Home Improvement

“Our Aim Is to Serve the Industry”: Qualified Remodeler Lands at No. 1 on HG HomeClub’s Ranking of the 25 Most Influential Publications and Media Platforms Serving Home Improvement, Home Services and Outdoor Living

By HG HomeClub September 1, 2026 21 min read

The magazine that invented the remodeling trade press in 1975, and now owns the industry’s defining revenue ranking, its two largest owner conferences, its leading design award, and its quarterly market index, is recognized as the most influential media brand serving professional remodelers and home improvement companies

August 29, 2026 – HG HomeClub, a national media platform dedicated to curating the most valuable stories, rankings and resources for the home improvement, home services and outdoor living industries, today announced that Qualified Remodeler has been named the No. 1 most influential publication and media platform serving home improvement, home services and outdoor living professionals. The recognition places Qualified Remodeler at the head of a 25-title list that spans roofing, HVAC, electrical, plumbing, landscaping, pest management, pools, windows, decking, irrigation, kitchen and bath, building products and residential construction, and it reflects a judgment about durability as much as reach. Of every brand evaluated, Qualified Remodeler is the one whose editorial products have become industry infrastructure: the ranking contractors measure themselves against, the conferences where the largest operators set their agendas, and the index the market reads to understand its own direction.

A curated media platform built on “informed transparency” turns its attention to the publications the trades actually rely on

HG HomeClub was created to address a gap its founders identified in home improvement media: an abundance of content and a shortage of signal. According to the organization’s own description of its mission, HG HomeClub was “created from identifying a need in the home improvement media space to champion media back to its original purpose of ‘informed transparency.'” The platform pursues that mission by curating the top stories, headlines, and “can’t miss” information across the home improvement, home services, and outdoor living industries, articles, videos, podcasts, webinars, events, and product recommendations from working professionals, and presenting them in one easily consumable destination for homeowners and contractors alike.

That mission produces original editorial rankings as well as curation. Having already published its list of the 25 most influential podcasts serving the trades, HG HomeClub turned to the harder question: among the magazines, websites, newsletters, research programs and event franchises competing for a contractor’s limited attention, which ones genuinely change how companies are run?

The criteria behind the list: usefulness to owners, not traffic, followers or the age of a masthead

HG HomeClub’s editorial team evaluated each organization against six standards: industry influence and professional recognition; practical value to contractors and company owners; quality and depth of original content; reach among professional decision-makers; strength of rankings, research, events and recognition programs; and the ability to educate and connect the contractor community. The team was explicit about what the exercise was not. This is not a ranking of website traffic, social-media followers, advertising volume, or publication age. Longevity and circulation were considered, but neither was permitted to automatically outweigh contractor usefulness, editorial relevance, or measurable industry impact, and specialized publications were assessed within the context of the markets they serve rather than against the largest general titles.

Applied to Qualified Remodeler, those criteria converge rather than compete. The publication scores at or near the top of every one of the six, and on the fifth standard, the strength of rankings, research, events and recognition programs, it has effectively set the benchmark the rest of the field is measured against.

The first magazine written for remodelers, published by people who helped organize the trade

Qualified Remodeler was first published in March 1975, at a moment when residential remodeling was not yet treated as a distinct profession with its own business literature. It was the first magazine dedicated to serving residential remodeling, and the founding was not a purely publishing decision. Founder Dave Sauer was among the group that helped launch the National Association of the Remodeling Industry, the trade body that gave the field its first professional standards, and the magazine supported the emerging peer-group movement from the beginning. In 1980, Sauer helped pioneer the idea of bringing together non-competing remodelers from around the country to share numbers and practices – the model that underpins nearly every remodeling peer group operating today.

That origin explains a posture the publication has never abandoned. “Since 1975, Qualified Remodeler has stood shoulder-to-shoulder with remodeling and home improvement professionals around the country,” the brand states. “Then as now, our mission is to foster professionalism among our readers by offering industry relevant business education and information.” The same statement makes the editorial method plain: “Our editors and publishers are consistently immersed in remodeling and home improvement at the ground level.” The publication frames its own output not as journalism about an industry but as a working instrument inside it,” a business tool that our readers have come to rely on in bad times and good.”

