1,027 open federal construction notices — 388 due in 7 days

388 of the 1,027 open federal construction notices in our cache expire within the next 7 days — move now or miss them.

This covers 6 construction NAICS codes only (236118, 236220, 238160, 238190, 238220, 238320) — not federal contracting overall. Data is from SAM.gov notices ingested daily into our own cache, read as a single snapshot on 2026-08-17.

Which NAICS code has the most open federal construction work right now?

Commercial & Institutional Building Construction (236220) dominates with 601 open notices and an average response window of 30.4 days — the widest of any code. That extra time matters when you're pulling together subs and pricing.

Plumbing, Heating & Air-Conditioning Contractors (238220) is second at 280 open notices, but the average window drops to 21.9 days. Roofing (238160) shows 89 open notices at 25.7 days average.

At the other end: Residential Remodelers (236118) has only 26 open notices, but they carry the longest average window of any code — 41.8 days — so if that's your work, you have more time to build a solid response.

Which agencies actually set aside federal construction work for SDVOSBs?

One agency stands apart: Veterans Affairs (the federal department) has 171 open notices, and 105 of them — 61.4% — are SDVOSB set-asides. That is not a rounding error. If you are an SDVOSB and you are not watching Veterans Affairs, you are leaving work on the table.

Every other major agency is a different story:

• Dept of Defense: 498 open notices, only 17 SDVOSB set-asides (3.4%)
• Interior: 86 open notices, 1 SDVOSB set-aside (1.2%)
• General Services Administration: 31 open notices, 1 SDVOSB set-aside (3.2%)
• State, Agriculture, Homeland Security, Commerce, HHS, International Boundary and Water Commission: combined 203 open notices, zero SDVOSB set-asides

DoD has the volume, but not the set-aside targeting. Veterans Affairs has the targeting.

What does the full set-aside mix look like across all 1,027 open notices?

• Small Business set-asides: 562 notices (54.7% of open)
• Other (unrestricted or other set-aside types): 341 notices (33.2%)
• SDVOSB set-asides: 124 notices (12.1%)

More than half the open notices are already restricted to small businesses in some form. If you are not registered and current in SAM.gov with the right NAICS codes, you are invisible to these opportunities.

How long do I actually have to respond to a federal construction solicitation?

Overall average response window across all 6 codes: 27.8 days as of 2026-08-17. But that average hides real differences by code (see NAICS breakdown above).

The more urgent number: 388 notices close within 7 days, and 355 new notices were posted in the last 7 days. The pipeline is moving fast in both directions.

Is there an early signal on whether activity is up or down week over week?

This is the first week-over-week reading available from 23 days of observed snapshots (2026-07-26 through 2026-08-17). The open count moved from 982 on 2026-08-10 to 1,027 on 2026-08-17. That is an early signal, not a trend — one data point across 23 observed days is not enough to call direction. The cache also drops notices as they age out, so some of this change reflects expiring notices leaving the window, not new postings alone. Watch the next several weeks before drawing conclusions.

Where is the DMV-area federal construction work concentrated?

Of the 665 open notices that list a place-of-performance state, 60 are in the DC–Maryland–Virginia region (9% of located open notices):

• Virginia (the state): 29 open notices
• DC: 28 open notices
• Maryland: 3 open notices

Virginia the state also appears in the top states list alongside NC (86), TX (60), OK (32), FL (31), and CA (29) — all counts drawn only from the 665 notices that carry state data.

Note: 362 open notices carry no place-of-performance state and are excluded from every geographic figure above. The true DMV share of all open notices may be higher or lower.

By the numbers

• 1,027 total open notices across 6 construction NAICS codes — as of 2026-08-17
• 388 notices due within 7 days — as of 2026-08-17
• 355 notices posted in the last 7 days — as of 2026-08-17
• 601 open notices in Commercial & Institutional Building Construction (236220) — as of 2026-08-17
• 27.8 days average response window overall — as of 2026-08-17
• 41.8 days average response window for Residential Remodelers (236118) — longest of any code — as of 2026-08-17
• 21.9 days average response window for Plumbing, Heating & AC (238220) and Painting & Wall Covering (238320) — shortest — as of 2026-08-17
• 124 SDVOSB set-aside notices open (12.1% of open total) — as of 2026-08-17
• Veterans Affairs (federal department): 61.4% SDVOSB set-aside rate across 171 open notices — as of 2026-08-17
• 60 open notices in DC, Maryland, and Virginia combined — of the 665 open notices that list a state — as of 2026-08-17
• 982 → 1,027 open notices, week-over-week from 2026-08-10 to 2026-08-17 (early signal only, 23 observed days)

Methodology and limits

Source: SAM.gov opportunity notices, ingested daily into our own cache. What is counted: a notice is "open" if its response deadline falls after the snapshot timestamp. Snapshot date: 2026-08-17T11:01:29 UTC.

Scope: 6 NAICS codes only — 236118, 236220, 238160, 238190, 238220, 238320. This is not a read of federal contracting overall.

Known limits:

• Missing state data: 34% of all cached rows carry no place-of-performance state. Every geographic count in this post is drawn only from the 665 open notices that do carry a state, and says so explicitly. Geographic figures do not cover the full dataset.
• No contract values: The value column is NULL on every cached row. No dollar amounts exist in this dataset. None are reported here.
• Trend history: The live snapshot series covers 23 observed days (2026-07-26 through 2026-08-17). One week-over-week reading is available. It is an early signal, not an established trend. Do not read direction or causality into it.
• Rolling cache: Open counts are a point-in-time read of a rolling ~60-day cache. Notices age out silently. Two counts taken on different dates are not a historical series — changes between them reflect both new postings and cache expiry.

Disambiguation: "Veterans Affairs" in this post refers to the federal Department of Veterans Affairs (an agency in by_agency). "Virginia" refers to the U.S. state (a geographic location in place-of-performance data). They are different figures and should not be combined or confused.