Plumbing Pricing Guide: How to Price Plumbing Jobs Right

Most plumbing pricing guides hand you a national price chart and wish you luck. That chart can't tell you what your shop needs to charge, because it doesn't know your wages, your trucks, your office or how many hours your plumbers actually bill. This plumbing pricing guide starts where your prices should start: with your own billable hour. Then it walks through the jobs plumbers price wrong most often, from water heaters to sewer lines to the 2 a.m. emergency, and shows how to present every job as five options so the homeowner does the choosing.

Last updated: October 23, 2026

Why can't you just use a national plumbing price chart?

Because a chart tells you what homeowners paid somebody else. It doesn't tell you what your company needs.

The plumber across town might run two trucks out of his garage. You might run eight trucks, a dispatcher and a warehouse. Same water heater, very different cost to install it.

Market prices are useful for one thing: a gut check after you've done your own math. If your number lands way off the market, find out why. But your costs come first. We go deeper on this in how to price plumbing jobs profitably.

Where does every plumbing price start?

With your billable hour. That's the amount every hour a plumber actually bills has to bring in to pay for the whole business and leave a profit.

Your plumber's wage is only a small piece of it. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the 2025 median pay for plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters at $30.67 an hour. Add payroll taxes, workers' comp, benefits, the truck, insurance, the office, software, marketing and warranty work, and that hour costs you far more than the paycheck.

Then comes the part most shops get wrong. A plumber is paid for about 2,080 hours a year, but you can't sell 2,080. Drive time, supply-house runs, meetings, training, vacations, cancellations and empty spots on the board all eat into it. Spread your costs over hours you'll never bill and your rate looks fine on paper while losing money in the field.

An illustrative example

Say your cost of doing business (everything except parts and direct job costs) is $400,000 a year. You run three service plumbers who each bill about 1,000 hours a year. That's 3,000 billable hours.

• $400,000 ÷ 3,000 hours = about $133 an hour just to break even
• Want 20% net profit? $133 ÷ 0.80 = about $167 per billable hour

That $167 is the number your task prices have to be built from. Not $125 because that's what the guy down the road charges. The full method is in building your own plumbing price menu.

What are the four numbers a plumbing price book is built on?

Every price on a TNFR menu comes from four foundation numbers. Get these right and every task price in the book follows. Get one wrong and it's wrong on every call.

The discount line matters. When a tech has no set discount, he invents one at the kitchen table, and it comes out of your margin.

Should plumbing jobs be flat rate or hourly?

Most residential plumbing service should be flat rate. You've replaced hundreds of toilets and cleared hundreds of drains. That work is repeatable, so the homeowner should know the price before you start.

Hourly billing has a built-in problem: your best plumber, who finishes in 75 minutes with the right part on the truck, bills less than the guy who takes two hours. Flat rate plumbing pricing fixes that. The time still matters, but you use it inside the price instead of billing the homeowner by the clock.

Some work is open-ended. For those jobs, charge for the diagnosis first, then switch to flat-rate options once you know what's wrong.

How do you price the plumbing jobs that go wrong most?

These are the jobs where a single line in a price book falls apart, and where techs start guessing.

Water heaters

The same water heater swap can be a 90-minute job in an open garage or half a day in an attic. Your options should cover what actually goes into the job: the unit, haul-away, permit, expansion tank, drain pan, new shutoff and supply lines, and venting where code calls for it. For context, NerdWallet's water heater cost guide puts tank water heaters at $600 to $2,500 installed and permits at $25 to $300, a homeowner cost range, not TNFR data. Price your own from your billable hour, and build access into the options instead of leaving it to the tech.

Drains and sewer lines

Drain clearing is repeatable, so price it by access point and drain type. Sewer work is where you need two steps. The camera inspection is its own task with its own price. Once you can see the line, the repair or replacement becomes a set of options, from clearing and monitoring to a full replacement with a long warranty.

Fixture swaps

Faucets, toilets and disposals look simple until the shutoff valve snaps. Decide ahead of time what each option includes. The cheapest option swaps the fixture. Options above it add new shutoffs, supply lines and a longer warranty. When the homeowner supplies the fixture, have a set price for that too, so the tech isn't making one up.

Emergency and after-hours calls

Many shops charge a higher after-hours service fee and keep the task prices the same. That way the menu your tech shows at 2 a.m. is the same menu he shows at 2 p.m., and the homeowner hears the emergency fee before the truck rolls, not on the invoice.

Multi-visit jobs

Plumbing has more return trips than most trades: an inspector who needs to see the work, a part on order, a sewer job that needs a camera visit before the dig. Every one of those trips costs you a truck and a tech. Price the whole job, including the second visit, into the task. A free second trip is a discount nobody approved.

Parts markup

Pick your markup on purpose and apply it the same way on every task. Know the difference between markup and margin: a 20% markup on cost is about a 16.7% margin, not 20%. We break that down in why your markup percentage looks right on paper. Keep the parts inside the task price instead of listing them. A parts line just invites the homeowner to compare it to the hardware store shelf.

Permits and callbacks

Permits belong inside the options that need them, not added at the end. Callbacks belong in the price too. When warranty length climbs with each option, you've priced the risk of coming back before it ever happens.

Why give homeowners five options instead of one price?

Because one price gives the homeowner one decision: yes or no. And when no is the only other choice, a lot of homeowners take it, or ask for a discount.

You've probably been told to offer good, better, best. It's better than one price, but it doesn't go far enough. Many homeowners skip the top and bottom of a short list right away, which leaves them one real choice, and you're back to a single number. Five options cover the full range, from the minimum fix that gets them through today to the most complete repair you'd recommend for the long run.

That's what happens on TNFR menus. 80% of customers choose an option above the cheapest one, and they typically pick in 15 to 20 seconds. The menu does the asking, so your plumber doesn't have to sell. He explains what he found, turns the tablet around, and lets the homeowner choose. The app includes 14 presentation scripts so techs know what to say, and Training Lab Steps 1 to 9 walk them through the presentation. The same five-option layout works on paper too: see the plumbing proposal template.

What should a plumbing price book include?

A plumbing price book should hold every common task your plumbers run, each priced from the same four foundation numbers. For each task, include:

• Expected time at your billable hour, based on a realistic average, not the worst case
• Parts and materials at your set markup
• Permits, disposal and code-required add-ons
• Warranty that grows with each option
• Five options written in plain language the homeowner understands

A long list of tasks isn't enough on its own. A price book stores prices. It doesn't sell them. That's the gap plumbing pricing software should close: same price no matter which plumber shows up, costs that update without a rebuild, and options shown at the kitchen table instead of worked up in the truck. If you also run HVAC, the HVAC pricing guide covers the same approach for that side of the shop.

How often should you update plumbing prices?

Recheck your four foundation numbers at least once a year, and any time something big changes, like raises, a new truck or an insurance jump. Parts costs move faster, so review the parts that go into your most common tasks more often.

When your billable hour changes, every task price should follow it. If updating means someone spending a week in a spreadsheet, it won't get done. That's why TNFR members change the foundation numbers and let the prices follow, with Field Support there when something doesn't look right.