Is one of the toilets in your home clogged? Is the pipe under your kitchen sink leaking? Or is there something wrong with your sewer line?
These are all good reasons to hire a plumber! Hiring a Tomball plumber or another plumber local to you is pretty much the only way that you’re going to be able to get your home’s plumbing system under control again.
Prior to pulling the trigger on hiring a plumber, though, you should try to figure out what kind of plumber prices you might be facing. You don’t want to end up being surprised over the cost to hire a plumber.
So, how much does a plumber cost? On average, you could be looking at paying anywhere from $45 to $150 per hour for plumbing services. It really all depends on a number of different factors.
Check out some of the key factors that are going to have an impact on the cost to hire a plumber to come out to your home below.
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Location
When you attempt to hire a plumber to come out to your home to help you deal with a plumbing issue, one of the first things they’re going to ask is, “Where do you live?” They’ll do this because your location is going to play a big part in how much a plumber is ultimately going to charge you.
If you live in a part of town that’s going to be very easy for a plumber to get to, they might not charge you much for their services. But if you live way out in the middle of nowhere in a place that’s going to be challenging for a plumber to get to, it might be a different story.
If you do happen to fall into that second category, it’s going to be imperative that you stay on top of minor plumbing issues and steer clear of letting them grow into major problems. You want to give a plumber more than enough time to plan to take a trip out to your home when it’s off the beaten path. Otherwise, you could end up having to pay an arm and a leg for their services. To find a plumber near you, a simple Google search of “plumbing services in Coachella, CA” or whichever area you live in should give you a good idea.
Options
The U.S. plumbing industry as a whole is worth well over $100 billion right now. As a result, there are so many plumbing companies operating all throughout the country at this time.
In fact, there are more than 120,000 plumbing companies in service in 2021. This means that there shouldn’t be any shortage of options in your general area. It also means that you should be able to pit plumbers against one another to get the best deals possible.
But with this in mind, not everyone is going to have tons and tons of plumbing options in their cities and towns. There are some places that only have a few options when it comes to plumbers.
If you live in a place like this, you might have to mentally prepare to pay more when you hire a plumber. The lack of competition is going to allow some plumbing companies to charge almost whatever they want since they know that people don’t have many other options.
Plumbing Issue
There are so many things that you can hire a plumber to help you with as far as your home’s plumbing system is concerned. Your specific plumbing issue is going to have a whole lot to do with the plumber prices that you’ll be asked to pay.
There are some people who will call on a plumber to help them install a new plumbing fixture. They’ll ask a plumber to assist them with:
- Installing a new kitchen sink
- Replacing an old bathtub
- Putting a new water heater into place
There are also people who will call on a plumber to help them make plumbing repairs. They’ll ask a plumber to lend a hand with things like:
- Leaky faucets
- Busted pipes
- Toilet repair or replacement
- Backed-up drains
And of course, there are even people who will need major repair work done to their homes when they hire a plumber. They’ll ask a plumber to help them with:
- Installing a new sewer line
- Fixing a broken water line
- Replacing their entire plumbing system
The specific plumbing issue that you’re having is going to help dictate what your plumber cost will be. The more serious that your plumbing issue is, the more you can expect to pay for a plumber to assist you with it.
Materials
There will be times when a plumber will be able to help clear up a plumbing issue in your home without using any materials. If, for instance, you have a toilet that is clogged, they should be able to unclog it with little more than a plunger and maybe a plumbing snake.
But there will also be times when a plumber will need to use lots of different materials to fix a plumbing issue in your home. If you have a sewer line that needs to be replaced, it’ll cost you a nice chunk of change since this repair job will involve taking out your old sewer line and putting a new one in its place.
One of the many benefits of hiring a professional plumbing service is that they’ll use high-quality materials in your home to ensure that they’re able to clear up any problems you’re having. But those materials could increase your plumbing cost every so slightly.
You should try to be aware of which materials that a plumber may need to use while working on your plumbing system. You should also feel free to ask a plumber if you’re going to have options when it comes to which materials that they use while fixing your plumbing system.
You might be able to save a few dollars by going with one kind of plumbing pipes over another.
