Sales Factory
Q3 2026 Now Available
Introducing

The State of
the DIYer

The only quarterly study that follows the American homeowner from intention to execution to optimization to planning. Built for the brands competing to win their time, trust, and budget.

Read the Q3 2026 Report
Why this exists

Most brands are making decisions about a DIYer who no longer exists.

The homeowner your product team briefed against, the shopper your media plan was built for, the customer your retail partner is planning around: that person has shifted. Their confidence has changed. Their relationship with AI has changed. Their loyalty to stores has changed. Their willingness to take on a big project has changed.

And most brands have no way to know it until the numbers come in six months later.

The State of the DIYer exists to close that gap. It is a quarterly tracking study from Sales Factory that gives home improvement brands a live read on how homeowners are thinking, spending, and behaving across every season of the year.

The DIY market isn't slow. It's in motion. The brands that understand the direction of that motion will set the pace. The ones that don't will spend the year reacting to it.

What it is

A full-year view of the homeowner, one quarter at a time.

DIY behavior is not static. It follows a rhythm: reflection in the winter, planning in the spring, optimization after reality sets in, and recalibration before the next year begins. Each wave of the State of the DIYer is built around that rhythm, tracking the same variables across the same audience so you can see not just where homeowners are, but where they are going.

Each quarterly report is fielded with 900+ US homeowners across every stage of the DIY funnel, from the aspirational homeowner who wants to do more to the heavy DIYer who runs a full project portfolio. The result is intelligence that is actionable at the category, brand, and audience level.

Q1
Future Planning
What they will take on next year, what they will hire out, and where ambition meets economic pressure.
Q2
Reflection
What got finished, abandoned, overspent, or regretted. What homeowners are carrying into the new year.
Q3
Execution
What DIYers are actually doing once projects begin. Where products, retail, and AI shape the experience.
Q4
Optimization
How DIYers adjust after reality sets in. What shifts in confidence, priorities, and brand allegiance.
What brands get
01
Audience intelligence by funnel stage and generation
Every finding is broken out across the DIY funnel (Non-DIY, Aspirational, Light, Heavy) and by generation, so you are not making decisions on an average that describes no one.
02
Quarterly tracking of the variables that move brands
Confidence by project type. Barriers to DIY. AI adoption and trust. Retail behavior and brand loyalty. Purchase drivers. Funnel movement. Tracked every wave so you can see the shift before it shows up in your sales data.
03
Category and brand signal flags
Each wave includes category-level reads with direct implications for your brief: where awareness gaps exist, where loyalty is sticky, and where challengers have an opening.
04
PR-ready stats and modular one-pager assets
Each report is built so that individual modules can be lifted out as standalone story pitches, brand one-pagers, or creative briefs. The data arrives ready to use, not just ready to read.
05
A clear point of view, not just tables
Every finding comes with a confidence rating and a "why it matters" implication. Sales Factory does not hand you raw data and walk away. We tell you what it means and where to act on it.
The Q3 2026 report

This quarter's wave tracks the execution season, the most consequential moment in DIY.

This quarter, wallets opened, projects started, and brand decisions got made at the shelf and in the search bar. Here is a sample of what the data found.

57%
of Gen Z DIYers said their last project was more mentally draining than expected. Only 12% of Boomers said the same.
Your fastest-growing audience is also your most stressed. Gen Z attempts harder projects, carries more strain, and is nearly four times more likely to consider quitting mid-job. The brands that reduce that friction will own the next decade of DIY loyalty.
#4
AI is now the fourth most-used help source for home improvement, ahead of in-store associates.
35% of DIYers trust it more than they did a year ago. Among Gen Z, that number climbs to 50%. The brands showing up in AI-assisted research are winning the consideration set before a shopper ever walks in the door.
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