How much should a plumber charge per hour? Service call minimum, first hour and flat prices (free rate sheet)

Published November 3, 2026 · Numbers checked November 2026

• Free. The rate sheet comes as a Google Sheets copy or an Excel file; the links come by email.
• Deepsel is our product: free estimate, invoice and scheduling software for contractors (scheduling, quotes, invoicing, card payments, a price book). One section, the one before the FAQ, says how it connects to this page.
• The owner prices below are what plumbers said on Reddit, counted by us. They aren't a survey. Nobody measures what plumbers charge, by state or nationally, and the biggest plumbing forum on Reddit bans price talk, so the sample is small.
• Not legal or tax advice. A few lines touch payroll tax; your accountant has the last word.

A plumber should charge enough per billable hour to cover a year of pay and business costs, plus a profit. For a one-person shop paying itself the US median plumber wage, with the example costs on this page and 1,000 billable hours a year, that's $140 an hour; across the 13 states we cover, $120 to $180. Customers rarely see that number on its own, though. Plumbing owners sell a service call minimum that covers the trip and about the first hour ($210 at a $140 rate, and most owners who post theirs charge $160 to $245), then flat prices from their own book for jobs they know. The hourly rate shows up on time-and-materials work.

The rate sheet does that arithmetic with your state and your own costs, then turns the answer into a service call minimum, a trip charge, flat prices and a rate card for customers. Get it two ways: make your own copy in Google Sheets or download the Excel version (.xlsx). Pick one, enter your email and I'll send the link.

Before writing this I read the pages that rank for the question. They're written for homeowners: local plumbing companies' blogs, Angi's city cost pages, a Facebook community post, a Reddit thread from Olympia. Housecall Pro's guide for plumbers says $75 to $150 an hour plus a $50 to $250 service call fee, and it says where that comes from: "The pricing ranges in this guide are drawn from leading home service platforms and consumer cost guides."¹ So it's the homeowner figure, passed back to plumbers. Angi's own number is measured, but from the other side of the counter: homeowners paid an average of $341 for a plumbing repair across 94,386 verified projects, most of them $182 to $501.²

Nobody publishes a measured bill rate for plumbers, by state or nationally. And the biggest plumbing forum on Reddit keeps it that way. r/Plumbing's rules say "asking or commenting about prices is a permanent ban," and in the last 12 months its moderators removed one price-titled post in five.³ What does exist is the wage employers pay plumbers in each state, and owners who state their prices anyway, mostly on r/askaplumber and r/Contractor. This page uses both and says which is which.

What plumbing owners say they charge for a service call

We read two years of plumbing and contractor threads on Reddit, August 2024 to November 2026, for plumbers stating their own prices, and kept the ones whose own words place them as owners.⁴ Eighteen owners stated a service call or minimum: $100 to $325, mostly $160 to $245. Six charge a separate trip or dispatch fee, $60 to $145. Eight gave an hourly rate: $60 to $225 in one-person shops, $230 to $400 in bigger ones. Here are the ones who named a place or spelled out how they charge:⁵

Two cautions. People post their prices when they're proud of them, so the list leans toward owners doing well. And it can't be cut by state: of our 13 states, only Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York have even one plumbing owner's price, and none has more than three. Where a place is given, the service call sits around $150 to $250 whatever the local wage, which is thin evidence but worth knowing before you set yours far outside it.

Your state's wage floor

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes what employers pay plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters in every state.⁶ It's employee pay, with the van, tools, insurance and slow weeks on the employer's side, and it counts pipefitters, so it leans toward commercial and union work. Treat it as a floor under your own pay, not a price.

Find your row. The last column is the one plumbing owners think in: a year of that pay, spread over the 1,000 hours a one-person shop can bill.

The tiers are the wages grouped. Minnesota and Massachusetts pay about 1.47 times the US median, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut about 1.22 times, six states sit within 5% of it, and Idaho and Arkansas are at 0.76 to 0.82 times. The Denver and New York metro areas come in close to their states.⁶

Look at the last column before anything else. At the US median your pay alone costs $63.79 for every hour a customer pays for, before the van moves or the insurance bill comes. That's the cost of the hours you work and can't bill.