Today Qualified Remodeler is owned by SOLA Group Inc., the Chicago-based business-to-business media company focused on residential design and construction, which also publishes Kitchen & Bath Design News, itself recognized at No. 18 on this same HG HomeClub list, and Residential Design, the publication serving residential architects and custom builders. The magazine is published nine times each year and describes itself as “the leading media brand serving the remodeling and home improvement industry trades,” reaching more than 83,000 remodeling professionals through a BPA-audited circulation, with many thousands more receiving its newsletters and visiting its websites each month. It serves owners and executives in what it characterizes as a $600 billion residential remodeling industry.

The TOP 500: an annual ranking that has become the industry’s scoreboard

If one editorial product explains the No. 1 placement, it is the TOP 500. Qualified Remodeler has published its annual ranking of the 500 largest remodelers and home improvement companies in the United States since 1978, making it the oldest continuously published revenue ranking in the sector. The 2026 edition was the 48th, measuring installed remodeling revenue for the year that ended in December 2025, and it landed with unusual force: Leaf Home, the Hudson, Ohio replacement and home improvement company, took the No. 1 position with $2.53 billion in remodeling gross sales across 365,967 completed remodeling jobs – the first change at the top of the ranking in more than 20 years. In the same cycle, Leaf Home also topped the Top 100 published by Roofing Contractor, the publication recognized at No. 2 on this list, becoming the first company to lead both rankings in the same year.

“These rankings reflect the trust and confidence homeowners have placed in our company, along with the dedication of our incredible team members who exemplify excellence every day,” said Jenilee Common, chief executive officer of Leaf Home, on being named No. 1.

What makes the TOP 500 structurally influential is that it is not a list of names. Each entry carries remodeling gross sales, completed job volume, gross revenue, segment focus and headcount, sorted and searchable by geography and company type, with breakouts for full-service remodelers, design-build firms, replacement and home improvement specialists, kitchen and bath companies, insurance restoration operators and national platforms. The result is a public data set that owners use to benchmark revenue per job, to price acquisitions, to recruit, to raise capital and to argue for their own valuations. Companies across the country issue their own announcements when they place on it. Analysts pull consecutive years of it apart to model consolidation. Ranking on the TOP 500 has become a commercial credential rather than a courtesy, and no other publication in the category has produced an equivalent.

TOP 500 LIVE: the conference that won B2B journalism’s highest honor

In 2017, Qualified Remodeler extended the ranking into a conference, and TOP 500 LIVE has since become what the publication calls the premier business-management conference for the home improvement industry – the meeting place for owners and executives of the nation’s largest and fastest-growing home improvement companies. Its 2024 edition drew 600 industry registrants and the support of 70 sponsors; the 2025 event was staged at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas in November with a program built around artificial intelligence, national growth, marketing and sales leadership; and the 2026 edition runs October 26 – 28 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas across three days.

The conference is also the reason Qualified Remodeler holds an honor that is rare anywhere in trade publishing. At the 71st annual Jesse H. Neal Awards, the awards administered by SIIA that recognize excellence in business-to-business journalism, presented in 2025 at the Yale Club in New York City, the magazine’s editorial team won the Neal Award for Best Brand-Related Event for its development of TOP 500 LIVE.

“TOP 500 LIVE was created to serve the business needs of one of the largest direct-to-consumer sectors of the U.S. economy, home improvement and home remodeling,” said Patrick O’Toole, executive vice president of content and co-owner of SOLA Group Inc. “The content is laser focused on lead generation and sales management and typically features more than 30 leading CEOs and experts from around the industry. It’s also designed to be very fast-paced with very high production values.”

O’Toole, who serves as publisher and editorial director of Qualified Remodeler, has described the event’s function in the market in similarly practical terms. “TOP 500 LIVE has become the essential meeting ground for companies that want to grow strategically and stay competitive in a rapidly changing market,” he said ahead of the 2025 program, which featured operating executives from national home improvement platforms alongside data and artificial-intelligence leadership from the field.

FAST Remodeler Live: the industry’s only technology conference for remodelers

The second event franchise is narrower and, for many owners, more urgent. FAST Remodeler Live, FAST standing for Focused on Agile Systems and Technology, is the industry’s only technology-focused conference for remodelers and home improvement professionals, and it entered its fifth year in 2026. The event was held May 12 – 13 at the Grand Hyatt Nashville as a 1.5-day educational program with a solutions area showcasing innovations from 47 sponsoring companies, with attendance limited to owners and managers of residential remodeling and home improvement companies. Its keynote was delivered by Marcus Sheridan, the marketing author and speaker, and its centerpiece has become the FAST Remodeler Live Hackathon, in which remodelers present five-minute technology hacks they are actually running in their businesses.

