New construction gets the headlines, but existing buildings never stop costing money. Roofs leak, paint fades, HVAC systems age, and factories need constant maintenance. RPM reports Tuesday morning, giving you a fresh look at the enormous economy built around repairing, protecting, and upgrading what already exists.
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Theme: Repair, Maintenance, Restoration, Coatings, Waterproofing, HVAC, and Existing-Building Spending
Old Buildings Create Recurring Demand
Construction is usually treated as a cyclical business. Higher rates make projects harder to finance, weaker confidence delays development, and housing downturns can quickly hit builders and suppliers.
Maintenance works differently.
A property owner can postpone building another warehouse. It is much harder to ignore a leaking roof, corroding equipment, failing air conditioning, damaged concrete, or a building that is wasting energy.
That creates a large pool of spending tied to the installed base of homes, offices, factories, hospitals, data centers, and infrastructure rather than solely to new construction.
For many suppliers, that distinction can make revenue much more resilient.
RPM Is Tuesday’s Main Catalyst
RPM International reports fiscal Q1 results Tuesday before the market opens.
Its last quarter showed exactly why maintenance matters. Fiscal Q4 revenue reached a record $2.23 billion, up 7.2%, while adjusted EBIT increased 7.7% to a record $338.6 million.
Construction Products was particularly strong, with sales increasing 8.8% and adjusted EBIT jumping 14.6%. Management highlighted roofing restoration, high-performance building systems, concrete solutions, and other repair and maintenance products as important growth drivers.
RPM expects fiscal 2027 sales to rise 3% to 7%, with adjusted EBITDA increasing 5% to 10%. For Q1 specifically, management guided toward mid-single-digit growth in both sales and adjusted EBITDA.
That puts Tuesday’s report in a useful position. The question is whether repair and restoration can keep growing even while broader construction conditions remain uneven.
Repair Can Be Better Than Replacement
Maintenance spending also has attractive economics because the alternative can be much more expensive.
Restoring a commercial roof can cost less than tearing it off and replacing it. Coating industrial equipment can extend its useful life. Upgrading an HVAC system can lower energy consumption without constructing a new building.
Those projects become especially appealing when financing is expensive and companies want to squeeze more life from existing assets.
The Chain Reaction
Buildings age → maintenance becomes unavoidable → owners repair instead of replace → coatings, sealants, HVAC, and efficiency upgrades gain spending → suppliers build recurring relationships → the installed building base becomes a long-term growth engine
Professional Maintenance Is Holding Up Better
Several companies in this group are showing stronger professional and commercial demand than consumer DIY activity.
Sherwin-Williams reported double-digit growth in protective and marine coatings, high-single-digit commercial growth, and mid-single-digit residential repaint growth through its Paint Stores Group last quarter. RPM is seeing strength in roofing restoration and high-performance buildings, while Johnson Controls has an enormous backlog of HVAC, controls, and building-system projects.
That suggests the strongest part of the theme is not somebody repainting a spare bedroom. It is professional customers spending money to protect valuable assets, improve efficiency, and keep buildings operating.
What to Watch
For RPM, watch Construction Products growth, roofing and restoration demand, organic volumes, pricing, Consumer segment performance, margins, acquisitions, and fiscal 2027 guidance.
The best outcome would show maintenance and restoration continuing to offset softer construction markets while operational improvements allow earnings to grow faster than revenue.
RPM International (RPM)
What it does:
RPM owns specialty coatings, sealants, roofing systems, waterproofing products, concrete solutions, flooring products, and consumer brands including Rust-Oleum.
Why it fits:
RPM is Tuesday’s direct catalyst and probably the purest expression of this theme. A large portion of its business revolves around repairing, restoring, and protecting existing structures rather than depending entirely on new construction.
That gives RPM exposure to spending property owners often cannot avoid. A roof eventually needs restoration, concrete needs protection, and commercial buildings need regular maintenance regardless of whether developers are breaking ground on new projects.
What stands out:
Fiscal Q4 sales increased 7.2% to a record $2.23 billion, while Construction Products sales jumped 8.8%. Management specifically credited roofing restoration systems, high-performance building solutions, and stronger project activity.
Adjusted EBIT also reached a record, helped by higher volume and operational improvements.
What to watch:
Construction Products, organic volumes, restoration demand, pricing, acquisitions, margins, and whether Q1 meets the mid-single-digit growth outlook.
The Takeaway: Buy this if you want the most direct play on the repair-and-maintenance economy. RPM can benefit from aging buildings without requiring a major rebound in new construction.
The risk is that acquisitions and inflation create pressure if organic demand weakens.
Sherwin-Williams (SHW)
What it does:
Sherwin-Williams sells architectural and industrial coatings through more than 5,400 company-operated stores and brands including Sherwin-Williams, Valspar, Minwax, Krylon, and Thompson’s WaterSeal.
Why it fits:
Paint is one of the most obvious recurring maintenance products. Buildings may last decades, but their surfaces do not. Homes need repainting, commercial facilities require protective coatings, and industrial assets need protection against corrosion and wear.
Sherwin-Williams also has an important distribution advantage. Its store network puts products close to professional painters, contractors, and facility managers who buy repeatedly.
