Tariffs push Home Depot contractors to plan, price, and pivot faster

Tariff pressure is changing the way contractors shop, quote, and commit to jobs, and that is showing up most clearly on the Pro side of Home Depot’s business. Roughly 70% of firms say tariffs have affected their business, 40% have raised bid prices, and about one third have accelerated materials purchases, a sign that many crews are trying to lock in supply before prices move again or schedules slip.

The strain is already visible in contractor conversations. Associated Builders and Contractors said nearly 80% of surveyed contractors had suppliers notify them of tariff-related materials price increases, and nearly 20% said projects had already been paused or interrupted because of tariffs during March 2025. After the April 2 tariff announcement, fewer than 26% of respondents expected profit margins to expand over the next six months, while more than 40% expected margins to contract. For a Home Depot associate, that means the question at the counter is rarely just “how much does it cost?” Contractors also want to know whether the price will hold, whether another material will do the same job, and whether they can get it fast enough to keep a schedule alive.

That pressure makes preconstruction and purchasing discipline more important. In practical terms, it pushes more buyers to compare options aggressively, buy earlier when they can, and ask for a cheaper or more readily available bill of materials. In the store, that can mean more questions about compatible substitutes, more urgency around pickup and delivery, and more pressure on associates to help a customer avoid a second trip. Department leads and store managers should expect tariff stress to show up as sharper price sensitivity and more lead-time questions, especially on project-driven purchases.

Home Depot has also been leaning into that need for certainty. In March 2026, the company said it would launch a real-time delivery tracker for big and bulky orders, with minute-by-minute updates aimed at helping Pro customers plan complex jobs. The tool was designed for mobile devices and homedepot.com and covered large building-material deliveries such as lumber, drywall, and concrete. That kind of visibility matters when a contractor is trying to keep multiple trades moving and avoid idle labor.

The company’s own numbers show why the Pro execution battle matters. Home Depot reported fiscal 2025 sales of $164.7 billion, with comparable sales up 0.3%, and Ted Decker said results reflected “ongoing consumer uncertainty and pressure in housing.” In the first quarter of fiscal 2026, sales reached $41.8 billion and comparable sales rose 0.6%. Home Depot said it ended the quarter with 2,361 retail stores and more than 1,280 SRS locations, giving it a broad footprint to absorb more price-pressured, schedule-sensitive contractor demand.

The broader materials backdrop reinforces the same message. The Associated General Contractors of America said nonresidential construction materials costs rose 0.2% in August and 2.5% from a year earlier, with steel, aluminum and lumber among the biggest drivers. Two in five contractors had raised their own prices to offset tariffs, while 16% absorbed the costs or shared them with suppliers, and nearly 40% expected materials prices to keep climbing. For Home Depot, that means the tariff story is not abstract trade policy. It is a daily store-floor test of how well the team can protect a project from delay and a customer from sticker shock.