What's a fair hourly rate for a plumber?

As I say around here there are three sides to every story, his side, her side and the truth.

My story is came home from being gone for 3 weeks, no hot water. Called the first company who came up on internet (my mistake), told it was $75 to show up, I was OK with that. Guy came out and diagnosed and replaced the thermocouple and billed me close to another $250 for repair and the part. I was ****ed as it only took 45 minutes for whole thing, I complained and said I would never use them again. He didn't seem to give a scheisse, actually suggested I call another company who charges by time and materials instead of flat rate. I googled the part they charged me $50 for, it is $12. And on top of that he had the nerve to not install the decorative plate, just left it on the ground, I made him install it and then he tried to sell me the annual maintenance fee package after all of that. Needless to say the big well advertised company will never get my business again.

I think a lot of companies make too much money especially when they have a government license to steal, like mandatory inspections, etc.
 
Lets say you roll up in my shop in your Ford Edge with the 3.5 and need a water pump replaced. Labor guide says 12.7 hours, you gotta pull the engine. Now, I have a fabulous tech who can do it in about 8 hours, Im still charging you 12.7. If he cant get to it, I have a guy who is a damn good tech, just not as fast, would take him 14. Now if the second tech does the job, you ok with me charging you for 14 hours? Or is 12.7 just fine?
 
weilke said:
Most A&Ps don't bill what they are worth.



Oh,if a tradesperson takes 0.5hrs to deposit a check, they are doing something wrong.
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Going to the bank takes time, plus he has to make out the invoice, make the deposit, enter it into his accounting system, etc. And, who knows, he may want to go to the customer's bank and cash the check to make sure it doesn't bounce.


I would guess most plumbers prefer to work new construction and get paid $10k to rough in a house and come back and finish it than deal with quoting $30 parts....
 
Gerhardt said:
??? No one with any experience is giving an estimate over the phone, especially for plumbing. Most people that call a plumber, electrician, etc. don't have a clue.

Nate: "My toilet is overflowing, there's crap everywhere, how much to clean this up and fix it?" You think the guy is going to shoot you a price over the phone? It could be anything from a tampon he can pull out with his hand to tree roots growing into a broken drain. There's just no way for him to know until he's there in person.

I have a lawn and landscaping business and get calls like this all the time. There are so many variables. Someone calls just wanting trees, plants, shrubs installed. One person has clean topsoil they will go in, the next person neglects to mention that their old evergreens were cut off at ground level and now have to be dug out first, a real PITA. Even regular lawn maintenance (mowing, etc.) "how much for a small quarter acre lot?"...bah. One with no trees on flat terrain could be $30. The same size lot on a slope with half a dozen trees and shrubs would be twice that. And it's not an hourly rate.

And I get that question a lot. "How much per hour to *insert task*?" We don't charge by the hour, it's by the job, because it's not just time, it's that some jobs don't take as long but are very demanding on the body or just unpleasant to do. And it's going to be less expensive in the fall/winter than in the spring or summer.

Someone else mentioned overhead. Businesses have office expenses, insurance, taxes, a trip to do the estimate, a trip to do the work, trips to get parts they don't have on hand, trips for estimates that never turn into work.

I don't begrudge someone making a fair wage, and I know that his costs will always be much more than my cost of doing it myself.
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I can estimate time myself and compare apples to apples without someone wasting my time coming to look at a "slope". All I need is the hourly rate. I can even pad it.

I have to arrange to be home multiple days in a row to get multiple estimates from folks who'll almost never be able to come on the same day. I'm hiring a contractor because I DON'T have time to do it myself, not because I don't know HOW. A very different sort of customer than perhaps the norm? Or maybe not.

Either way, I'm hiring the contractor who can quote an hourly rate. That rate includes all of their overhead and whatnot. So all of that is moot. Don't care. Quote the price.

Luckily I can still find contractors who'll give hourly rates here but just barely. They get my business.

N747JB said:
Even in the car business we are more and more quoting total job costs, it makes more sense to the customer. I had a customer go nuts a few months ago about her bill, we quoted her $600, when she picked it up she bitched, so we charged her $500, then she finds out the part was $30 and goes ballistic that we charged her $450 to put in a $30 part!!! Well, we had to drop the fuel tank and go in through the top of it to replace whatever the part was, flat rate was 5 hours at $100 per hour, plus tax etc came up to $600. She was fine until she saw the part price, then we ripped her off! :rolleyes:
I prefer total costs on my estimates, I don't care how you sheer the sheep, just tell me the price of the wool. :)
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I had someone else do a fuel tank pump recently. Their hourly rate was decent as were the hours they quoted, but they made their money by doubling or even tripling the parts price. Doesn't make me too interested in using them again, if they're going to lie on their invoice.

Anyone can look up parts prices these days. If they needed a higher hourly rate, they should have just put that on the invoice and ended up at the same total price. I'd have still paid it. They screwed themselves by lying on the invoice for whatever tax or other reason they did it, because I won't be back. We've done thousands in business there and this is a pattern.

Don't want to deal with in-tank fuel pumps. Even more don't want to deal with companies that play games on invoices.
 
Getonit said:
As I say around here there are three sides to every story, his side, her side and the truth.

My story is came home from being gone for 3 weeks, no hot water. Called the first company who came up on internet (my mistake), told it was $75 to show up, I was OK with that. Guy came out and diagnosed and replaced the thermocouple and billed me close to another $250 for repair and the part. I was ****ed as it only took 45 minutes for whole thing, I complained and said I would never use them again. He didn't seem to give a scheisse, actually suggested I call another company who charges by time and materials instead of flat rate. I googled the part they charged me $50 for, it is $12. And on top of that he had the nerve to not install the decorative plate, just left it on the ground, I made him install it and then he tried to sell me the annual maintenance fee package after all of that. Needless to say the big well advertised company will never get my business again.

