Home Improvement Project Activity Tracker: 4 Things We Learned

Have you ever con­sid­ered how the chang­ing sea­sons affect your home improve­ment busi­ness? It may come as no sur­prise that as tem­per­a­tures rise and fall, the types of projects home­own­ers want to do around their house fluc­tu­ate as well.

To nail down some of these sea­son­al trends and paint a bet­ter pic­ture of demand, the Home Improve­ment Research Insti­tute (HIRI) launched our newest quar­ter­ly sur­vey, the Project Activ­i­ty Track­er, at the begin­ning of 2022.

The Project Activity Tracker:

• Sam­ples 2,000 home­own­ers per quarter
• Cov­ers 19 home areas and 38 home improve­ment activities
• Asks home­own­ers about projects com­plet­ed in the pre­vi­ous three months and projects planned for the next three months

We con­duct­ed our first-ever Project Activ­i­ty Track­er sur­vey in March.

Here’s what we learned about homeowner activity:

1. Kitchen Projects Own the Winter

Dur­ing the harsh­er win­ter months, when cold­er tem­per­a­tures kept most home­own­ers con­fined to indoor spaces, kitchen projects were the most pop­u­lar. In fact, 22% of house­holds par­took in kitchen ren­o­va­tions, main­te­nance, or redec­o­ra­tion at a medi­an spend of $1,500. Paint­ing topped the list by far, fol­lowed by floor­ing and plumb­ing updates.

Our rec­om­men­da­tion for brands in these spaces? Next win­ter, be sure to stock up on inte­ri­or project mate­ri­als before Q1, and con­sid­er boost­ing your mar­ket­ing activ­i­ties dur­ing this time.

2. Activity Ramps Up as Temperatures Rise

More than 80% of home­own­ers under­took home improve­ment projects in Q1, but even more expect­ed to have their hands full in the fol­low­ing three months. Although more than half of respon­dents said their projects wouldn’t be full-scale remod­els, 85% report­ed at least one maintenance/​repair, remod­el­ing or redec­o­rat­ing activ­i­ty on their spring agen­da.

It makes sense: While inte­ri­or to-dos hap­pened with­in a safe haven dur­ing the frigid first quar­ter, the tables turned as home­own­ers looked for­ward to the spring months. Yard projects and land­scap­ing were the most com­mon­ly planned home project areas for the near future, as warmer weath­er places a high­er impor­tance for home­own­ers on out­door areas.

3. Low Inventory Is a Pain Point

That being said, as home­own­ers shift­ed focus to out­door areas, they report­ed that work on the exte­ri­or shell of their hous­es (roofs, sid­ing, win­dows, etc.) tend­ed to be the most expen­sive. In fact, one-third said it was more expen­sive than they had ini­tial­ly expect­ed. This is like­ly due to lin­ger­ing sup­ply chain issues and low inven­to­ry for many sup­pli­ers but could be medi­at­ed in the com­ing years by home improve­ment com­pa­nies antic­i­pat­ing this shift in con­sumer demand and stock­ing up on exte­ri­or sup­plies early.

4. Most Homeowners Opt to Do It Themselves

Accord­ing to the track­er, slight­ly less than half of all projects report­ed were com­plet­ed by home­own­ers them­selves, while anoth­er rough­ly 20% were com­plet­ed in com­bi­na­tion with a home­own­er and a con­trac­tor. The remain­ing third of projects were com­plet­ed entire­ly by a hired professional.

What does this mean for your company today?

Out­door and exte­ri­or projects are like­ly to con­tin­ue as we head into the sec­ond half of sum­mer. Be sure to invest in mar­ket­ing solu­tions that tar­get both the home­own­er and the pro­fes­sion­al con­trac­tor. And of course, be pre­pared to refo­cus on a strat­e­gy best suit­ed for your brand once cool­er weath­er draws home­own­ers back indoors.

We’ll be back soon with the results of the Q2 Project Activ­i­ty Track­er. Join HIRI to be the first to know.