Because of my focus on plumbing repairs and maintenance, which tend to be small jobs, I charge by the hour. However, if you want to compare my pricing with the 'going rate', as it were for plumbers in general, it is helpful to start by considering day rates. According to Checkatrade's Plumber Cost Guide, which was last updated in April 2023, a plumber's day rate was typically in the range between £325 and £375, with an average of £347.50. According to MyBuilder it is significantly higher, but let's work with Checkatrade's rate and round it to £350 for simplicity of numbers. From the customer's perspective, this is what you should typically expect to pay a plumber for a full day's work. From the plumber's perspective, this is essentially their daily target of what they hope to take in labour on a good day. How that translates into an hourly rate depends what type of plumbing they do. Essentially, there are three main types of plumber. Also, let's assume that including travel time and admin time, a plumber works a nine hour day on average (equivalent to an office worker doing nine to five, with a half-hour commute at each end).

1) Plumbing installers
Most plumbers are primarily installers, focusing on larger-type jobs that ideally last all day, or even for several days. This approach means they can maximise the proportion of their work day which is 'on-the-tools' and therefore chargeable as labour, and minimise travel and admin time. A plumbing installer can achieve a £350 day rate by doing seven chargeable hours at £50 per hour. In a nine hour total work day, that leaves an hour for travel time, often including a stop at a plumbing merchant, and an hour for admin time (quoting, invoicing, bookkeeping, and communicating with customers and enquirers). According to Checkatrade, £50 per hour is the average hourly rate for a plumber, but although they don't clearly state it, bear in mind that it applies primarily to this category, of all-day installation-type jobs, since that is what most plumbers do most of the time. In terms of their hourly rate, installers are at the cheap end of the pricing spectrum. In practice, very few plumbing installers actually publish their hourly rate - instead they price their work 'by the job' in the form of a quote.

2) Maintenance plumbers (like me!)
A maintenance plumber typically does several smaller jobs in a day, that are mostly scheduled in advance. To successfully fill their day with perhaps 3 to 5 smaller jobs requires significantly more admin time compared to an installer who works all day on a single job. More admin time means fewer hours on-the-tools. Consequently, their hourly labour charge needs to be higher, perhaps £60 rather than £50. In addition, they need to account for travel time between jobs by charging a callout fee. The callout fee is usually a constant within a defined service area, so the size of the callout fee will reflect the size of their service area. For clarity and simplicity, the callout fee + minimum charge is often expressed as a higher rate for the first hour. So I describe my rates as "£75 for up to an hour (within a 5 mile radius of Salisbury), then £60 per hour to the nearest 0.1 hour". If I stay within my service area, my average travel time between jobs is about 15 minutes, so my first hour includes a £15 callout charge. For jobs outside their defined service area, it is likely that they add an out-of-area surcharge, which will depend how far outside their service area you are located. (See my area page as an example of how I do this). If a plumber is charging by the hour, any callout fee or out-of-area charge should be stated in advance of their visit.

Based on ten years' experience of focussing on small plumbing repairs and maintenance, I find that within a 9 hour working day (including travel and admin), I can schedule in four small jobs. Some jobs will be completed within an hour, and some will go over a bit. So earnings on a typical day with 4 scheduled jobs would be (£75 x 4) + (£60 x 1) = £360, or with 3 scheduled jobs might be (£75 x 3) + (£60 x 2) = £345. Sometimes jobs will take longer than anticipated and I might earn more, but get home late and have to finish my admin in the evening. Some days I might schedule in 3 jobs, anticipating that one or more of them will take longer than they actually do, and I only earn (£75 x 3) = £225. So I earn less, but get home early. But on average, my pricing is set with average daily earnings of £350 as a target.

Some plumbers advertise 'No callout charge". In that case, expect their hourly rate to be higher. So if the job ends up lasting more than a couple of hours they might charge more than a plumber would who has a callout charge. Also, if the job lasts for say 1 hour 30 minutes, do they charge you for 1.5 hours, or for 2 hours?

If you require your plumber to quote for a job, expect their quote to be slightly higher that what it would cost by the hour, especially if they have to make a home visit to do so. They have to account for the additional time-overhead involved in providing a quoting service, and to include a degree of contingency in case they encounter complications and the job takes longer than anticipated.

3) Emergency plumbers
An emergency plumber typically arrives within an hour or two of you calling them. Because of their higher rates, it is likely they only do one or two jobs in a day, and these will typically each be short in duration. Their total working hours will be much less than other plumbers, and some days they may get no work at all, but they need to be on call pretty much 24/7. To earn £350 in a day with two jobs, they would have to charge £175 per hour. In practice, emergency plumbers typically charge a callout fee which is chargeable from the moment they arrive, plus an hourly rate on top of that for the time they spend actually fixing something. According to Checkatrade, the average emergency callout fee is £110, and the average hourly rate for an emergency plumber is £112.50. That means that a half-hour callout will cost you £166.25 (plus parts), and a one-hour callout will cost you £222.50. In terms of hourly rate, emergency plumbers are obviously at the expensive end of the pricing spectrum, charging at least twice what a maintenance plumber would likely charge for the same job if it were scheduled in advance. It's not that you get a better or more experienced plumber. You are paying for the plumber to arrive at your door within about an hour or two of you calling them! Plumbers can only deliver that kind of service if they spend most of their day waiting for the phone to ring. Despite having the highest charges, not many will consistently average £350 per day, so emergency plumbers are likely to earn less overall than other plumbers. In practice, if you search for an emergency plumber, even if you find one with what looks like a local number, it is likely that the person who answers is a middle man. They will find you a local plumber, but what you are paying for is not just the plumber, but also the middle man. If you are searching for a local trades person, the best place to search is Google Maps. That way, you can find people who are genuinely local, and cut out the middle man.