Work out your own rate from a year

Electricians on Reddit pass around a rule of thumb: bill three times the wage you want. Plumbers don't have one. They reason in billable hours. An owner who ran his own shop for three years, to a plumber about to go out alone: "Figure on 1000 billable hours a year and base your rates off that, plus all your expenses and desired profits. You need to pay yourself for days off and vacations, etc."⁷ The rate sheet follows that, in five steps:

1. Start with the pay you want before income tax. The template's example is your state's median wage times 2,080 hours, a full-time year: $63,794 at the US median.⁶
2. Add the payroll tax an employer would have paid on that wage. Self-employment tax is 15.3% (12.4% Social Security, 2.9% Medicare), and the IRS calls half of it the employer-equivalent portion.⁸ That half, 7.65%, is $4,880 on $63,794.
3. Add a year of business costs. The list below totals $41,600. Two lines come from plumbing owners; the rest are made up, so replace each one with a bill or a quote.
4. Divide by the hours you can bill. The example uses 4 a day, 5 days a week, 50 weeks: 1,000. The other 1,080 hours of a 2,080-hour year go to driving, estimates, supply house runs, callbacks, paperwork and slow days. ($63,794 + $4,880 + $41,600) ÷ 1,000 = $110.27 an hour. That's break-even.
5. Add profit, as a share of the rate. At a made-up 20%, $110.27 ÷ 0.8 = $137.84, which the template rounds up to $140.

The insurance lines come from owners. A one-man plumbing company in its second year: "My contractor's insurance (business owners policy) is up for renewal, and it would increase 50 percent (from approx $1,000, to $1,500 for a year)." His agent told him other insurers were quoting "around $2,500 or more."⁹ A husband-and-wife firm in Colorado: "We pay $3000/yr for liability insurance.umbrella policy and tool insurance. $3600/yr for commercial insurance on our box truck."¹⁰ Your state or your customers may set a minimum, so get a quote before you set the rate.

Four billable hours a day can look low. A two-man New Jersey shop, a plumber and an apprentice: "We're averaging 6-10 billable hours a day. We rarely work more than 8." That's two people, and the same owner adds: "I also use an efficiency of 75%. Because not all days are that good."¹¹ Alone, you're also the one answering the phone and driving to the supply house. An owner who runs his father's 50-year-old business by himself: "most single man shops don't have 8 billable hours every single day."¹²

Here are the same costs run through each state's median wage. I kept the costs identical so only the wage moves; yours won't be identical.

• The wage moves the rate less than you'd expect. Minnesota pays plumbers 94% more than Arkansas, but the rate is only 50% higher, because in this example the van and the insurance cost the same in both.
• Billable hours move it more. At 800 hours a year the $140 rate becomes $175. At 1,200 it drops to $115.
• Every rate lands at 4 to 5 times the state's median wage. If someone hands you the electricians' triple rule, it comes up short for a plumber billing 1,000 hours.
• The minimums, $180 to $270, sit around the $160 to $245 most owners charge. The Connecticut owner's $225 is under the example's $240, and he says why: his overhead "is extremely limited."⁵

Profit is the line new owners skip. An owner with an employee and an accountant, on a call priced at the bare minimum: "I have to have a minimum of $195 if it's a one hour service call and by the time the truck gets back to the shop, and I factor in everything my accountant has set up to cover all my costs, the company probably profits like 20 dollars."¹³

Plumbing service call fee: the minimum and the trip charge

Two things get called a service call fee. A minimum is the least a visit costs: the trip plus about the first hour of work, parts extra. A trip charge (or dispatch fee) pays only for getting to the door, and the work is billed on top. Owners set them up four ways:

• A minimum that covers the first hour, then hourly. The Pennsylvania one-man shop: "My minimum fee is $150 plus parts. That will get you an hour of labor. $75 an hour after that."⁵
• A trip charge plus time. The Denver owner's office tells customers "upfront" that "its $360 for first 2 hrs 2 hr minimum and $65 trip charge."¹⁴ Another owner is at "$265 an hour plus an $80 trip charge."⁵
• A diagnostic fee that comes off the repair. A shop opened in June 2025: "residential service is $155 diagnostic to come out and will be taken out of cost if service is complete same day."¹⁵
• A free look, and a minimum once the tools come out. A plumber who ran his own shop in a high-cost city answered the phone this way: "I have a $250 minimum charge for any work done, but I can provide a free estimate if you are within my five mile working radius."¹⁶ Another shop: "If we look at it we give you a free estimate, but if you want hands on work or advice it's a minimum of an hour."¹⁷

The rate sheet works out both numbers from your rate. Minimum = hourly rate × (1 + your trip and setup time). With a $140 rate and half an hour, that's $210. Trip charge = hourly rate × trip time: $70, between Denver's $65 and the other owner's $80. Your rate already spreads ordinary drive time over the year; the half hour makes a 15-minute call pay for its own trip.