Labor
If you need to hire a plumber to unclog a toilet for you, there is a decent chance that a job like this might only take 5 minutes or so. In that case, the labor associated with hiring a plumber is going to be minimal. A plumber shouldn’t charge you too much for their time.
But in a lot of other cases, a plumber is going to have to spend at least an hour, if not several hours, working on whatever plumbing issue you might be having. And that is when your plumbing costs are going to start to go up.
As we touched on earlier, the vast majority of plumbers charge hourly labor rates to their customers. Because of this, you’re going to see your cost to hire a plumber go way up if they have to spend a significant time in your home.
This is going to be especially true if you hire a plumber who charges a relatively high hourly rate. It’s not uncommon for some plumbers to charge well over $100 per hour, and that can really add up if you have a plumbing issue that takes them 4 or 5 hours to fix.
Don’t be shy about asking a plumber how long they think it’s going to take them to get to the bottom of the plumbing issue that you’re having. They should be able to estimate it and provide you with a full breakdown of their labor costs in the initial quote that they give to you.
Urgency
More often than not, those who need plumbers to come out to their homes don’t need them to do it right away. Even when they’re having, say, a toilet unclogged, it’s an issue that can wait for a little while.
When you give a plumber the luxury of showing up at your home on their own time, they’ll typically charge you less than they would if you were to push them to visit your home right away. A general lack of urgency is not going to go unnoticed by an overworked plumber who will sometimes give you a better deal on their services.
But with that being said, there are going to be times when you’ll have to try to find a plumber to visit your home in an emergency situation. You aren’t going to be able to sit around waiting for several days for a plumber if you have a sewer line blockage.
You’re just going to need to be prepared to bite the bullet and pay a little more than you normally would for emergency plumbing services. You shouldn’t be too shocked to hear that your plumbing costs will go up when you need to hire a plumber to visit your home in a hurry.
Rebates
If you find yourself in the middle of an emergency plumbing situation, you’re not going to have time to look around for coupons for a plumber. You might have to just hire the first plumber you can find with an opening in their schedule.
But if you have the time to do it, it’s never a bad idea to search for coupons and rebates for a plumber prior to calling on them for help. You can usually track down coupons and rebates right on a plumber’s website.
When you call a plumber to inquire about their services, you should let them know that you’re going to be using a coupon when you hire them. This will help you avoid finding yourself in a sticky situation when the bill comes later on.
How to Find Out How Much a Plumber Will Cost You
Now that you know about all the different factors that will play a role in what it will cost you to hire a plumber, there is only one thing left to do: See what the plumbers in your area are going to charge you! It’s pretty easy to do this as long as you know what you’re doing.
Here are the steps you should take to find out how much a plumber in your area will cost you:
- Begin by Googling “plumbers near me” and creating a list of local plumbing companies
- Find out which plumbers can help you with the specific plumbing issue you’re facing
- Contact each plumber on your list and ask them if they can provide you with a free quote
- Invite the plumbers that give free quotes to potential customers out to your home
- Collect at least a few free quotes from plumbers to find out what each one is going to charge you
Once you’ve worked your way through these steps, you should have a much better idea of what your plumbing issue is going to cost you. You should also have a much better idea of which plumber in your area is going to be the best fit for you based on price.
Just be careful about hiring a plumber solely because they’re going to charge you less than their competitors. You don’t want to end up working with a plumber who isn’t anywhere near as skilled as other plumbers in your city or town.
When you hire a plumber, you want to know that they’re going to charge you a fair price. But maybe more importantly, you want to know that they’re going to go above and beyond to make things right with the plumbing system in your home.
Hire a Plumber Today Without Breaking the Bank
We can’t tell you exactly what it’s going to cost you to hire a plumber. But we can tell you that you’re likely going to overpay for a plumber if you don’t know which factors affect plumber prices.
You should commit these factors to memory prior to trying to hire a plumber to do any work in your home. It’ll allow you to find the right plumber for the job and keep your plumbing project under budget in the process.
Want to learn about what some other home improvements are going to cost you? Discover what you can expect to pay for them by reading through the articles found on our blog.