DIY wall projects sit inside a much larger home-improvement market. In the 2023 American Housing Survey period, 51.6 million homeowners made improvements, while flooring, paneling, or ceiling-tile work represented 5.0 million projects and $93.5 billion in expenditures. The figures below connect that broad activity with gypsum supply and the retail channels where homeowners buy materials.
Contents
- Home-improvement participation
- Wall-adjacent project categories
- DIY activity and project volume
- How spending changed between survey periods
- Gypsum and wallboard supply
- Retail scale for DIY materials
Home-improvement participation
The 2023 Census home improvements infographic reports that 51.6 million homeowners made improvements, equal to 59% of 86.9 million homeowners. Across 2021–2023, homeowners spent $827 billion on home improvements, and the median homeowner improvement spend was $6,500. These are homeowner-level figures for the two-year survey period, not a price estimate for one wall project.
Energy-related work was also substantial. The same 2023 source reports 14.7 million homeowners made energy-efficiency improvements, equal to 28% of homeowners who made improvements. The largest top improvement category was water heater, dishwasher, or garbage disposal work at 32%, followed by HVAC projects at 25%.
Wall work appears in the Census category “flooring, paneling, or ceiling tile.” That category accounted for 21% of homeowners who made improvements in 2023, with a median spend of $3,000. The category is broader than wall projects alone, so its percentage should be read as a useful home-improvement benchmark rather than a standalone measure of DIY wall activity.
Other median project spends provide context for the scale of competing work. Bathroom remodels had a median spend of $5,000; doors and windows, $2,800; kitchens, $8,000; HVAC, $5,500; electrical wiring or fuse boxes, $1,000; water heaters, dishwashers, or garbage disposals, $500; and plumbing fixtures, $800. Larger exterior categories included roofing at $10,000, attached garages or carports at $4,600, driveways or walkways at $2,900, and porches, decks, patios, or terraces at $4,800. (2023 Census home improvements infographic)
Wall-adjacent project categories
The 2023 Census data gives both project counts and total expenditures for several categories that help frame wall-related work. Flooring, paneling, or ceiling-tile projects totaled 5.0 million, with $93.5 billion in expenditures. Doors and windows accounted for 12.8 million projects and $82.4 billion. Bathroom remodels accounted for 8.3 million projects and $83.1 billion, while HVAC accounted for 7.5 million projects and $68.9 billion.
| Category | Projects, 2021–2023 | Total expenditures, 2021–2023 |
|---|---|---|
| Flooring, paneling, or ceiling tile | 5.0 million | $93.5 billion |
| Bathroom remodels | 8.3 million | $83.1 billion |
| Doors and windows | 12.8 million | $82.4 billion |
| HVAC | 7.5 million | $68.9 billion |
| Kitchen remodels | 10.9 million | $51.0 billion |
| Roofing | 7.0 million | $45.2 billion |
These categories are not interchangeable: a paneling project is closer to a wall treatment than a kitchen remodel, while doors and windows may involve openings, trim, or structural work. Still, the figures show why wall surfaces compete for household improvement budgets with several high-volume categories. Landscaping or sprinkler-system projects totaled 3.9 million and $32.8 billion; driveways or walkways totaled 7.9 million and $26.6 billion; and porch, deck, patio, or terrace projects totaled 4.6 million and $20.9 billion. (2023 Census home improvements infographic)
DIY activity and project volume
The 2023 Census home improvements infographic reports 140 million total home-improvement projects and 50 million projects completed by homeowners. It also reports that do-it-yourselfers completed 36% of home-improvement projects, while professionals completed 64%. The homeowner project count and the DIY percentage describe related but not identical measures, so they should not be treated as a precise count of DIY wall projects.
The earlier 2021 American Housing Survey provides a useful comparison. During 2019–2021, homeowners completed 53.0 million of 135.0 million total home-improvement projects. DIYers completed 39%, while professionals completed 61%. Thus, the reported DIY share was 3 percentage points lower in the 2023 survey period than in the 2021 survey period, even though the total project count was higher in the later period. These are survey-period comparisons, not a continuous annual trend. (2021 and 2023 Census home improvements infographics)
For wall-adjacent work in 2019–2021, flooring, paneling, or ceiling-tile projects totaled 4.6 million and $72.0 billion. Bathroom remodels totaled 7.6 million and $58.0 billion; doors and windows totaled 11.2 million and $56.6 billion; and HVAC totaled 6.7 million and $51.0 billion. Kitchen remodels totaled 11.2 million and $40.1 billion, while roofing totaled 7.6 million and $33.4 billion. (2021 Census home improvements infographic)
How spending changed between survey periods
The Census figures show higher reported spending in the 2021–2023 period than in 2019–2021. Homeowners spent $827 billion in 2021–2023, compared with $624 billion in 2019–2021. Median homeowner improvement spend was $6,500 in the later period, compared with $5,000 in the earlier period. The number of homeowners making improvements also rose from 49.0 million to 51.6 million, while the reported homeowner population rose from 82.5 million to 86.9 million.
