Plumbing
Plumbing Cost Calculator
Plumbing quotes swing widely because a few things move the price independently: what the job actually is, how hard your pipes are to reach, and when you need someone on site. Set those below and the calculator shows where your job should land.
What to order
| Line item | Low | High |
|---|---|---|
| Plumber labor Includes the first hour most companies bill as a service call. | $110 | $380 |
| Repair parts From a P-trap kit to a faucet cartridge. Shower valve cartridges can run near $90. | $5 | $35 |
| Total | $120 | $415 |
Compare real quotes near you
This is a research estimate. Actual pricing depends on your site conditions, so get at least three quotes from licensed pros and ask each to itemize against the line items above — that is the fastest way to see why two bids differ.
What drives the price
Job type moves the number more than anything else
A repair is one access point and usually an hour or two of labor, and most companies bill at least the first hour as a service call. A whole-home repipe is a crew of three to five people for two to five days, a permit and inspection, and a round of drywall patching afterwards — which is why it lands in the thousands even in a small house.
Access changes the labor, not the parts
Plumbers price by how long it takes to reach the pipe. Estimating standards add about 20% to labor for work in a crawl space and about 50% for work in an attic — which is how most slab homes are repiped, because running new lines overhead is cheaper than breaking up the slab. Leaks under a slab are a different job entirely and often cost several times a normal repair.
Copper versus PEX
At September 2026 prices, copper pipe and fittings for a repipe cost roughly three to four times as much as PEX, and soldered joints take considerably longer than PEX connections. Put together, repipe contractors quote copper jobs roughly 40% to 80% above the same house in PEX. CPVC sits close to PEX on material cost.
Emergency calls carry a real premium
Published after-hours and weekend rates run from about 1.4 to 2 times a scheduled visit, and some companies add a flat dispatch fee on top. A few charge no premium at all, so it is worth asking. If the leak is contained and you can shut off the supply, waiting for a normal appointment is usually the cheaper call.
Sources
- Public housing authority maintenance charge schedules (Butte County, Alameda, Tacoma) · 2015–2025 Task times for drain stoppages, small parts and toilet replacement: 0.5 to 2 hours.
- Retail prices: PexUniverse, Moen, Zoro, Hartville Hardware, Home Depot · September 17, 2026 Pipe, fittings, stop valves, supply lines and repair parts. Copper priced with COMEX copper at $6.57/lb that day — copper figures move with the metal.
- Craftsman Book Company, 2026 National Plumbing & HVAC Estimator (free preview) · 2026 edition Manhours to set a fixture with trim (toilet 2.10, lavatory 2.00, kitchen sink 2.15); access multipliers of 1.20 for crawl spaces and 1.50 for attics.
- Repipe Solutions (Houston), repipe duration guide · retrieved September 2026 Crews of 3–5 plumbers finishing a PEX repipe in 2–3 days, which works out to 2.5–5 worker-hours per fixture. A contractor source — the weakest link in this calculator.
- Copper repipe premiums: Repipe Solutions (Houston), The Repipe Company (Pearland, TX) · retrieved September 2026 Copper quoted 40–60% above PEX by one company and about 60–100% by the other. Copper crew hours are set at 1.5× PEX so whole-job totals land inside that band.
- Plastics Pipe Institute, PEX Design Guide, 2nd edition, chapter 7 · November 2013 23–68 feet of supply pipe and 1.5–2.2 fittings per fixture across four model homes, used with retail prices to build per-fixture material costs.
- Plumbing permit schedules: Houston, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, Mecklenburg County, Atlanta, Phoenix, Columbus · September 2026 National range spans what each charges to repipe an 8–20 fixture home. State pages use their own city.
- HomeAdvisor, drywall repair cost · June 2026 Typical drywall repair of $296–$929, used for patching access holes after a repipe.
- After-hours premiums: HomeAdvisor, Yelp, This Old House, Fixr, S.E. Tradesmen · 2024–2026 Published premiums run 1.36–2× a standard visit; 1.5× is the middle of that evidence.
- Published plumber hourly rates: HomeAdvisor, Fixr, This Old House, Yelp · 2024–2026 Median of the published averages ($80, $90, $100, $148) is $95 an hour. Divided by the BLS median plumber wage of $30.67, that sets the 3.1 contractor markup.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics · May 2025 Hourly wages by state: 25th percentile (low), median (typical), 75th percentile (high).
Frequently asked questions
How much does a plumber charge per hour?
Published surveys put average residential rates between about $80 and $150 an hour, with a middle around $95. Many companies quote a flat price per task instead, which protects you if the job runs long. This calculator starts from what plumbers in your state are actually paid, using federal wage data, and applies a markup calibrated to those published rates.
Do I need a permit for plumbing work?
Repairs and like-for-like fixture swaps usually do not. A repipe does: every city we checked requires a permit, costing anywhere from under $100 in Houston or Jacksonville to $275 or more in Columbus, Phoenix and Atlanta depending on the size of the job. Whether a homeowner can pull one varies by jurisdiction.
Is a whole-home repipe worth it?
It becomes worth considering once you are paying for repeated repairs on the same system, particularly with galvanized or early polybutylene pipe. Compare the repipe figure against what you have spent on repairs in the last three years.
Why are quotes for the same job so different?
Scope, usually. One plumber may include patching, permit and haul-away while another quotes labor only. Ask each contractor to itemize against the same line items shown above before comparing totals.
Costs by state
The same job as above, priced with each state's wages, material price level and permit fees.