-life study gave exterior and interior paint 15+ years each, citing Sherwin-Williams and Dutch Boy (NAHB), and said paint can last 15 years or longer though owners repaint sooner (NAHB); it came from a 2006 phone survey of manufacturers and trade groups (NAHB). The home inspectors' association InterNACHI says 7 to 10 years exterior (InterNACHI) and 10 to 15 interior (InterNACHI). The wood-finish guidance from Purdue Extension and the USDA Forest Products Laboratory says one topcoat over primer lasts 4 to 5 years on wood (Purdue Extension and USDA FPL), and the lumber makers' NELMA says two topcoats can last up to 10 years (NELMA).
Use instead: say that life depends on substrate, coats and climate, and cite the coat-count guidance (4-5 years for one topcoat on wood, up to 10 for two) rather than a single range.
"Video lifts conversions 80%"
Video vendors pitch painters with it: one production company says video can raise landing-page conversions by as much as 80% (Beverly Boy Productions). It starts with EyeView, a seller of landing-page video, which reported in November 2009 that its first test on one client's page (TutorVista, an online tutoring firm) lifted conversion by over 80 percent (EyeView). The case study's measured result was 86 percent for first-time visitors with autoplay video (EyeView), and EyeView's 2010 white paper called over 80% a best case "in some cases" (EyeView). It is one tutoring company's page in 2009, not a painting result.
Use instead: no study measures what video does for painting contractors. The closest current evidence is where homeowners look: YouTube was used by 83% of DIYers who researched projects on social media (HIRI, above).
"Labor is 80-85% of a paint job"
HomeAdvisor puts labour at 85% of a professional painter's cost without a method (above). Its sister brand Angi gives two different ranges: 75% and 95% on its interior guide (Angi) and 60% to 90% on its room guide (Angi), and NerdWallet repeats the first as 75% to 95% (NerdWallet). None of these is a measurement. Federal data cannot give a labour share for painting jobs either.
Use instead: treat any single labour share as an estimate. For pay, use BLS (above).
"80% of painting businesses fail in five years"
Painting software vendor Estimate Rocket repeats that 40% of businesses fail in the first year and 80% within five, attributing it to Michael Gerber's book The E-Myth (Estimate Rocket). It is a line from a business book, not data. BLS Business Employment Dynamics measures survival for construction as a whole (no painting-only series): 79.7% of construction establishments opened in the year to March 2024 were still operating a year later (BLS), and 55.8% of the 2019 cohort survived five years (BLS). A contractor-marketing vendor's "more than 20% close within one year" (Footbridge Media) is close to the BLS figure.
Use instead: about four in five new construction establishments survive their first year and a little over half survive five, per BLS.
"Lead paint is in 38 million homes"
The 38 million figure, still cited by some building groups, comes from the 1998-1999 national survey, which estimated 37.9 million homes with lead-based paint (HUD). HUD's newer American Healthy Homes Survey II (2018-2019) estimates 34.6 million (HUD), of which 22.3 million have one or more significant hazards (HUD). The hazard count rises to 29.0 million under the 2019 dust standard (see the rules section).
Use instead: 34.6 million homes, about half of all pre-1978 homes, from HUD's AHHS II.
We started from the questions people search for about painting contractor video statistics and looked for the organization that actually produced each answer. Every figure on this page sits in an evidence ledger with its source, the exact table or paragraph it came from, the measurement period, the population measured, and the date we checked it. This edition holds 289 figures from 58 publishers.
On November 2, 2026, each sourced figure on this page was re-fetched with the fetch cache cleared and matched against the recorded wording: BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages open data, occupation wage estimates, the Occupational Outlook Handbook, Employment Projections and Business Employment Dynamics; Census County Business Patterns and the 2022 Economic Census (through the Census data API); the eCFR, the Federal Register and EPA's own pages on the lead renovation rule; HUD's American Healthy Homes Survey II; the California Contractors State License Board and the statutes of Florida, Nevada, Oregon and Arizona; the filings of Sherwin-Williams, FirstService, PPG, Home Depot, Lowe's and Graco; the franchisors' own pages; HIRI, Houzz, Redfin, YouGov, Thumbtack, HomeAdvisor, Angi, NAR, Harvard JCHS, BrightLocal, Scorpion, Nextdoor, Google and YouTube; and the pages behind each popular claim. BLS and HUD refuse automated requests or have moved pages, so we read Internet Archive copies. We left out OSHA citation counts (osha.gov refused our requests and has no archived copy), Florida painter wages newer than the archive holds (the BLS data API's daily limit was reached), Census nonemployer counts (not published for painting contractors alone), injury and fatality tables (spreadsheets only), franchise disclosure documents (behind search forms), seven painter websites whose robots.txt disallows our crawler, and surveys that publish no sample size or field dates.