The trip is inside the minimum and inside every flat price. So in the rate sheet a trip charge is never added to work. It's what the customer pays when you come out, look, and they decide not to go ahead. You can pick the full service call or a free look for that case instead. Pick one and say it on the phone.

The minimum buys the customer the trip and the first hour, even when the fix takes ten minutes. Owners fill the hour rather than leave. "If it's for something non-emergency like a dripping faucet I would urge the customer to come up with a list of other things they'd like looked at while I am there to make it worth their time," says one with a $200 minimum.¹⁸ Another folds small fixes in: "I charge closer to $200 to show up, but I include any small repair labor in that price."¹⁹

Should you credit the service call toward the job?

Some owners do. Besides the $155 shop, which also skips the fee for repeat customers: "I charge $145 diagnostic fee. Make the repair, unclog the line out fix the heat the $145 is waved. Really just rolled into the repair."²⁰ In the same thread: "I usually say service fee is applied towards the total cost if we do repairs."²¹ Others won't. A reply under the $155 post: "I don't really like the idea of crediting the diagnostic fee back personally. I understand the logic behind it, but you're still giving away your expertise for free by doing this."²²

My rule: credit the trip, never the work. If every flat price already carries the trip, a trip charge comes off a same-visit repair without costing you anything; that's what "rolled into the repair" means. The first hour of work is never credited. If the hour fixed the problem, the minimum was the job. A job you quote for another day has its own trip in its price, so crediting today's charge against it is a discount. If you give one, cap it at the trip charge and put a deadline on the quote. The plumbing invoice template has a row for a credited service call.

Say it before you book

Customers fight a fee they didn't hear about. In October a New Jersey business owner posted that a plumber charged him $90 after looking under his sink and leaving: "No notice of dispatch fee." The thread drew 55 comments. Most contractors backed the fee, and the top answer said what went wrong: "Dispatch or minimum service fee is standard practice for any successful residential service contractor these days. It should have been stated in advance though." Another contractor puts it in a text after every booking call: "just a reminder about the Y estimate fee that will be applied to your project later on."²³ The $155 shop: "I also have my diagnostic fee on my website and clearly tell all customers upfront before we schedule an appointment."¹⁵

After the first hour: flat prices from your own book, hourly on T&M

After the first hour, plumbing owners split the work two ways. Jobs they've done many times (a faucet, a toilet, a main line through a cleanout, a water heater) get a flat price, given before they start. Jobs where nobody can see the end stay on time and materials (T&M: your hours at your rate, plus parts at your price). The $155 shop: "Now commercial is strictly T&M."¹⁵

Owners give two reasons for flat prices. Customers argue less with a job price than with an hourly one: "I charge $140 for a call-out fee. Then i do flat rate for jobs. Flat rate lets me charge more without customers freaking out. I live in an area with lower prices. If i told a customer i want $400 an hour to change their kitchen faucet, they would be furious."²⁴ And the owner keeps the time he saves. A sole proprietor with one van: "My hourly rate is 150$," but "I don't charge hourly rates for water heaters - flat rate."²⁵

Twelve owners said they flat-rate from their own price book, and none who had bought one defended it.⁴ "I tried profit rhino. I didn't like it. I made my own price book on Word Press," wrote one with techs.²⁶ The New Jersey owner's method takes two lines: "I do all flat Rate pricing and have a labor factor for everything in the book that gets multiplied times the billable rate,"¹¹ and "I do it all in google sheet right on my tablet. No expensive software."²⁷ If you'd rather carry the book in your scheduling app, our plumbing scheduling software comparison shows which plan of each tool includes a flat-rate price book.

In the rate sheet a flat price is your hours on site plus the trip, times your hourly rate, plus parts at your markup, and never less than the minimum. A job that takes you an hour on site: (1 + 0.5) × $140 = $210 of labor, plus parts. Take the hours from your own last few of the same job, not from a book you bought. If you take longer than your book says three times in a row, change the hours.

