How to Price Plumbing Jobs: A Guide for UK Plumbers
The short answer
Price a plumbing job from the hours it will really take, costed at your true hourly rate, plus parts, waste and travel, then divide by (1 − your margin floor). Use day rates and per-item prices to check the number, never to make it.
- A day rate is not a price. In our radiator example, two days at £300 plus parts gives an 11% margin, before overheads.
- Survey before you quote. System type, pipe sizes, water pressure, access under floors and a stopcock that works all change the hours.
- Hours × true hourly cost. Not the wage: an employee on £18 an hour costs about £27.40 per hour you can charge.
- Write what is included. Drain-down, parts, waste, commissioning and making good. Anything else is an extra, priced before you do it.
Most plumbers price the way they were shown: an hourly rate, "about £300 a day", or a price per radiator they heard from a mate. Then the system is microbore, the stopcock won't turn, the floorboards are screwed down under laminate, and a one-day job takes two.
This guide shows how to price plumbing jobs so every quote makes money. It is for owners of UK plumbing and heating businesses. Want your rates checked against a real job? Book a free strategy call.
For setting your margin floor, kit margin and call-out minimum, see our plumbing and heating margin guide. This page is about pricing the job in front of you.
Why a day rate loses money on plumbing jobs
A homeowner cost guide is a good market check. WaterSafe's 2026 guide puts plumbers at £40 to £70 an hour and £250 to £400 a day. But those are averages across very different jobs:
- Small repair: a tap, a valve, a leak. Short on site, long in travel
- Like-for-like swap: radiators, taps, a WC. Quick if the pipework is sound
- First and second fix: a bathroom or kitchen. Two visits, other trades in between
- Boiler or cylinder: kit-heavy, commissioning and paperwork
- Rerouting pipework: floors up, walls chased, making good
Quote all of them at one day rate with parts at cost, and the travel, merchant runs and paperwork come out of your margin.
Know your numbers before you price anything
You need two numbers from your own books:
- True hourly cost. Wages plus employer NI, pension, holiday, van, tools and insurance, divided by the hours you can actually charge. Our playbook works on £27.40 an hour for an employee on £18.
- Margin floor. Your overheads as a % of turnover plus the net profit you want. With 20% overheads and 10% profit, nothing goes out below a 30% gross margin.
Every price on this page is cost ÷ (1 − margin floor). At 30%, that is cost ÷ 0.7, so one hour at £27.40 sells for about £39 before parts. The margin guide shows how to work out both numbers, and why kit is priced on margin, not markup.
Survey the job before you quote
Never price more than a small repair from a photo. On the visit, check:
- the system type: open vented, sealed or unvented, combi or cylinder
- pipe sizes and material: copper, plastic, microbore, any old lead
- water pressure and flow at the kitchen tap, and a stopcock that works
- access: floorboards, laminate, boxed-in pipes, a tight loft or cupboard
- parking, where the waste goes, and whether people live in the house
Write what you found on the quote. If the pipework under the floor is not what you saw, it is an extra and not your loss.
Price the hours, job type by job type
The number of items tells you how much. The job type tells you how long. These are what add hours:
| Job type | What adds hours |
|---|---|
| Small repair or call-out | Travel, parking, merchant run, writing up |
| Radiator or tap swap | Drain-down, refill, bleeding, inhibitor, balancing |
| Bathroom first and second fix | Two visits, pipe runs, waiting on other trades |
| Boiler swap | Strip-out, flue, commissioning, paperwork |
| Rerouting pipework | Lifting floors, chasing walls, making good |
| Outside or utility supply | Drilling through walls, lagging, isolation valves |
Gas work is only for engineers on the Gas Safe Register. If a job has a gas element and you are not registered, price in a registered engineer or don't take it.
Use your own outputs. If you don't know how long a radiator swap really takes you, job-cost the next three and write the actual hours down. After a month you will price from your numbers, not from memory.
Not sure your hourly cost and outputs are right?
Book a free strategy call and we will check them with you.
A worked example: swapping six radiators
Three-bed semi, six radiators replaced like for like, TRVs on each (example figures). Sealed system, pipework sound, one plumber.
| Task | Hours | Cost £ |
|---|---|---|
| Protection and drain-down | 1.5 | 41.10 |
| Remove old radiators, waste out | 3 | 82.20 |
| Fit six radiators and valves | 8 | 219.20 |
| Refill, bleed, inhibitor, pressure test | 2 | 54.80 |
| Balance and check every room | 1 | 27.40 |
| Clean-up and handover | 0.5 | 13.70 |
| Labour at £27.40/h | 16 | 438.40 |
Then add what is not labour:
Direct cost: £1,258.40. At a 30% floor the price is £1,258.40 ÷ 0.7 = £1,798, quoted as £1,800 (plus VAT if you are registered). That is £300 a radiator.