O’Toole has been candid about the problem the conference exists to solve. “Technology and AI present tremendous opportunity, but the sheer volume of tools and platforms can be overwhelming,” he said. “FAST provides a focused, practical environment where remodelers can cut through the noise, stay current, and make smarter decisions. Based on attendee feedback, it has become a true game-changer for many businesses.”

The editorial thinking that shapes the program is the same thinking that shapes the magazine. Writing ahead of the 2026 event, the publication framed the shift its readers are facing through Sheridan’s assessment: “We’re in the era of AI agents,” Sheridan said. “Websites need to be designed for AI interaction, and businesses will have to think about not only human traffic to their website, but AI traffic.”

The Master Design Awards and a research index the whole market reads

Two further programs distinguish Qualified Remodeler from publications that cover the trade without shaping it.

The Master Design Awards, which the publication describes as its industry-leading design award program, reached its 48th annual competition in 2026, a run nearly as long as the TOP 500 itself. The program honors completed remodeling projects across categories spanning whole-house renovations, kitchens, baths, additions, exteriors, universal design and light commercial work, and it functions as the design-side counterpart to the revenue-side ranking: one measures how large a company has become, the other measures how well it builds.

The research program may be the least visible and most consequential. The U.S. Remodeler Index is a quarterly survey of Qualified Remodeler’s 83,000 professional remodeler subscribers, conducted as a partnership between SOLA Group Inc. and John Burns Research and Consulting, the housing research firm. It measures the health of the professional remodeling segment of the residential repair and remodeling industry, and its quarterly readings on current activity, near-term expectations and consumer behavior are cited across the building products and construction economy, by suppliers setting production, by lenders assessing exposure and by operators deciding whether to hire. Few trade publications produce primary economic research at all. Fewer still produce a series that the wider housing market treats as a leading indicator.

An editorial operation with a journalism record, not just a media kit

Influence of this kind is not sustainable on programs alone, and HG HomeClub’s evaluation weighed the quality and depth of original content as heavily as reach. Qualified Remodeler has won editorial awards since its founding in 1975, including recognition from American Business Media and the American Society of Business Press Editors, and its reporting has been honored well outside the boundaries of trade publishing.

Senior editor Kyle Clapham has twice been recognized by the National Association of Real Estate Editors, the organization that judges real estate journalism across consumer and trade media. He received a top editorial award for “Developing a New Workforce,” a feature examining the skilled-labor shortage, and was earlier honored for “Painful Reality,” a feature that framed the widespread impact of opioid abuse within the residential construction industry – a subject the trade press had largely avoided.

“Our aim is to serve the industry by offering business solutions,” O’Toole said of the work. That is a modest description of an editorial operation willing to report on addiction inside its readers’ crews.

The masthead is small and long-tenured. O’Toole serves as publisher and editorial director as well as co-owner of the parent company, Clapham as senior editor, and Emily Blackburn as digital content editor. The concentration matters editorially: the people setting the TOP 500 methodology are the same people writing the company profiles, hosting the conferences and interviewing the executives, which is why the publication’s coverage of scale, capital and consolidation tends to arrive with detail that press-release journalism cannot reach.

Podcasts, newsletters and the rest of a platform that no longer fits in a magazine

The brand now reaches its audience across formats. Talking TOP 500, the publication’s podcast, is a biweekly series of conversations with owners and managers of firms on the ranking, co-hosted by O’Toole alongside Tim Musch, the longtime home improvement technology executive, and distributed on Apple Podcasts and the major platforms. Recent episodes have featured Jenilee Common discussing conditions heading into 2026 shortly after she became chief executive of Leaf Home, a chief executive running a national platform of eleven brands and 120 offices across 48 states and Canada, and Marcus Sheridan on how artificial intelligence is reshaping home improvement marketing.

Around that sit daily and weekly newsletters, a website publishing continuous industry news, association certifications, executive moves, product introductions, market data, design award winners, and TOP 500 company profiles, and video programming from both conferences. The Qualified Remodeler audience can encounter the brand in print nine times a year, in an inbox every week, in a conference hall twice a year, in a data set once a year, and in a podcast feed continuously.