On the clock, bill in blocks (the template uses half hours, $70 at a $140 rate) and say so before you start, so ten minutes over never turns into an argument. The New Jersey owner also shows why longer jobs can go cheaper per hour: $220 an hour for 4 hours or less, $175 for a full day, $130 on new construction.²⁸ A full day on one job has one trip and no gaps between calls. At 8 billable hours, even $110 an hour bills $880, against $560 for a typical 4-hour service day at $140.

Parts get a sliding markup: a high one on small parts, a lower one on big-ticket items. A plumber in Oregon: "We charge a flat $160/hr plus materials with a 100% mark up on all parts under $100 and 50% mark up on all parts over $100."²⁹ The rate sheet starts with those two numbers. Change them to yours.

Why a $100 service call doesn't pay the bills

The owner running his father's business alone, who says he grosses "$75k-95k as a skilled licensed Plumber" in a high-cost area, put it in one line: "$100.00 service calls aren't paying the bills, as most single man shops don't have 8 billable hours every single day."¹²

Here's the arithmetic. The example year costs $110,274 over 250 working days: $441 a day to break even. Once you count the driving, a day has room for about four service calls. Four $100 calls bring in $400, under break-even before a single call runs long. At the $210 minimum, 2.1 calls cover the day and the rest is profit, or room for the call that turns into a repipe. An owner with an employee, answering someone with a $95 minimum: "I couldn't even drive to a customers house and drive back home for $95 without losing money."¹³

The $99 special

The $99 call is a big-shop tool. A Delaware owner of a plumbing and HVAC business: "Im at $99 dispatch/diagnostic fee. My dispatch fee is a loss leader gets us in the door so we can hopefully get the job. That would be a $439 repair fornme here in Delaware. One of the big PE owned companies would be around $1000."³⁰ Drain cleaning gets the same treatment, and owners answer by not matching it. "There are companies around here doing $77 drain cleaning specials so I'm around middle of the road," wrote one whose price from a cleanout includes a camera.³¹

For one person the numbers don't work. $99 for the trip and an hour is $66 an hour of your time, against a $110 break-even. It takes 4.5 of them a day just to cover the day, with a drive between each. The special pays only if most calls turn into a repair priced to carry the rest, and every $99 slot is one a full-price call can't have. A one-man shop also gets the calls a special attracts. The owner who charges $200 and includes small repairs explains why he doesn't charge less: "Otherwise I'm driving to a hundred places a day for people to pay an $80 service call fee in order to get me to tell them how to fix it themselves."¹⁹

If you want a reason for customers to call you, use the credit instead: the trip charge comes off any repair done on the visit. It costs you nothing, because the trip is already in the price. And keep a line ready for the customer who balks at a minimum. One owner's: "You didn't pay me for the hour. You paid me for the 15 years I spent learning how to solve your problem in an hour, with the tools I invested in."³²

Plumbing rate calculator (free rate sheet)

The rate sheet has six tabs. Your rate is the internal one: pick your state (or the Denver or New York metro area), keep its median wage as your pay or type your own, then fill in a year of costs, your billable hours and your profit. It works out the hourly rate, the service call minimum, the trip charge, the rate after the first hour and an after-hours minimum, and shows your pay per billable hour, your break-even per day and what a $99 special pays per hour of your time. Visit quote prices one call: on the clock, at a flat price from your book, or looked with no work, with parts at your sliding markup and any permit at cost. Grey columns outside the print area show what the visit paid per hour of your time. Flat prices is a starter list for the jobs you do most: your hours on site and your parts cost in, a flat price out, never under the minimum.

Rate card is what the customer sees: the service call, each additional half hour, flat prices quoted before work, what happens if they say no after you look, after hours, parts and permits, and one line saying whether a visit is credited toward later work. No wages, costs or hours. State wages holds the BLS table above, and Notes explains every formula and where each example number comes from. Sourced examples are marked EXAMPLE, placeholders MADE-UP EXAMPLE.

To fill it in:

1. Copy the Google Sheet or open the .xlsx, start on Your rate and pick your state.
2. Replace every MADE-UP EXAMPLE cost with a real one, from a bill or a quote. Get an insurance quote first.
3. Be honest about billable hours. Start at 4 a day and check it against your first month.
4. Look at the rate, the break-even check and the minimum. Type over any of them if you want a rounder number; the formula stays beside it.
5. Choose what a customer pays if they say no after you look, and whether you credit anything toward later work.
6. Put your ten most common jobs on Flat prices, with your own times.
7. Fill in the Rate card header and print it, or copy the prices to your website.

