How to Value a Low Voltage Contractor in 2026

Low voltage contractors are one of my favorite categories to work on because they're almost always undervalued by their owners. The founder built the business pulling Cat6 and mounting cameras, thinks of himself as a tradesman, and prices his exit like he's selling a plumbing company. Meanwhile, the actual buyer pool — PE platforms like Pye-Barker, Allied Universal's integration arm, Convergint, and ADT Commercial — are paying premium multiples for the same book of business.

The gap between what these owners think their business is worth and what a sophisticated buyer will pay is often 50% or more. Let me explain why.

What Counts as a Low Voltage Contractor

The category is broader than most people realize. It covers structured cabling (data and voice), security (cameras, intrusion, access control), audiovisual (conference rooms, digital signage, distributed audio), fire alarm (in many states), nurse call, and increasingly, IoT sensor networks. Most shops specialize in two or three of these and subcontract the rest. The valuation multiple varies significantly by mix.

A pure structured cabling shop that pulls cable for GCs trades at the low end — call it 3.0-4.0x EBITDA. A security integrator with a healthy recurring monitoring book trades at the top — 5.5-6.5x EBITDA for platforms and sometimes higher. AV integrators land in the middle at 4.0-5.5x EBITDA depending on whether they have a managed services practice attached.

SMB-sized shops doing under $1.5M in EBITDA sell on SDE rather than EBITDA, usually at 2.0-3.0x SDE, with the typical buyer being another integrator or an SBA-backed owner-operator.

Recurring Revenue Is the Whole Game

If you remember one thing from this article: every dollar of recurring monthly revenue (RMR) in a low voltage contractor is worth roughly 10-20x on exit, while every dollar of project EBITDA is worth 4-5x. The math is that dramatic.

Here's why. Recurring monitoring contracts — fire alarm monitoring, video monitoring, access control management, managed AV — are sticky, high-margin, and sellable as a separate asset class. The RMR market has its own comps, and they're rich. Central station monitoring accounts have traded at 35-50x monthly RMR in recent platform deals. A contractor with $50K/month in monitoring RMR isn't just adding $600K of annual revenue to their valuation — they're potentially adding $20-30M of standalone asset value that gets stapled to the project business.

I worked on a security integrator doing $14M in project revenue and $95K/month in RMR. The project business normalized to $1.4M EBITDA and would have traded at roughly $7M on a 5x multiple. The RMR book sold at 42x monthly, adding $4M. Total deal value was $11M on what the owner thought was a $7M business. That's the recurring revenue premium in action.

If you have the option to build RMR in the next 18-24 months before selling — even at thin margins to acquire accounts — do it. Every $10K/month in new RMR typically adds $350-450K to your exit value.

Project Backlog and How Buyers Price It

The second biggest valuation driver is your signed project backlog. A low voltage shop with 9-12 months of signed backlog at the time of close is fundamentally a different business than one with 6 weeks of backlog and a fat Rolodex.

Buyers will want to see a backlog report as of the last day of the most recent month, reconciled to signed contracts, with projected gross margin on each job. They'll discount anything that's not under a signed purchase order. Verbal commitments, handshake deals, and "we always get this one" revenue gets zeroed out. If your forecast depends on unsigned work, expect the buyer to use their own number, not yours.

The margin-on-backlog number matters too. A backlog full of 8% gross margin commodity cabling jobs is almost worthless in a valuation context. A backlog full of 38% gross margin security integration work with ongoing service contracts is gold. Buyers will ask for job-level margin detail and they'll normalize any unusually profitable job as a one-time windfall.

Licensing, Labor, and Why This Industry Is Harder Than It Looks

Most states require low voltage contractors to hold specific licenses — a C-7 in California, an ES license in Florida, a Class A Alarm license in Texas. Those licenses are almost always tied to a specific qualifying individual. If that qualifier is you, the owner, and you walk away at close, the buyer has a problem.

Sophisticated buyers will require you to either stay on as the qualifier for 12-24 months (usually via a consulting agreement) or to identify and formally register a replacement qualifier before close. If you can't do either, your business is effectively unsellable to a buyer who doesn't already hold the license in your state. I've seen deals die in week four of diligence over exactly this issue.

The labor story is similar to what's happening across the trades. BICSI-certified installers, NICET fire alarm techs, and CTS-certified AV technicians are scarce and expensive. A contractor with a stable, W-2 technician base with ongoing certification investment will trade at a premium. A contractor running a lot of 1099s or constantly poaching labor will not.

Customer Concentration and End-Market Mix

Unlike cable installation contractors who often sell into one or two ISPs, low voltage contractors tend to have dozens of customers — GCs, property managers, corporate end users, schools, hospitals. That's generally good for your multiple.

End-market mix matters more than customer count. Healthcare and K-12 education are the most valuable verticals right now — they're growing, they're well-funded (federal ESSER money is still in play in some districts), and they generate follow-on service work. Commercial office is the worst vertical in 2026. Multifamily and industrial are in between. A contractor with 60% healthcare and K-12 revenue will trade 0.5-1.0x above one with 60% commercial office.

The one exception: contractors tied to a single large national account (think a retail rollout for a chain like Dollar General or a QSR brand) can trade well if the contract is long-term and assignable, or very badly if it's not. Read the contract language carefully before you price the business.

What Kills Value in Low Voltage

Job costing that doesn't tie out. The number one diligence killer I see is a contractor who can't produce job-level profitability reports. The buyer's Q of E team will ask for the 20 biggest jobs from the last two years with a full cost build-up. If you can't produce it, they'll assume you're hiding losses and they'll either walk or hit you with a 25% price cut.

Warranty liability. Low voltage work carries warranty exposure — usually 1-3 years on labor, longer on manufacturer-covered equipment. Buyers will want to see your warranty reserve and your historical warranty cost as a percent of revenue. A shop that's been under-reserving will get hit with a purchase price adjustment.

Owner as master technician. If you're still pulling cable or programming panels personally, your business isn't sellable at a premium. The buyer needs to see that the work gets done without you.

How to Maximize Your Exit

Build RMR aggressively — it's the single highest-leverage thing you can do. Implement a real job costing system (Sage Intacct, Acumatica, or Vista) so you can produce the reports buyers will demand. Identify and register a replacement qualifier for your state license. Shift your backlog toward higher-margin verticals. Get three years of reviewed financials. Normalize your owner comp to a replacement GM salary so your EBITDA story is clean on day one. Our guide on preparing your business for sale walks through the 18-month timeline.

The Bottom Line

Low voltage contractors trade in a 3-6x EBITDA range, but the real value conversation is about recurring monthly revenue, which can add millions in standalone value on top of the project business. Owners who understand the RMR premium and build toward it for 24 months before selling routinely exit at valuations 40-60% higher than their EBITDA multiple would suggest. The buyers in this space — Convergint, Pye-Barker, ADT Commercial, and the PE platforms behind them — pay up for clean, recurring, well-run integrators.