Now the check. Two days at £300 plus parts, waste and travel at cost is £1,420. That leaves an 11% margin, before a penny of overheads. "£150 a radiator plus parts" comes to £1,720: closer, but still about £80 under your floor. The rate looked "market". The job wasn't.
Taking the cheapest quote the client mentions as your price. You don't know their hours, their costs, or whether they will be around to fix a leak next year.
Hourly, day rate or fixed price: when each works
Use each method where it fits, and build all three from the same hourly cost:
| Method | Use it for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed price per job | Homeowners, swaps, bathrooms, boilers | Write inclusions and exclusions, or extras become free |
| Hourly with a minimum | Breakdowns, leaks, small repairs | Set a minimum that covers travel; bill time in fixed blocks |
| Day rate | Agreed dayworks for builders, unknown scope | Agree it in writing first; parts and travel on top |
Homeowners compare totals, so give them one clear price. Builders compare rates, so give them a schedule. Either way, the number underneath is hours × true hourly cost ÷ (1 − margin floor).
UK Plumbing & Heating Profitability Playbook
True hourly cost, margin on kit, call-out minimums and job costing for plumbing and heating, with worked examples.
Get the free guidePrice for the client, not just the pipework
The same job is different work for different clients:
- Homeowner. Lived-in house, more protection, more questions. Take a deposit for the parts and get paid on completion, the same day.
- Landlord or letting agent. Tenants to arrange, access that falls through, repeat work. Charge for a wasted visit and agree who pays the invoice.
- Builder or main contractor. First and second fix, waiting on other trades. CIS takes 20% of your labour if you are registered (30% if not, unless you have gross payment status), and retention is often held. Build the wait into your price and your cash plan.
Say which VAT rate applies on every quote. Heating controls such as TRVs installed in a home can be zero-rated until 31 March 2027; radiators and boilers are standard-rated. If you are close to £90,000 of taxable turnover in a 12-month period, you must register for VAT. Price with it in mind before you reach it.
For a four-minute score of your pricing, cash, sales and systems, take the free Construction Business Scorecard.
Write a quote that protects your margin
A quote is not a number on a WhatsApp message. Put in writing:
- Work and parts. Each room, each item, and who supplies what
- What you found. System type, pipework, anything that could change on the day
- Commissioning. Refill, testing, inhibitor, paperwork and notifications
- Exclusions. Making good, tiling, electrics, decorating, anything under the floor you couldn't see
- Payment and extras. Deposit, the date payment is due, and extras priced in writing before you do them
Commissioning, benchmark paperwork and notifications take time on every install. Price them in, every time.
When the client asks for "just one more radiator", price it there and then. See how to get paid for variations for how to do it without an argument.
When to walk away from a plumbing job
Some jobs cost you money however well you plumb:
- the client wants your price to match "a mate who does it for less"
- there is no time to survey, but they want a fixed price today
- the scope is "sort the heating out" with no list of what is wrong
- the payment terms are 60 days on a job you can only fund for 30
Saying no to a bad job keeps a day free for a good one. A full diary at a loss is still a loss.
What this looks like in practice. Dmitriy, a plumber with 20+ years on the tools, won his first £50K commercial project. He started presenting quotes live and following up every open quote weekly (read his story). Individual results, not typical or guaranteed.
Sviat Jay runs a working construction company, Craftex, and mentors owners one to one himself. Every plumbing business is different: one owner is strong on the tools, another on sales. Working one to one, he builds on what you are already good at.
He is aiming for results in about 4 months rather than 1–3-year programs. To price your next job with us, book a free strategy call. If you'd rather hand the pricing over, our construction estimating service builds the quotes for you.
Want your plumbing prices built from your own numbers?
Book a free strategy call.
Before you send your next plumbing quote
Tax points are general information as of October 2026. Check the details with your accountant.
Before you go
- You surveyed the job and wrote down what you found
- Hours are estimated task by task, not from a day rate
- Labour is costed at your true hourly cost, not the wage
- Parts, waste and travel are in, and the price is cost ÷ (1 − floor)
- Inclusions, exclusions, VAT and payment terms are in writing