Then say it on the phone, before you book: "It's $210 for the service call. That covers the trip and the first hour. After that it's $140 an hour, billed by the half hour, and parts are extra. If it's a repair I've done before, I'll give you a flat price before I start, and the trip's included in it."

More for new plumbing contractors

• Water heater replacement checklist: the code items, the permit and what to charge, with a free printable.
• You got your master plumber license. Now what? Stay for a raise or start your own plumbing business, with the numbers for each.
• Asked to be the master of record: what being a company's plumbing qualifier pays, and what it can cost you.
• Your plumbing license and first 30 days, by state: Colorado and Denver, Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, Virginia.

Where Deepsel fits

A spreadsheet is the right place to work your rate out. Charging it happens on a phone in someone's kitchen. In Deepsel, each price book item has a name, a description that shows on the quote, a unit such as hour or each, a price, and a cost that never appears on anything the customer sees. Put your service call minimum, your hourly labor, your trip charge and your flat-price jobs in as items. Adding one to a job copies its name and price onto the line, an hourly line takes part hours such as 1.5, and the job's lines carry over to the invoice. New accounts start with a few sample HVAC items to edit or delete, and Add a trade in the price book loads a plumbing starter list of 42 items with example prices, among them a $210 service call, a $70 trip charge and labor at $140 an hour, to change to your own numbers. What it won't do: work your rate out from your costs, mark parts up for you, apply a minimum by itself, or take a trip charge off a repair automatically. The one automatic credit is a deposit taken when a customer approves a quote, which comes off the final invoice. The terms text you write once is copied onto each new quote, so that's the place for your service call and credit rule. The Free plan covers 30 estimates and 30 invoices a month for your whole team; Pro is $29 a month for unlimited estimates and invoices. Details are on the pricing page.

Frequently asked questions

How much should a plumber charge per hour?

Enough to cover a year of pay and business costs on the hours you can actually bill, plus a profit. For a one-person shop paying itself the US median plumber wage, with $41,600 of example costs and 1,000 billable hours a year, that comes to $140 an hour. With the same costs it's $120 in Arkansas, $135 to $140 in the middle-tier states, $160 in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, and $180 in Minnesota and Massachusetts. Most customers won't see that number on its own: plumbing owners sell a service call minimum for the first hour and flat prices for jobs they know.

What is a typical plumbing service call fee?

Among 18 plumbing owners on Reddit who stated one, the service call or minimum ran from $100 to $325, mostly $160 to $245, and it usually covers the trip and about the first hour of work, parts extra. Six owners who charge a separate trip or dispatch fee put it at $60 to $145. To set yours, multiply your hourly rate by one plus your trip time: at $140 an hour and half an hour of trip and setup, $210.

What's the difference between a minimum, a trip charge and a dispatch fee?

A minimum (owners also say service call) is the least a visit costs: the trip plus about the first hour of work. A trip charge or dispatch fee pays only for getting to the door, and work is billed on top. A diagnostic fee is a dispatch fee that also covers finding the problem, and owners often take it off the repair. They can add up to the same first hour: a $70 trip charge plus $140 for the hour is the same $210 as a minimum.

Should a plumber credit the service call fee toward the repair?

Owners split. One shop takes its $155 diagnostic off the bill if the work is done the same day; another waives its $145 fee when it makes the repair. Others won't credit it at all. A clean rule: build the trip into every flat price, so a trip charge comes off any repair done on the same visit by itself, and never credit the first hour of work. If the hour fixed it, the minimum was the job.

How many billable hours does a one-person plumbing company get?

Plan on about 1,000 a year. That's what an owner who ran his own shop for three years told a new one: 'Figure on 1000 billable hours a year and base your rates off that, plus all your expenses and desired profits.' It works out to about 4 billable hours a day over 250 working days. The rest of the day goes to driving, estimates, supply house runs, callbacks and paperwork.

Should I offer a $99 service call special?

Not as a one-person shop. A $99 call that takes the trip and an hour pays $66 an hour of your time, against a break-even of about $110 in this page's example, and it takes 4.5 of them a day to cover the day. Bigger shops run them as a loss leader to sell the repair. If you want a reason for customers to call, tell them the trip charge comes off any repair done on the visit.

Can plumbers make $100,000 a year?