Why the methodology put this brand first

Read against HG HomeClub’s six standards, the No. 1 placement is not a close call.

On industry influence and professional recognition, Qualified Remodeler holds a Neal Award for the conference built on its own ranking, two NAREE honors for individual reporting, and a half-century of editorial awards. On practical value to owners, its flagship products are benchmarking instruments rather than features. On quality and depth of original content, it produces primary economic research with John Burns Research and Consulting in addition to reported journalism. On reach among decision-makers, its audited circulation of more than 83,000 remodeling professionals is executive-weighted by design. On the strength of rankings, research, events and recognition programs, it operates four distinct franchises, the TOP 500, TOP 500 LIVE, FAST Remodeler Live and the Master Design Awards, each the leading property in its lane. And on the ability to educate and connect the contractor community, its history begins with a founder who helped organize the trade association and pioneer the peer-group model.

The publications ranked immediately behind it are formidable in their own markets. Roofing Contractor at No. 2 owns the roofing category and publishes the Top 100 that sits alongside the TOP 500 as a sector benchmark. Power100 at No. 3 has built the fastest-growing executive community and content platform in home improvement. What separates Qualified Remodeler is breadth combined with permanence: it is the only brand on the list that is simultaneously the oldest publication in its field, the operator of its defining ranking, the host of its two largest owner conferences, the publisher of its leading design award and a co-producer of its quarterly economic index. As HG HomeClub’s editorial team concluded, its history, executive readership and flagship TOP 500 give it a level of recognition few industry publications can match.

What the ranking means for an industry being rebuilt while it grows

The recognition arrives during the most disruptive period the remodeling economy has experienced since Qualified Remodeler began publishing. Private capital is consolidating fragmented trades. Artificial intelligence is rewriting lead generation, estimating and field operations at the same time. The skilled-labor shortage has moved from a talking point to a constraint on revenue. And after two decades of stability, the top of the industry’s own scoreboard has changed hands.

In that environment, the media that matters is the media that publishes numbers it can stand behind, convenes the people who set direction, and reports the parts of the business its readers would rather not discuss. That is the standard HG HomeClub’s editorial team applied in placing Qualified Remodeler at No. 1, and it is a standard the publication set for itself long before there was a ranking to win. Fifty-one years after its first issue, the mission is still the one Patrick O’Toole states in a single line: “Our aim is to serve the industry by offering business solutions.”

The complete ranking: HG HomeClub’s 25 most influential publications and media platforms serving home improvement, home services and outdoor living

The full list of publications and media platforms recognized by HG HomeClub, in ranked order:

About HG HomeClub

HG HomeClub is a national media platform serving the home improvement, home services and outdoor living industries. Created to champion media back to its original purpose of informed transparency, HG HomeClub curates the top stories, headlines, rankings, videos, podcasts, webinars, events and professional recommendations across the industry and presents them in one consolidated, easily consumable destination, helping both homeowners and professionals make better-informed decisions. More information is available at hghomeclub.com.

About Qualified Remodeler

Qualified Remodeler is the leading media brand serving the remodeling and home improvement industry trades. First published in March 1975 as the first magazine dedicated to residential remodeling, it serves the business information needs of owners and executives with news, business best practices, new products and design ideas in print, online and in person, reaching more than 83,000 remodeling professionals through a BPA-audited circulation. The brand publishes the TOP 500, the annual ranking of the largest remodeling and home improvement firms in the United States, produced continuously since 1978; the Master Design Awards, now in its 48th annual competition; the Talking TOP 500 podcast; and the U.S. Remodeler Index, a quarterly market survey produced with John Burns Research and Consulting. It also hosts TOP 500 LIVE, the industry’s premier management conference for remodelers and home improvement pros, and FAST Remodeler Live, the industry’s only technology-focused conference for the trade. Qualified Remodeler is owned by SOLA Group Inc., which also publishes Kitchen & Bath Design News and Residential Design. More information is available at qualifiedremodeler.com.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Who is HG HomeClub?
HG HomeClub is a national media platform focused on the home improvement, home services and outdoor living industries. It was built to curate the most valuable stories, rankings, videos, podcasts and events across those industries in one place, with a stated mission of restoring “informed transparency” to home improvement media, helping both homeowners and professionals make better-informed decisions. More detail on its mission is available on the HG HomeClub About page.

