Washington · HVAC
HVAC contractors in Washington: market size, permits, and job values
1,400 hvac contractors operate in Washington. Median job value is $19,730 and top-quartile contractors land jobs of $75,898+. Sourced from 409M building permits (2022–2024) and 365K specialty trade contractor records.
1,400
HVAC contractors in Washington
All revenue tiers
$19,730
Median job value
Trade median: $9,231
$75,898
Top-quartile job value
75th percentile
$79/hr
Median bill rate (national)
Level benchmark
Permit volume trend — Washington
Building permits are the leading indicator of contractor demand. Washington pulled 581K permits in 2024, down -32.3% from 2023.
2022
733K
2023
858K
+17% YoY
2024
581K
-32.3% YoY
Total permitted construction value in 2023: $115.3B. 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.
HVAC seasonality (2023, national)
Peak month: Oct. Slow month: Feb. Plan cash and crew capacity against this curve.
Competition: who you're up against
Washington has 8,085 HVAC/plumbing/electrical contractors total. Of those, 1,616 are in the $1–25M revenue band — the typical ICP for fractional-CFO support. The Seattle metro is the largest concentration. The average company has been in business 26 years.
27/yr
Median permits/contractor (state)
68/yr
Top 25% (p75)
198/yr
Top 10% (p90)
What this means for your P&L
The market is tightening — your books need to match.
When permit volume drops 32.3% in a year, the hvac 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 Washington
HVAC 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.