As an owner, yes, if the rate and the hours hold. In this page's example, 1,000 billable hours at $140 bring in $140,000. After $41,600 of business costs and $4,880 of payroll tax, about $93,500 is left for you before income tax. At 1,200 billable hours it's about $121,500. A one-man shop in a high-cost area says he grosses $75,000 to $95,000 a year.

Is there a plumber hourly rate calculator?

Yes. The free rate sheet on this page works out your hourly rate from your state's median plumber wage or your own pay target, a year of business costs, your billable hours and your profit. Then it gives your service call minimum, trip charge, rate after the first hour and after-hours minimum, prices a single call or a flat-price job, checks a $99 special against your break-even, and prints a rate card for customers. It comes as an Excel file or a Google Sheets copy.

Sources

1. Housecall Pro, "Plumber Rates & Costs in 2026: How Much to Charge" (posted June 5, 2026, updated October 20, 2026) - "Plumbers typically charge $75–$150 per hour for residential work, plus a $50–$250 service call fee to cover travel and diagnosis."; "The pricing ranges in this guide are drawn from leading home service platforms and consumer cost guides. Sources include HomeGuide, Angi, Modernize, and Fixr, using their latest available 2025-2026 pricing data." housecallpro.com, read November 3, 2026.
2. Angi, Stephanie Mickelson, "How Much Does Plumbing Repair Cost? [2026 Data]" (updated October 14, 2026) - "In 2026, the national average cost of plumbing repair is $341, based on 94,386 verified projects from Angi Pros. Most homeowners pay between $182 and $501, depending on job complexity, the skill level required, and your location." angi.com, read November 3, 2026.
3. r/Plumbing, "Read the rules before posting or commenting" - "asking or commenting about prices is a permanent ban". reddit.com, quote checked November 2026. Removal count: Deepsel research, r/Plumbing posts in the 12 months to November 2, 2026: moderators removed 89 of 459 posts with a price word in the title (19.4%), against 7.0% of all other posts. r/askaplumber removed 4.0% of price-titled posts, about the same as its other posts.
4. Deepsel research, prices stated by US plumbers on Reddit (r/Plumbing, r/askaplumber, r/Contractor, r/smallbusiness and other trade and small-business subs), August 2024 to November 2, 2026, one figure per person, known promotional accounts removed, owner status from each person's own wording. Service call or minimum: 18 owners, $100 to $325, mostly $160 to $245; a first hour alone up to $400. Separate trip or dispatch fee: 6 owners, $60 to $145. Hourly rate: 8 owners, $60 to $225 in one-person shops, $230 to $400 in bigger ones. Flat prices from their own price book: 12 owners in 13 threads; none who bought a price book defended it. Of the 13 states we cover, owners in 5 (CO, CT, MA, NJ, NY) stated any plumbing price. Counted November 2, 2026.
5. The table's rows, each a Reddit comment, quotes checked November 2026: Pennsylvania, June 30, 2026, "I live in semi-rural Pennsylvania. I work for myself, by myself. My minimum fee is $150 plus parts. That will get you an hour of labor. $75 an hour after that." (reddit.com); Connecticut, May 21, 2025, "CT here, $225 for standard service call. Thats on the light side here as my overhead is extremely limited. Big union based companies are closer to $500 if not more." (reddit.com); New Jersey, November 10, 2025 (source 28); Denver, March 22, 2025 (source 14); Delaware, January 9, 2026 (source 30); Kitsap County, May 12, 2026, "I usually charge a $300 minimum that will cover the first 2 hours and go hourly after that for something like this. I'm in Kitsap" (reddit.com); rural South, June 22, 2025, "now I run my own show now at 28, started it at 26"; "I charge $60 an hour (which is actually super low for where I live so people think it's a great deal)" (reddit.com); $100, February 24, 2025, "I usually do $100 minimum charge plus parts but I'm a one man band." (reddit.com); $140, November 4, 2024 (source 24); $155, January 10, 2026 (source 15); $145, March 12, 2026 (source 20); $195, August 26, 2025 (source 13); $250, February 23, 2026, "Been a plumbing contractor 35 years. All jobs are worth it if priced properly."; "My minimum service call is $250 but averages $350-$500 and takes an hour or less." (reddit.com); $400, August 12, 2024, "I charge around $400 for my first hour of labor for any service job. In my service area I'm about middle of the road if a tad above that for service work." (reddit.com); $265, July 25, 2025, "I'm at $265 an hour plus an $80 trip charge with a variable materials markup as needed to achieve a 58% profit margin. I prefer to flat rate though. It's easier to sell and it's more fair for everyone." (reddit.com); $150 sole proprietor, October 8, 2026 (source 25).
6. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, median hourly wage, Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters (47-2152): national $30.67 ($63,800 a year, 465,840 employed); MN $45.39, MA $45.14, NJ $37.61, NY $37.26, CT $37.16, IA $30.72, LA $30.62, CO $30.40, UT $29.76, NE $29.31, VA $29.07, ID $25.18, AR $23.39; Denver metro area $30.72; New York-Newark-Jersey City metro area $37.79. Read from the BLS public data API (series OEUN000000000000047215208 and the matching state and metro series); May 2025 tables at bls.gov, read November 3, 2026.
7. r/Plumbing comment, February 9, 2025 - "I had my own shop for about 3 years. Figure on 1000 billable hours a year and base your rates off that, plus all your expenses and desired profits. You need to pay yourself for days off and vacations, etc." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
8. IRS, "Self-employment tax (Social Security and Medicare taxes)" (last reviewed or updated October 30, 2026) - "The self-employment tax rate is 15.3%. The rate consists of two parts: 12.4% for social security (old-age, survivors, and disability insurance) and 2.9% for Medicare (hospital insurance)"; "you can deduct the employer-equivalent portion of your SE tax". irs.gov, read November 3, 2026.
9. r/Contractor, "Has anyone else's business liability insurance gone up a lot?" (July 30, 2026) - "I'm a one-man company (plumber), started my own business last year. My contractor's insurance (business owners policy) is up for renewal, and it would increase 50 percent (from approx $1,000, to $1,500 for a year)."; "other insurers usually are quoting around $2,500 or more." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
10. r/Plumbing, "Getting insurance/bonded as a new contractor" (comment, May 13, 2025), from a Colorado firm run by a master plumber and his wife - "My husband and I are our only employees. We pay $3000/yr for liability insurance.umbrella policy and tool insurance. $3600/yr for commercial insurance on our box truck." reddit.com, read in an archive copy in November 2026; the live comment no longer shows the text.
11. r/electricians comment by a New Jersey plumber, July 4, 2025 - "Im a 2 man shop but plumber and apprentice (very motivated one). We're averaging 6-10 billable hours a day. We rarely work more than 8. I do all flat Rate pricing and have a labor factor for everything in the book that gets multiplied times the billable rate."; "I also use an efficiency of 75%. Because not all days are that good." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
12. r/askaplumber comment, March 25, 2026 - "I own the business"; "At the end of the year, the math works itself out, and I gross $75k-95k as a skilled licensed Plumber. That's a decent living, for someone who lives in a high cost area."; "This business has been around for 50 years,( dad started it)"; "$100.00 service calls aren't paying the bills, as most single man shops don't have 8 billable hours every single day." reddit.com. Same author, July 9, 2025: "It's just me now, so my overhead isn't as high as a lot of companies surrounding me." reddit.com. Quotes checked November 2026.
13. r/askaplumber comment, August 26, 2025 - "Factoring in all the overhead and profit necessary to have even one employee, I couldn't even drive to a customers house and drive back home for $95 without losing money."; "I have to have a minimum of $195 if it's a one hour service call and by the time the truck gets back to the shop, and I factor in everything my accountant has set up to cover all my costs, the company probably profits like 20 dollars." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
14. r/Plumbing comment, March 22, 2025 - "In Denver for my service department I have guys / or dispatch, upfront explain its $360 for first 2 hrs 2 hr minimum and $65 trip charge. I'm not paying my guys for the $5 fitting and the 20 mins of his time. I'm paying for his years of experience, his van, his uniform, his ins, my ins etc." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
15. r/Contractor, "Free estimates? I'm done wasting my time with them" (January 10, 2026, 92 comments) - "I run a small plumbing/mechanical company. Primarily service work and remodels. Residential and commercial work. Opened my business June 2025."; "Now commercial is strictly T&M, residential service is $155 diagnostic to come out and will be taken out of cost if service is complete same day. Repeat customers I do not charge the $155 diagnostic to." reddit.com. The same owner, January 11, 2026: "I also have my diagnostic fee on my website and clearly tell all customers upfront before we schedule an appointment" reddit.com. Quotes checked November 2026.
16. r/Plumbing, "Plumber to plumber: Service call fee issues" (comment, March 13, 2026; the thread was later removed by moderators and was read in an archive copy) - "Me: I have a $250 minimum charge for any work done, but I can provide a free estimate if you are within my five mile working radius."; "For my particular situation, living and working in the heart of a HCOL city, this worked great." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
