Last updated October 31, 2026

How much to charge for plumbing work in 2026

The hourly rate a one-truck plumber needs to charge, built from what plumbers actually earn, a price list for 12 common jobs with the arithmetic shown, what moves the number, and the mistakes that cost the most.

Short answer: a one-truck plumbing business that pays its owner what the median plumber earns, carries normal overhead, and keeps a 20 percent margin needs about $85 an hour. To pay yourself like the top quarter of plumbers, charge about $100. Top ten percent, $120. Below $75 you are subsidizing the customer with your own wages. Every number on this page is built from published wage data and a model you can see, and the price list further down uses the $100 rate.

Plumbing is the trade where the gap between the wage and the rate confuses the most people, customers and new plumbers alike. A plumber who earns $31 an hour on someone else's truck sees a $150 shop rate and assumes the owner is pocketing the difference. The owner knows the difference is the van, the $4,000 liability policy, the license, the stocked fittings nobody pays for until they are used, and the three hours a day that are not on any invoice. When you go out on your own, you inherit all of that on day one. The rate has to carry it from the first job.

The other thing that makes plumbing pricing different: half the calls are emergencies, and an emergency does not shop. A burst supply line at 7 pm gets the first plumber who answers, at whatever the rate is. That is why established shops run one rate for scheduled work and another for after hours, and why flat-rate price books took over the trade. The customer wants to hear "$385 to clear it" before you touch anything, and a book gives you that number without doing arithmetic in a wet crawlspace.

What plumbers earn, and what that means for your rate

The Bureau of Labor Statistics counted 465,840 people working as plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters in its May 2025 survey and published what they are paid. That is the wage an employer pays an employee, which is the floor for what an owner-operator should pay themselves. A rate is built on top of it: the hidden cost of an hour of labor, the overhead of running a truck, the hours you cannot bill, and a margin. The model here uses a 22% labor load for payroll taxes, workers comp and the liability share, $34,000 a year of overhead for the truck, insurance, phone, software, tools and licenses, 1,100 billable hours a year, and a 20% margin. Change any input and the rate moves; the hourly rate calculator runs it with your numbers.

If you pay yourself like the	BLS wage	Loaded	Overhead per hour	Rate to charge
Bottom quarter	$24	$29	$31	$75
Median	$31	$37	$31	$85
Top quarter	$41	$50	$31	$100
Top ten percent	$52	$64	$31	$120

Rate = (wage × 1.22 + $34,000 ÷ 1,100) ÷ (1 − 0.2), rounded to $5. Wages: BLS OEWS May 2025, plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters, national.

Plumbing overhead is higher than most trades because the truck is a rolling parts store and the license and insurance are not optional. The $34,000 here is a modest one-van figure. Published 2026 guides put most residential plumbers at $80 to $150 an hour with a service call fee on top, which lines up with the top two rows of the table once you add the fee. Emergency and after-hours work runs 1.5 to 2 times the scheduled rate across the trade.

A plumbing price list, with the math

Flat prices for the jobs plumbers quote most, built the same way every time: hours at the $100 rate, plus materials at cost with a 30 percent markup, rounded to $5. The hours and material costs are example inputs for a typical job in a typical market, stated so you can swap in your own. A job with a crew of two doubles the labor line. Water heater and fixture jobs assume the customer has standard access and existing shutoffs that work. Anything in a slab or behind a finished wall is priced after you see it.

Job	Labor	Materials at cost	Price	What it assumes
Clear a kitchen or bathroom drain, cable machine	1.5 h	none	$150	Accessible cleanout, no camera
Clear a main sewer line from the cleanout	2 h	none	$200	Up to 100 ft of cable; camera extra
Replace a kitchen faucet, customer-supplied	1.5 h	$25	$185	Supply lines and putty
Replace a toilet, standard	2 h	$260	$540	Mid-grade toilet, wax ring, supply, haul-off
Replace a garbage disposal	1.5 h	$160	$360	1/2 hp unit, same wiring
Replace a 50-gallon gas water heater	4 h	$1,150	$1,895	Standard vent, expansion tank, flex lines; permit extra
Install a tankless water heater, gas	8 h	$1,900	$3,270	Existing gas line adequate; venting included; permit extra
Replace a main shutoff valve	2 h	$60	$280	Ball valve, city meter accessible
Replace a pressure-reducing valve	2 h	$140	$380	Accessible, same size
Replace a hose bib	1 h	$35	$145	Frost-free, accessible from inside
Install a water softener, customer-supplied	4 h	$120	$555	Loop exists; drain within 10 ft
Repair a slab leak, single spot	8 h	$220	$1,085	Located; tunnel or break-out; concrete patch; finish by others

Price = hours × $100 + materials × 1.3. Trip or diagnostic fees, permits and disposal are extra lines.

