Construction
The sold figures for construction are real. The record behind them is one source deep.
Construction is not really one market. The advisory publishers that report valuation figures for the trades report them trade by trade, and none of them offers a number for construction generally. What does exist is transaction data: businesses reported sold rather than listed for sale, which is the more defensible kind of figure. Our estimator leads with it, and in the same breath reports that only one independent source stands behind it. Both statements are true and you should have both. What a buyer examines is narrower anyway: the backlog, the bonding, and whether completed work was closed out properly.
The record
What your record already holds.
- Contracts, change orders, and scope amendments by project
- Backlog and work in progress schedules
- Permits, inspections, and certificates of completion
- Bonding capacity, surety agreements, and history
- Subcontractor agreements and insurance certificates
- Lien waivers and retainage records
- Licensing held by the firm and by individuals
The questions
The questions worth answering.
- “What is in backlog, and how much of it is under a signed contract?”
- “Which projects are complete but never formally closed out?”
- “What retainage is outstanding, and on which jobs?”
- “What is our bonding capacity, and what does the surety rely on?”
- “Which subcontractors do we depend on, and are their certificates current?”
- “What warranty obligations remain on completed work?”
Key-person risk
When someone leaves, the reasoning shouldn’t leave with them.
Estimating and project management judgment usually sits with a small number of people, sometimes only the owner. A buyer prices whether the business can win and deliver work without them. The record either shows how jobs were estimated, scoped, and approved, or that reasoning leaves with the individual.
High-stakes moments
When the record has to answer.
Backlog verification
Backlog is often the headline asset. Buyers test how much is contractually committed against how much is expected, and price the difference.
Closeout and warranty exposure
Completed work that was never inspected, signed off, or released from retainage is a liability that surfaces in diligence and is far cheaper to find first.
Bonding continuity
Surety relationships are personal to the business and its principals. Whether bonding capacity survives a sale can determine what work the buyer can pursue.
The published record
What the sources actually say, and what they do not.
One source in our checked set reports a valuation figure for construction as a category, and it is transaction data rather than advisory guidance. Everything else covering the trades reports them individually, for mechanical, plumbing, electrical, and roofing work, and those figures differ from each other materially. Presenting any one of them as a construction benchmark would be applying a figure to a population the publisher did not describe. Our estimator does lead with the sold range here, because a record of what buyers actually paid is worth showing even when it is thin. It also marks the published record as insufficient, because one independent origin is not corroboration however sound that origin is. Those two statements sit together on purpose. The figure is real; the agreement behind it does not exist. The individual trade pages carry what else is available.
1.81x to 3.13x owner earnings, the middle half of recorded sales
BizBuySell. Applies to building and construction businesses reported sold on BizBuySell, 2021 through 2025. data through 2025.
Verelume does not average these publishers or choose between them. Where they disagree, the disagreement is the finding.
What diligence concentrates on here
- Backlog, and how much is under signed contract rather than expected
- Work in progress schedules and percentage of completion accounting
- Open permits and completed work never formally closed out
- Retainage outstanding and lien waiver records
- Bonding capacity and whether it survives a change of control
- Subcontractor agreements and current insurance certificates
- Estimating and project management dependence on individuals
What Verelume does not do
Verelume does not make engineering or construction judgments, determine code compliance, assess bonding eligibility, or provide legal advice. It helps your team find and understand what your own records say, with the sources attached, and flags where documents conflict or where a claim has no documentation behind it.
Related use cases
See what your construction and specialty trade's record can answer.
Start with a founder-led Diligence Readiness Assessment, Founding price $5,500, with the Verelume platform included. See all three ways to engage.