17. Same thread (March 12, 2026) - "We don't charge a service unless we do work. If we look at it we give you a free estimate, but if you want hands on work or advice it's a minimum of an hour" reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
18. r/askaplumber comment, December 19, 2024 - "$200 is my minimum service fee. If it's for something non-emergency like a dripping faucet I would urge the customer to come up with a list of other things they'd like looked at while I am there to make it worth their time." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
19. r/askaplumber comment, June 16, 2025 - "I charge closer to $200 to show up, but I include any small repair labor in that price. Otherwise I'm driving to a hundred places a day for people to pay an $80 service call fee in order to get me to tell them how to fix it themselves." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
20. r/Plumbing, "Plumber to plumber: Service call fee issues" (comment, March 12, 2026) - "I charge $145 diagnostic fee. Make the repair, unclog the line out fix the heat the $145 is waved. Really just rolled into the repair" reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
21. Same thread (March 12, 2026, 38 points) - "I usually say service fee is applied towards the total cost if we do repairs." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
22. r/Contractor, reply under source 15 (January 10, 2026) - "I don't really like the idea of crediting the diagnostic fee back personally. I understand the logic behind it, but you're still giving away your expertise for free by doing this." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
23. r/Contractor, "Was the plumber right to charge me dispatch fee?" (October 23, 2026, 55 comments) - the post: "This is in NJ, USA. No notice of dispatch fee"; "Charges me $90 on the spot". Replies: "Dispatch or minimum service fee is standard practice for any successful residential service contractor these days. It should have been stated in advance though." (reddit.com); "I always send a text, even after a phone call, something like 'thanks for scheduling an estimate with us, we'll be there at X on Monday, and just a reminder about the Y estimate fee that will be applied to your project later on'" (reddit.com). Quotes checked November 2026.
24. r/askaplumber comment, November 4, 2024 - "I charge $140 for a call-out fee. Then i do flat rate for jobs. Flat rate lets me charge more without customers freaking out. I live in an area with lower prices. If i told a customer i want $400 an hour to change their kitchen faucet, they would be furious and try to attack me for ripping them off and insulting them." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
25. r/askaplumber comment, October 8, 2026 - "I don't charge hourly rates for water heaters - flat rate. My hourly rate is 150$. Sole proprietor, one van, one 24'x40'shop." reddit.com, read in an archive copy in November 2026; the live comment no longer shows the text.
26. r/Plumbing comment, October 23, 2024, from an owner with techs - "I tried profit rhino. I didn't like it. I made my own price book on Word Press." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
27. r/askaplumber comment, September 26, 2025, by the New Jersey owner in source 11 - "I'm a one man shop for reference. Flat rate pricing and building out a solid price book. I do it all in google sheet right on my tablet. No expensive software." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
28. r/smallbusiness comment, November 10, 2025, by the same New Jersey owner - "As a fellow plumber. You should be $150 BARE MINIMUM. Im in NJ. My rates are as follows. This includes overhead and profit. 4 hours or less $220/hr. 8 hour day $175/hr."; "Project rate, 2-5 full days $150/hr"; "New construction & large reno work $130/hr." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
29. r/Plumbing comment, March 28, 2026, a plumber in Oregon - "We charge a flat $160/hr plus materials with a 100% mark up on all parts under $100 and 50% mark up on all parts over $100." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
30. r/Plumbing comment, January 9, 2026 - "As the owner of a HVAC & Plumbing business I'm not doing that repair for $170 costs more than that to roll a truck and myself or a Journeyman Plumber/HVAC Tech out to a job. Im at $99 dispatch/diagnostic fee. My dispatch fee is a loss leader gets us in the door so we can hopefully get the job. That would be a $439 repair fornme here in Delaware. One of the big PE owned companies would be around $1000." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
31. r/askaplumber comment, October 23, 2024 - "I know my overheads and the cost of service. There are companies around here doing $77 drain cleaning specials so I'm around middle of the road." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
32. r/askaplumber comment, August 19, 2024 - "People hate when I charge them '$300 for an hours work'. You didn't pay me for the hour. You paid me for the 15 years I spent learning how to solve your problem in an hour, with the tools I invested in." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.