This is a sample. The free price book builder prices the full plumbing book, 51 jobs, with your own wage, overhead and margin, and gives you the PDF for the truck and the spreadsheet that keeps the formulas.

What moves the price

After hours. Nights, weekends and holidays are 1.5 to 2 times the scheduled rate, and the customer expects it. Say it on the phone and on the bid.
Access. A water heater in a garage is four hours. The same heater in an attic with a pull-down ladder is six, plus a second person. Price the access, not just the unit.
Permits. Water heaters, repipes and sewer work need one in most jurisdictions. Put it on its own line with who pulls it, so the customer sees a fee and not margin.
What you cannot see. Anything in a slab, behind tile or under a finished floor is bid in two parts: the known work at a flat price and the unknown at a stated hourly or per-foot rate with a not-to-exceed.
Licensing in your state. Where a master license and a journeyman are both required on site, the supply of legal plumbers is small and rates are higher than this model. Do not price against the unlicensed guy.

Hourly, flat rate, or by the unit

Flat rate for everything you can see, which is most of plumbing. Drains, fixtures, heaters, valves and disposals are repeatable jobs with known hours, and a flat price lets you keep the hour you save by being good. A price book, even a one-page one, is the professional standard in this trade because it ends the conversation before it starts.

Hourly, with a diagnostic fee, for leak location and anything where the first hour tells you what the job is. Say "$150 to find it, then a flat price to fix it" and the customer relaxes. Per foot for repipes, sewer lines and trenching, with the footage counted before the bid goes out.

A worked plumbing bid

A 50-gallon gas water heater swap, standard vent, in a garage. Four hours at the top-quarter rate from the table: four times the rate for labor. Materials at cost: the heater, an expansion tank, two flex lines, a gas valve and fittings, about $1,150. Marked up 30 percent. Permit $150 on its own line. Haul-off $75 on its own line. Add it up and round to where your market sits.

That lands in the $2,200 to $2,500 range most markets see for a standard swap, which is the point: the number is not a guess, it is your hours and your costs, and if a customer says another plumber was $400 less you can ask which part they left out. The sample water heater estimate shows the finished bid line by line.

The pricing mistakes that cost the most

Quoting the heater at the price you paid for it last year. Tank prices moved twice in 2025. Price from today's supplier cost, every time.
No diagnostic or trip fee, so the hour you spend finding the leak is free and the customer who "just wants a quote" costs you half a morning.
Pricing the emergency at the daytime rate because you felt bad. The customer called at 9 pm because it was worth it to them. Charge for it.
Leaving the permit off the bid. It is the most common plumbing dispute there is, and it always surfaces at the inspection.

Writing the price into a bid that gets signed

The number is half the job. The other half is a bid the customer can say yes to from their phone: the scope in lines, one price, the deposit and payment terms, the warranty, a date it expires, and a signature. The free plumbing estimate template is laid out that way in PDF, Word and Excel, and How to bid plumbing jobs covers the scope lines that keep you out of arguments. If you want the typing done for you, BidWriter Pro turns your notes into a clean bid your customer signs on their phone, with the deposit paid by card. $29 a month, 30 days free.

Sources and method

Wages: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, Plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters, national percentile hourly wages and employment.
Market rate ranges: Zarla, Modernize and FixUpFirst 2026 plumber cost guides, which converge on $75 to $175 an hour with service fees of $75 to $200.
Rate model: labor load 1.22, overhead $34,000 a year, 1,100 billable hours, 20% margin. Hours and material costs in the price list are example inputs, not survey data. Prices are examples, not advice for your market.

Questions contractors ask

How much do plumbers charge per hour in 2026?

Published guides put most residential plumbers at $80 to $150 an hour, plus a service call fee, with emergency work higher. Built from BLS wages, a one-truck plumber paying themselves the median wage needs about $85 an hour, and $100 to earn like the top quarter of plumbers.

How much should I charge for a water heater replacement?

Build it: about four hours at your rate, the heater and parts at cost plus 30 percent, the permit and haul-off on their own lines. For a standard 50-gallon gas unit that lands between $2,000 and $2,800 installed in most markets.

What is a fair service call fee for a plumber?

Most shops charge $75 to $150 to show up, often credited against the job if the customer goes ahead. It pays for the drive and the diagnosis, which are real hours.

Should I price plumbing by the hour or flat rate?

Flat rate for anything you can see; it is what customers expect and it rewards speed. Hourly only for diagnosis and for the part of a job you cannot scope until it is open.

How much more should I charge for emergency plumbing?

1.5 to 2 times the scheduled rate is standard across the trade for nights, weekends and holidays. State it before you roll.

Write a plumbing bid from your notes

Type the job the way you would text it. It comes back as a finished estimate in about five seconds, in your words. No account.

Type a job the way you would text it

Only what you type goes on the estimate. Nothing gets added.

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Free, no account: estimate checker, job price calculator, markup vs margin, hourly rate, and 84 sample estimates.