I think a lot of companies make too much money especially when they have a government license to steal, like mandatory inspections, etc.
Click to expand...

Does the company end with "and son"?
 
Anyone who's ever been involved in construction knows that the plumber arrives at the jobsite in one of these:

image.jpeg

Which is amazing because, unlike true construction tradesmen, plumbers only have to know three things:
  1. S*** flows downhill
  2. Payday is Friday and
  3. Don't bite your fingernails.
;)
 
timwinters said:
Anyone who's ever been involved in construction knows that the plumber arrives at the jobsite in one of these:

View attachment 46151

Which is amazing because, unlike true construction tradesmen, plumbers only have to know three things:
  1. S*** flows downhill
  2. Payday is Friday and
  3. Don't bite your fingernails.
;)
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4. Hot water is on the left....
 
Lachlan said:
Just had a plumber out to find a leak. He thought it was a slab leak at our water main. I found a drip inside the wall once we cut it open. Turned out to be the a/c drain was not built right and was dripping from the attic (where the a/c condenser us) in between two walls. He replumbed the improperly installed a/c condensate drain with new PVC and better routing. $1639 for ~$20 worth of PVC. That can't be book rate. That's some special rate.
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I wanna work for you - you're easy!
 
This reminds me of the wealthy attorney that was hosting a dinner party when one of his toilets backed up. He called a plumber that advertised online, and shortly thereafter said plumber was at the attorney's house diagnosing the problem. The plumber told the attorney "Looks like it'll be about $650 to repair it, and I should be done in an hour or so".

The attorney was taken aback. He told the plumber "I'm an attorney at a downtown law firm and made partner last year. I don't charge anywhere close to $650 an hour".

The plumber shrugged his shoulders. "I know what you mean. When I was an attorney I didn't charge that much either".

:p
 
I am in the IT consulting business. Anything under 10 hours we go T&M. We will flat price anything over that. Under 10 hours and it doesn't make sense, as we have to add PM time, troubleshooting, etc. and the customer will think they were over charged. As pointed out, there is a lot of effort that goes into running a business and marketing it. For us to go out on a sales call and produce a quote is $500 or more. For big jobs, it is worth it. For the little stuff, we will go T&M, take it or leave it. If you want a guaranteed price, then it is going to be higher than the hourly, if everything goes perfectly and for small jobs, we just won't flat rate it.
 
JoseCuervo said:
Going to the bank takes time, plus he has to make out the invoice, make the deposit, enter it into his accounting system, etc. And, who knows, he may want to go to the customer's bank and cash the check to make sure it doesn't bounce.
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I (or rather my staff) process hundreds of customer transactions, electronic funds transfers, insurance and patient payments every month. I dont send someone to the bank with one check. Also, its not the plumber that handles all those steps, it is some lady in the back office who makes $12.50 an hour.

I would guess most plumbers prefer to work new construction and get paid $10k to rough in a house and come back and finish it than deal with quoting $30 parts....
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According to the guy who recently put the plumbing for a new bathroom into my house, he has stopped doing new construction as the mass builders just go with the lowest bidder and the materials budgets are not sufficient to do the job right. He rather does remodeling work in cooperation with a couple of small GCs that do kitchens and bathrooms.
 
weilke said:
I (or rather my staff) process hundreds of customer transactions, electronic funds transfers, insurance and patient payments every month. I dont send someone to the bank with one check. Also, its not the plumber that handles all those steps, it is some lady in the back office who makes $12.50 an hour.
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Yeah, and without knowing the OP's plumber's business, we don't know if he will "process hundreds of customer transactions" each day as a plumber. I doubt it, but who knows?? You (or rather your staff) has enough volume you can hire dedicated check processors. A plumber likely can't. He gets no efficiency from volume on the banking transactions.


weilke said:
I
According to the guy who recently put the plumbing for a new bathroom into my house, he has stopped doing new construction as the mass builders just go with the lowest bidder and the materials budgets are not sufficient to do the job right. He rather does remodeling work in cooperation with a couple of small GCs that do kitchens and bathrooms.
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Lot different for the plumber who gets his jobs from the small GC who has the remodel contract than the plumber who has to go meet with the OP and have to spend 30 minutes justifying his quote.

I have never known a plumber who enjoyed fixing broken crap as opposed to installing brand new fixtures and lines.
 
JoseCuervo said:
Yeah, and without knowing the OP's plumber's business, we don't know if he will "process hundreds of customer transactions" each day as a plumber. I doubt it, but who knows?? You (or rather your staff) has enough volume you can hire dedicated check processors. A plumber likely can't. He gets no efficiency from volume on the banking transactions.
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If I have someone come out to fix something (e.g. a refrigerator), they have their bill written up by the end of the job. You know, they have these things called 'smartphones' these days and you can take a credit card payment or deposit a check into your business account right at the jobsite. Regardless of business model, .5hrs to run a single check to the bank is just poor time management.

I have never known a plumber who enjoyed fixing broken crap as opposed to installing brand new fixtures and lines.
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The money is all the same.
 
Here's an interesting procedure to compare economies -- ancient, modern, third world -- they've found that journeymen plumbers and carpenters can buy approximately the same number of loaves of bread with their daily wage.
 
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