Short answer
The NAICS code for a painting contractor is 238320, Painting and Wall Covering Contractors: interior or exterior painting and interior wall covering, new work or repairs, from house painting to bridge, ship and water tower painting. The SIC code for painting is 1721, Painting and Paper Hanging. Line striping on roads and parking lots is 237310, roof coating 238160, and concrete coating or sealing 238390.
- 238320 covers residential, commercial and industrial painting, plus wallpaper hanging and removal.
- Pavement striping is 237310 (SBA limit $45.0 million), roof coating 238160 and concrete sealing 238390.
- County Business Patterns counted 38,280 painting contractor establishments with paid employees in 2023; 75.1% had fewer than five.
- The SBA's size standard for 238320 is $19.0 million in average annual receipts.
- SIC 1721 includes traffic lane painting, which NAICS moves to highway construction.
On this page
- The NAICS code for painting contractors
- How to choose: painting and the coatings next door
- SIC code for painting
- How many painting contractors there are
- SBA size standards
- Where the code is used and what a wrong one costs
- Finding painting contractors
- Worked example: coding a coatings company
- Sources
- Questions people ask
This page is for painting contractors registering in SAM.gov, applying for a license, bond or insurance, or prequalifying with a general contractor, and for sellers of paint, equipment, software and insurance building a list of painting companies.
The NAICS code for painting contractors
| NAICS 2022 code | Official title | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| 238320 | Painting and Wall Covering Contractors | Interior or exterior painting and interior wall covering, including new work, additions, alterations, maintenance and repairs. The Census examples include house painting, bridge painting, ship painting, painting engineering structures such as oil storage tanks and water towers, on-site electrostatic painting, rustproofing (except automotive), whitewashing, and paint and wallpaper stripping. |
238320 sits in 2383, Building Finishing Contractors, with drywall, flooring, tile and finish carpentry. NAICS doesn't split residential from commercial painting: a house painter and a contractor repainting hospitals share the code.
How to choose: painting and the coatings next door
The Census cross-references move several jobs that painters often do into other codes:
| If the business mainly... | NAICS | SIC |
|---|---|---|
| Paints homes, offices, factories, bridges, tanks or ships on site | 238320 | 1721 |
| Hangs or removes wallpaper and wall coverings | 238320 | 1721 |
| Paints lines on highways, streets, parking lots or runways | 237310, Highway, Street, and Bridge Construction | 1721 |
| Paints, sprays or coats roofs | 238160, Roofing Contractors | 1761 |
| Coats, glazes or seals concrete | 238390, Other Building Finishing Contractors | 1799 |
| Applies epoxy coatings | 238190, Other Foundation, Structure, and Building Exterior Contractors (the Census index lists epoxy application contractors here) | 1799 |
| Sandblasts building exteriors | 238990, All Other Specialty Trade Contractors | 1799 |
| Pressure washes buildings, decks and fences | 561790, Other Services to Buildings and Dwellings | 7349 or 1799 |
| Finishes drywall (taping, sanding, texturing) | 238310, Drywall and Insulation Contractors | 1742 |
| Paints metal products in its own shop for manufacturers | 332812, Metal Coating, Engraving, and Allied Services to Manufacturers | 3479 |
| Paints cars and trucks | 811121, Automotive Body, Paint, and Interior Repair and Maintenance | 7532 |
| Letters or paints signs | 541890, Other Services Related to Advertising | 7389 |
If you do several, the primary code is the one that brings in the most revenue, and the rest are secondary codes. A painter who also does drywall finishing stays 238320 while painting earns more; a striping contractor that paints the odd building is 237310.
SIC code for painting
The SIC code for painting contractors is 1721, Painting and Paper Hanging. The Census concordance splits it: traffic lane painting goes to 237310, and everything else to 238320. Going the other way, 238320 also takes a piece of SIC 1799, Special Trade Contractors, NEC, a catch-all that maps to 13 NAICS codes. So a SIC 1721 list includes line striping firms, and a SIC 1799 list is mostly not painters at all. The SEC's SIC list has no 1721; specialty contractors on EDGAR file under 1700. For other conversions, use the NAICS to SIC converter.
How many painting contractors there are
County Business Patterns (CBP) 2023, establishments with paid employees:
| NAICS code | Establishments | Employees | Annual payroll |
|---|---|---|---|
| 238320 Painting and wall covering | 38,280 | 208,201 | $11.5 billion |
| 238310 Drywall and insulation | 20,760 | 250,758 | $16.7 billion |
| 238160 Roofing | 25,519 | 215,242 | $15.2 billion |
| Employees per location | 238320 Painting contractors | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer than 5 | 28,745 | 75.1% |
| 5 to 9 | 5,240 | 13.7% |
| 10 to 19 | 2,525 | 6.6% |
| 20 to 49 | 1,307 | 3.4% |
| 50 to 99 | 326 | 0.9% |
| 100 or more | 136 | 0.4% |
Painting is one of the most fragmented trades: about 5.4 employees per establishment, against 12.1 for drywall and insulation contractors (our calculation). California has the most painting contractors (4,880), then Florida (4,421), New York (2,579), Washington (1,809) and Illinois (1,505). Texas has fewer (1,468) but they're larger: they employ 23,652 people, more than Florida's 17,838.
CBP counts establishments with paid employees, so the many self-employed painters who work alone aren't included. It uses NAICS 2017; 238320 didn't change in 2022.