For the flooring, paneling, or ceiling-tile category, the median spend was $3,000 in 2021–2023, compared with $2,000 in 2019–2021. Bathroom remodel median spend rose from $3,500 to $5,000, doors and windows from $1,900 to $2,800, kitchen remodels from $6,000 to $8,000, and HVAC from $4,200 to $5,500. Attached garage or carport work rose from $4,500 to $4,600; driveways or walkways from $2,500 to $2,900; and porches, decks, patios, or terraces from $4,000 to $4,800. (2021 and 2023 Census home improvements infographics)
The earlier category totals were 4.1 million landscaping or sprinkler-system projects costing $27.8 billion, 8.1 million driveway or walkway projects costing $20.4 billion, and 4.8 million porch, deck, patio, or terrace projects costing $19.5 billion. These numbers help separate wall-surface activity from other improvement types without assigning unsupported costs to a particular DIY wall design.
Gypsum and wallboard supply
USGS data for the first quarter of 2024 describes the material system behind many interior wall projects. U.S. gypsum mining totaled 5.37 million metric tons, while synthetic gypsum used during the quarter totaled 3.63 million metric tons. Synthetic gypsum represented about 34% of the 10.7-million-ton total U.S. gypsum supply. Calcined gypsum production was 4.72 million metric tons, and sales of uncalcined gypsum were 4.95 million metric tons. (USGS Gypsum in the First Quarter 2024)
Board-product sales totaled 3.91 million metric tons in the first quarter of 2024. USGS expressed those sales as about 628 million square meters, or 6.76 billion square feet. That conversion gives wall-planning readers a sense of the scale of the board market, although it is an industry total rather than the quantity used in DIY projects.
Crude gypsum imports totaled 1.69 million metric tons. Spain supplied 41% of those imports, Mexico 30%, and Canada 26%. Gypsum wallboard imports totaled 181,000 metric tons, or about 20.1 million square meters and 216 million square feet. Mexico supplied 96% of gypsum wallboard imports and Canada supplied 4%.
The United States also exported gypsum wallboard in the quarter: exports totaled 171,000 metric tons, or 19.1 million square meters and 205 million square feet. Canada accounted for 94% of those exports. USGS also states that a typical new American home contains more than 7 metric tons of gypsum alone. (USGS Gypsum in the First Quarter 2024; USGS Gypsum Statistics and Information)
Retail scale for DIY materials
Home Depot’s 2024 Form 10-K says a typical store stocks approximately 30,000 to 40,000 items during the year. Its Primary segment stores covered 243.5 million square feet, with 89% owned and 11% leased. Distribution and fulfillment centers and warehouses covered 108.3 million square feet, with 3% owned and 97% leased; offices and other facilities covered 4.7 million square feet, with 27% owned and 73% leased.
Home Depot opened 12 new stores in fiscal 2024. Customer transactions totaled 1,637.2 million, the average ticket was $89.31, and sales per retail square foot were $599.92. Net sales were $159.5 billion, with online sales representing 15.1% of net sales and increasing 6.6%. Comparable sales declined 1.8%, comparable customer transactions declined 1.0%, and comparable average ticket declined 0.9%. (Home Depot 2024 Form 10-K)
The same filing reports $52.756 billion in Building Materials net sales, $51.790 billion in Décor net sales, and $48.562 billion in Hardlines net sales. Net sales in the United States were $147.007 billion, compared with $12.507 billion outside the United States. Product sales were $153.674 billion and services sales were $5.840 billion. Gross profit was $53.3 billion, or a 33.4% gross profit margin, while selling, general, and administrative expense was $28.7 billion, or 18.0% of net sales.
Lowe’s 2024 Annual Report provides a second retail benchmark. Lowe’s served approximately 16 million customer transactions a week in the United States, generated $83.7 billion in net sales, and operated 1,748 stores at fiscal year-end. It employed approximately 300,000 associates, had 809 million total customer transactions, and reported an average ticket of $103.37. Its sales floor space was 195 million square feet, with an average store size of 112,000 selling square feet.
Lowe’s net sales decreased 3.1% in fiscal 2024, comparable sales declined 2.7%, and comparable customer transactions declined 3.0%. Comparable average ticket increased 0.3%. Lowe’s reported that its online sales positively affected comparable sales by about 50 basis points, while its Pro penetration reached approximately 30% of sales. The company also said its typical branded home-improvement store stocks approximately 40,000 items and that DIY customer categories were affected by lower discretionary demand, particularly in bigger-ticket interior projects. (Lowe’s 2024 Annual Report)