What stands out:
Q2 sales increased 7.5% to $6.79 billion, while Paint Stores same-store sales rose 4.2%. Professional demand was particularly healthy, with double-digit growth in protective and marine coatings, high-single-digit commercial growth, and mid-single-digit residential repaint growth.
Adjusted EBITDA rose 13.8%, allowing management to raise full-year earnings guidance despite describing the broader demand environment as soft.
What to watch:
Same-store sales, residential repaint, commercial work, protective coatings, raw-material inflation, pricing, and margins.
The Takeaway: Buy this if you want the highest-quality professional coatings franchise in the group. Sherwin-Williams can gain share even when the overall market is not particularly strong.
The risk is that its premium valuation assumes that outperformance continues.
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PPG Industries (PPG)
What it does:
PPG supplies architectural, industrial, aerospace, automotive, marine, protective, and specialty coatings around the world.
Why it fits:
PPG broadens the maintenance theme beyond buildings. Aircraft, ships, factories, cars, infrastructure, and industrial equipment all require coatings throughout their useful lives.
That gives the company exposure to maintenance cycles across many assets rather than relying primarily on residential construction or remodeling.
What stands out:
Q2 sales increased 7% to $4.5 billion, while organic growth reached 4%. Protective and marine coatings delivered double-digit organic growth and their 13th consecutive quarter of volume growth.
Aerospace was another standout, with double-digit organic growth and a backlog near $300 million. Global Architectural Coatings also increased sales 8%, although underlying volumes remained mixed.
PPG is therefore getting stronger results from specialized and professional markets than from some traditional consumer-facing categories.
What to watch:
Protective and marine coatings, aerospace, architectural volumes, automotive refinish, pricing, raw-material costs, and margin recovery.
The Takeaway: Buy this if you want the diversified coatings play. PPG benefits whenever expensive physical assets need to be protected, refinished, or kept operating longer.
The risk is that weakness in automotive and architectural markets offsets strength elsewhere.
Masco (MAS)
What it does:
Masco owns building-product brands including Delta and Hansgrohe plumbing products, along with Behr paint and other decorative architectural products.
Why it fits:
Masco gives you more direct exposure to home repair and remodeling.
A homeowner does not need to buy another house to replace a faucet, repaint a room, upgrade a shower, or renovate a bathroom. That means Masco can benefit from people improving the homes they already own, particularly when high mortgage rates discourage moving.
This is an important distinction. A frozen housing market can hurt transactions while simultaneously encouraging some homeowners to invest in their current property.
What stands out:
Q2 sales declined 3% to $1.99 billion, showing that repair and remodeling are not immune to consumer weakness. Plumbing sales fell 3%, while Decorative Architectural Products dropped 4%.
Yet adjusted EPS increased 26% to $1.64, and adjusted operating margin reached a strong 24.2%. Masco also returned $454 million to shareholders during the quarter.
That makes this less of a growth story today and more of an earnings-quality and eventual remodeling-recovery play.
What to watch:
Plumbing demand, paint volumes, remodeling activity, consumer confidence, margins, cash generation, and share repurchases.
The Takeaway: Buy this if you want the residential repair-and-remodeling angle. Masco can work even without a new-home boom if homeowners keep spending on the houses they already occupy.
The risk is that consumers delay cosmetic renovation projects much more easily than essential maintenance.
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Johnson Controls (JCI)
What it does:
Johnson Controls provides HVAC equipment, building controls, fire and security systems, energy-efficiency solutions, and ongoing services for large commercial and institutional buildings.
Why it fits:
Johnson Controls represents the technology-heavy end of the maintenance theme.
Large buildings do not simply need repairs. Their HVAC systems, controls, cooling equipment, and energy-management systems require constant servicing and eventual upgrades.
That creates a lifecycle business. Johnson Controls can sell equipment when a building is constructed, then continue generating service and replacement revenue for years afterward.
What stands out:
Fiscal Q3 sales increased 9% to $6.6 billion, with organic growth of 10%. Organic orders jumped 27%, while backlog reached $21 billion, up 32%.
The Americas business was particularly strong. Organic sales increased 11%, service revenue grew 10%, orders jumped 37%, and backlog reached $15.9 billion.
Data centers are helping drive the numbers, but the broader opportunity includes hospitals, factories, offices, universities, and other buildings where reliable climate control and energy efficiency are critical.
What to watch:
Orders, backlog, service growth, Applied HVAC, data centers, margins, productivity, and conversion of backlog into revenue.
The Takeaway: Buy this if you want the building-systems play where maintenance, replacement, and efficiency upgrades can generate recurring demand long after construction ends.
The risk is that today’s enormous data-center demand eventually normalizes, exposing slower growth elsewhere.
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The Installed Base Is the Opportunity
New buildings are exciting because you can see them going up. The quieter business is everything that happens during the next 30 or 50 years.
RPM protects roofs and concrete. Sherwin-Williams and PPG protect surfaces and equipment. Masco supplies the products homeowners replace and upgrade. Johnson Controls keeps complex buildings running efficiently.
Tuesday’s RPM report should show whether maintenance continues to outperform broader construction.
For you, the opportunity may be less about building the next property and more about everything required to keep the existing one standing.
Best Regards,
— Adam Garcia
Elite Trade Club
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