2. Why did Qualified Remodeler rank No. 1 on the list?
HG HomeClub’s editorial team evaluated each organization on industry influence and professional recognition, practical value to contractors and company owners, quality and depth of original content, reach among professional decision-makers, strength of rankings, research, events and recognition programs, and ability to educate and connect the contractor community. Qualified Remodeler ranks at or near the top of all six. It is the oldest publication in professional remodeling, it operates the sector’s defining revenue ranking and its leading design award, it hosts the industry’s two largest owner conferences, and it co-produces a quarterly economic index with John Burns Research and Consulting. No other brand evaluated combines that breadth with that permanence.

3. How was the ranking decided, and was it based on traffic or circulation?
No. The ranking is not based on website traffic, social-media followers, advertising volume or publication age. Longevity and circulation were considered but were not allowed to automatically outweigh contractor usefulness, editorial relevance or industry impact, and specialized publications were evaluated within the context of the markets they serve rather than against the largest general-interest titles. The determining question in every case was whether the organization measurably changes how contractors and company owners run their businesses.

4. What is the TOP 500, and why is it considered so influential?
The TOP 500 is Qualified Remodeler’s annual ranking of the 500 largest remodeling and home improvement companies in the United States, published continuously since 1978. The 2026 edition was the 48th and measured installed remodeling revenue for the year that ended in December 2025. Each entry publishes remodeling gross sales, completed job volume, gross revenue, segment focus and headcount, which is why owners use it to benchmark performance, price acquisitions, recruit and raise capital. In 2026, Leaf Home took the No. 1 position with $2.53 billion in remodeling gross sales across 365,967 jobs, the first change at the top in more than 20 years.

5. Who publishes Qualified Remodeler, and who runs its editorial operation?
Qualified Remodeler is owned by SOLA Group Inc., a Chicago-based business-to-business media company focused on residential design and construction, which also publishes Kitchen & Bath Design News and Residential Design. Patrick O’Toole is publisher and editorial director of Qualified Remodeler as well as executive vice president of content and co-owner of SOLA Group Inc. Kyle Clapham is senior editor and Emily Blackburn is digital content editor. The magazine was founded in 1975 by Dave Sauer, who helped launch the National Association of the Remodeling Industry.

6. What awards has Qualified Remodeler won?
The publication’s editorial team won a Jesse H. Neal Award for Best Brand-Related Event for its development of the TOP 500 LIVE conference, presented at the 71st annual Neal Awards in 2025 at the Yale Club in New York City. The Neal Awards, administered by SIIA, recognize excellence in business-to-business journalism. Senior editor Kyle Clapham has also been honored by the National Association of Real Estate Editors for features on the skilled-labor shortage and on opioid abuse in residential construction, and the magazine has won editorial awards from American Business Media and the American Society of Business Press Editors.

7. What events does Qualified Remodeler host?
Two. TOP 500 LIVE is the management conference for owners and executives of the nation’s largest and fastest-growing home improvement companies; launched in 2017, it drew 600 registrants and 70 sponsors in 2024 and returns October 26 – 28, 2026 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. FAST Remodeler Live, FAST for Focused on Agile Systems and Technology, is the industry’s only technology-focused conference for remodelers and home improvement professionals; in its fifth year it was held May 12 – 13, 2026 at the Grand Hyatt Nashville, with a keynote from Marcus Sheridan and a hackathon in which remodelers present technology hacks running in their own businesses.

8. What is the U.S. Remodeler Index?
The U.S. Remodeler Index is a quarterly survey measuring the health of the professional remodeling segment of the residential repair and remodeling industry in the United States. It is conducted as a partnership between SOLA Group Inc., the owner of Qualified Remodeler, and John Burns Research and Consulting, and is based on responses from the magazine’s 83,000 professional remodeler subscribers. Its readings on current activity, near-term expectations and consumer behavior are referenced across the building products and construction economy.

9. Where can professionals read Qualified Remodeler and follow its programs?
The magazine is published nine times a year and publishes continuously at qualifiedremodeler.com, where the TOP 500 database, Master Design Awards winners, conference video and newsletter sign-up are all available. The Talking TOP 500 podcast, co-hosted by Patrick O’Toole and Tim Musch, is published biweekly on Apple Podcasts and the major platforms. The brand is also active on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and X.