Ohio · Plumbing
Plumbing contractors in Ohio: market size, permits, and job values
1,100 plumbing contractors operate in Ohio. Median job value is $30,584 and top-quartile contractors land jobs of $185,173+. Sourced from 409M building permits (2022–2024) and 365K specialty trade contractor records.
1,100
Plumbing contractors in Ohio
All revenue tiers
$30,584
Median job value
Trade median: $10,872
$185,173
Top-quartile job value
75th percentile
$85/hr
Median bill rate (national)
Level benchmark
Permit volume trend — Ohio
Building permits are the leading indicator of contractor demand. Ohio pulled 279K permits in 2024, down -35% from 2023.
2022
347K
2023
429K
+23.6% YoY
2024
279K
-35% YoY
Total permitted construction value in 2023: $119.4B. Fewer permits in 2024 means more contractors fighting for fewer jobs. The contractors who tighten cash collection, shorten quote cycles, and protect maintenance revenue will pull through; the ones with thin AR and slow billing will compress.
Plumbing seasonality (2023, national)
Peak month: Aug. Slow month: Jan. Plan cash and crew capacity against this curve.
Competition: who you're up against
Ohio has 10,852 HVAC/plumbing/electrical contractors total. Of those, 1,453 are in the $1–25M revenue band — the typical ICP for fractional-CFO support. The Columbus metro is the largest concentration. The average company has been in business 32 years.
23/yr
Median permits/contractor (state)
48/yr
Top 25% (p75)
130/yr
Top 10% (p90)
What this means for your P&L
The market is tightening — your books need to match.
When permit volume drops 35% in a year, the plumbing contractors that survive aren't the ones with the most quotes — they're the ones who collect 80%+ of billed revenue inside 60 days, hold service-agreement margin above 38%, and don't blow project budgets by more than 10%. We benchmarked all three across 2,200+ contractors in Level's proprietary research. Want to see where you actually sit on each?
Other trades in Ohio
Plumbing contractors in other states
Permit data from ATTOM Tax Assessor and Building Permits (73.7M property records, 409M permits, 2022–2024). Contractor density from ZoomInfo (494M company locations). Bill-rate benchmarks from Level's proprietary contractor benchmark research (2,242 contractors, $13.25B in job revenue, 2.5M+ invoices). All data anonymized and aggregated. See the full Level Index.