Renewed optimism has residential contractors projecting revenue growth during the coming years, which is changing their strategies for how they bid jobs, select products and where they shop for building products. L.E.K. Consulting’s third Contractor Behavior Survey finds that shifting contractor behaviors will have an impact on building products manufacturers and the channel.

And for the first time, contractors ranked the highest-performing manufacturers across 14 product categories.

L.E.K. report highlights for the construction and building materials industry include:

• Brand vs. price: Shifting contractor criteria for product selection
• Shopping shifts: Are big boxes losing contractors to pro channels?
• Contractor checklist: Which product qualities and channel services are the most important and why?
• Rankings of the highest-performing product manufactures – from foundations (concrete) to roofing (and key categories in between)
• Key recommendations for building products manufacturers and the channel