We only cite the producer: government agencies, regulators, company filings and official posts, and the survey owner's own report. We do not cite statistics roundups, Statista-style aggregators, or salary sites without a public method. We did not bypass paywalls or sign-up forms; where a full report was gated, we used only the figures its publisher states publicly.
Figures marked "our calculation" are arithmetic on the cited numbers, and anyone can reproduce them:
This edition contains no Mark Studios customer data.
Limitations
Our website read is not a random sample. It covers 129 independent painters listed in OpenStreetMap, one page each, so it leans to states with active volunteer mappers and every share is a floor for the whole site.
No one measures painters' video use. No trade association or software vendor has published a survey of it; the homeowner research figures cover home improvement or local businesses generally.
One-person shops are missing from the business counts. Census publishes nonemployer counts only for all building finishing trades. BLS puts 31.3% of painters in self-employment.
Price and survey figures often come from sellers. Thumbtack, HomeAdvisor, Angi, Houzz, BrightLocal and Scorpion sell into the market; HIRI and APC do not publish sample sizes on the pages we cite; prices are list ranges, not paid invoices.
Licensing coverage is partial. We confirmed five states at primary sources, not all fifty.
Mark Studios. "Painting Contractor Video Statistics." Last verified Nov 2, 2026. https://www.markstudios.com/research/painting-contractor-video-statistics
APA
Mark Studios. (2026, November 2). Painting contractor video statistics. https://www.markstudios.com/research/painting-contractor-video-statistics
MLA
“Painting Contractor Video Statistics.” Mark Studios, 2 Nov. 2026, www.markstudios.com/research/painting-contractor-video-statistics.
Chicago
Mark Studios. “Painting Contractor Video Statistics.” Last modified November 2, 2026. https://www.markstudios.com/research/painting-contractor-video-statistics.
BibTeX
@misc{markstudios_painting_contractor_video_statistics_2026,
author = {{Mark Studios}},
title = {{Painting Contractor Video Statistics}},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
url = {https://www.markstudios.com/research/painting-contractor-video-statistics},
note = {Last verified 2026-11-02}
}
Our calculations and the evidence table are free to reuse with attribution and a link to this page. Each underlying figure remains the claim of its original publisher, and some publishers ask for a link when their figures are reused.
National Association of REALTORS and National Association of the Remodeling Industry (trade associations), 2025 Remodeling Impact Report (2025-04). Accessed 2026-11-02.
National Association of REALTORS and National Association of the Remodeling Industry (trade associations), 2022 Remodeling Impact Report (2022-04-19). Accessed 2026-11-02.
We re-verify every figure quarterly and when a major source publishes a new edition. The next scheduled review is February 2027. Corrections go to contact@markstudios.com.
Nov 2, 2026: First published with 289 figures from 58 publishers, each checked against its original source.
Frequently asked questions
How many painting contractors are there in the U.S.?
BLS counted 41,350 painting and wall covering establishments with employees in 2025, employing 200,369 people. Counting the self-employed, construction and maintenance painters held about 326,900 jobs.
How much do house painters make?
The median annual wage of construction and maintenance painters was $49,400 in May 2025, and the mean hourly wage was $26.64. Average pay per job at painting contractors was $60,645 in 2025.
Do painting contractors use video?
Few show it on their websites. In our November 2026 read of 129 independent painting contractor websites, 20.9% showed any video and 15.5% linked to a YouTube channel.
Do painters need a licence in Florida?
No. Florida law lists painting among the jobs for which no county or city may require a contractor licence, except rooftop painting above three stories where a local licence predates 2021.
Does the EPA lead rule apply to painters?
Yes, in homes, child-care facilities and preschools built before 1978. Firms paid to disturb paint there must be EPA-certified unless the work is 6 square feet or less inside or 20 square feet or less outside.
Does painting a house really return 107%?
No original for that figure can be found. It is attributed to a 2012 HomeGain opinion poll of nearly 500 agents, whose archived post does not show it, and NAR's 2025 cost-recovery list, led by a steel front door at 100%, contains no painting project.
How long does exterior paint last?
Sources disagree. Purdue Extension and the USDA Forest Products Laboratory say one topcoat over primer lasts 4 to 5 years on wood, InterNACHI says 7 to 10 years, and NAHB's 2007 study said 15+ years.
