How to price a plumbing job (a repeatable formula)
A simple, repeatable formula solo plumbers can use to price any job — labor, materials, overhead, and margin — without underquoting.
Most solo plumbers underquote because they price by feel. A written formula fixes that. It also makes voice-to-estimate tools like QuickBid far more accurate, because you can encode your rates once and let AI apply them.
The formula
Use: (Billable hours × labor rate) + (Materials × 1.2 markup) + trip fee + tax. Add a 15% margin on the subtotal if the job carries any risk of scope creep.
Billable hours should include drive time and cleanup, not just wrench time. If a job takes 90 minutes of active work, bill 2 hours.
Labor rate should cover your take-home plus overhead (truck, insurance, phone, software). For most solo plumbers in the US that lands between $110 and $175 per hour.
Worked example: water heater swap
Materials markup covers pickup time and warranty risk. 1.2× (20%) is the floor; 1.35× is common for specialty parts.
A 50-gallon water heater swap in a garage: 3 billable hours × $135 = $405 labor. Heater + fittings at cost $780 × 1.2 = $936. Trip fee $75. Subtotal $1,416. Add 15% risk margin = $1,628. Round to $1,650 and quote a range.
Always send the customer a written estimate with line items. It closes deals faster than a verbal number and protects you if scope changes.
Common mistakes
QuickBid does this automatically: describe the job into your phone and it generates the line items using your rates.
Underquoting to win the job — you lose money and set the price ceiling for future work with that customer.
Forgetting to bill for the estimate visit when the job is complex — bake it into the trip fee.
Not including tax and disposal fees on the written estimate — surprises kill trust.