SBA size standards
From the SBA's Table of Size Standards, effective March 17, 2023 (13 CFR 121.201 on the eCFR shows no later change), in average annual receipts over five years, including affiliates:
| NAICS code | Size standard |
|---|---|
| 238320 Painting and wall covering | $19.0 million |
| 238310, 238160, 238190, 238390, 238990 Other specialty trades | $19.0 million each |
| 237310 Highway, street and bridge construction (including striping) | $45.0 million |
| 561790 Other services to buildings (including pressure washing) | $9.0 million |
Because a federal contracting officer sets one code per contract, a painting job coded 238320 measures you at $19.0 million, while a pavement marking job coded 237310 measures you at $45.0 million.
Where the code is used and what a wrong one costs
- Federal and state bids. List 238320 as your primary code in SAM.gov and add the others you actually do. If a solicitation carries a code you think is wrong, any interested party can appeal it to the SBA's Office of Hearings and Appeals within 10 days of publication.
- Tax returns. The IRS activity code is the same: 238320, Painting and wall covering contractors.
- Insurance and bonding. Industrial work (bridges, tanks, lead abatement) carries different risks from house painting, so describe the work, not just the code.
- Prequalification. General contractors' vendor forms ask for NAICS codes to sort subcontractors by trade.
Finding painting contractors
Painting contractors are almost all private. There's no SIC 1721 on EDGAR, and the specialty contractors filed under SIC 1700 are mostly solar, mechanical and energy contractors. The large public company in the trade is a supplier: Sherwin-Williams (Cleveland, filed under SIC 5200), whose 10-K for 2025 reports revenue of $23.57 billion and 4,853 company-operated paint stores in the US, Canada and the Caribbean at 31 December 2025, each "servicing the needs of architectural and industrial paint contractors and do-it-yourself homeowners."
For private painters, state contractor licensing boards (in the states that license painters), local building permit records and general contractors' subcontractor lists are the public sources. A Bebop search can describe the painters you want (commercial painting contractors in Texas with 20 to 100 employees that work on hospitals and schools) and return the companies and owners with the reason each fits. The construction leads guide covers how to find active projects.
Worked example: coding a coatings company
Illustrative example. The company and figures are invented.
Summit Coatings Group (summitcoatings.example) in Denver had $7.8 million in revenue last year: $4.6 million from commercial interior and exterior painting, $2.1 million from parking lot striping and $1.1 million from epoxy floor coatings.
- Primary code. Painting is 59% of revenue ($4.6 million of $7.8 million), so the primary code is 238320 and the SIC code 1721.
- Secondary codes. Striping is 237310 and epoxy floors 238190; both go on its SAM.gov registration.
- Size. With five-year average receipts of $7.2 million, it's small under every one of those codes ($19.0 million, $45.0 million and $19.0 million).
- SIC on a form. 1721 still covers both the painting and the striping, since SIC 1721 includes traffic lane painting.
Next step: if you sell to painters and other trades, read the construction leads guide for how to find contractors with active projects.
Sources
- 2022 NAICS definition: 238320 Painting and Wall Covering Contractors, US Census Bureau, accessed 30 October 2026
- NAICS concordances (1987 SIC to 2002 NAICS, through 2017 to 2022 NAICS), US Census Bureau, accessed 30 October 2026
- County Business Patterns: 2023, US Census Bureau, accessed 30 October 2026
- Table of Size Standards (effective March 17, 2023), US Small Business Administration, accessed 30 October 2026
- Size standards (federal contracting guide), US Small Business Administration, accessed 30 October 2026
- 2025 Instructions for Schedule C (Form 1040): Principal Business or Professional Activity Codes, Internal Revenue Service, accessed 30 October 2026
- Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code list, US Securities and Exchange Commission, accessed 30 October 2026
- The Sherwin-Williams Company Form 10-K, fiscal year 2025, US Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR), 19 February 2026
Written by the Bebop team at Blackpearl Group. Published .
Questions people ask
What is the NAICS code for a painting contractor?
238320, Painting and Wall Covering Contractors: interior or exterior painting and interior wall covering, for new work, additions, alterations, maintenance and repairs. It covers house painting, commercial painting and industrial painting of bridges, ships, tanks and water towers, plus wallpaper hanging and removal. The SBA's size standard is $19.0 million in average annual receipts.
What is the SIC code for painting?
SIC 1721, Painting and Paper Hanging. In NAICS it maps to 238320, Painting and Wall Covering Contractors, except for traffic lane painting, which moves to 237310, Highway, Street, and Bridge Construction. Some painting work also came from SIC 1799, Special Trade Contractors, NEC. On SEC EDGAR there's no 1721; specialty contractors file under 1700.
What NAICS code is pavement striping or line painting?
237310, Highway, Street, and Bridge Construction. The Census Bureau classifies painting lines on highways, streets, bridges, parking lots and airport runways there, not in 238320. That matters for federal bids: the SBA's size standard for 237310 is $45.0 million in average annual receipts, against $19.0 million for painting contractors, so a striping firm can stay small at a much larger size.
What NAICS code is an epoxy floor coating company?
The Census index lists epoxy application contractors under 238190, Other Foundation, Structure, and Building Exterior Contractors, and puts concrete coating, glazing or sealing in 238390, Other Building Finishing Contractors. A painting contractor that does occasional epoxy floors stays 238320 and can add 238190 as a secondary code. All three have a $19.0 million SBA size standard.
How many painting contractors are there in the US?
County Business Patterns counted 38,280 painting and wall covering contractor establishments with paid employees in 2023, employing 208,201 people with $11.5 billion in annual payroll. Three in four (75.1%) had fewer than five employees. The count leaves out self-employed painters with no employees, so the real number of painting businesses is higher.