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Plumbing Cost Estimator

HomeAdvisor's plumber and repipe guides, with the places they disagree

This estimator adds up published plumbing prices, and it shows where the publisher contradicts itself. HomeAdvisor's plumber guide prices a water heater installation at up to $2,000, while its own water heater guide puts the tank alone at up to $2,500 before labour. Its repiping guide says a house costs $373 to $2,121, while its own table by house size starts at $3,600.

Hours and jobs

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Enter hours against a rate, or a count against a job. Leave the rest at zero.

Specification summary

Generated from on . Reopen that address to reproduce these figures exactly.

Entered

Result

These ranges are drawn from the jobs you enter above.
Published ranges for the jobs entered

Plumbing prices

As each row states
ItemLowHighUnit
Apprentice plumber$45$90per hour
Journeyperson plumber$60$110per hour
Master plumber$80$200per hour
Service call, including first hour$100$250per visit
Toilet repair$100$300per job
Faucet and fixture replacement$150$600per job
Clearing clogs or drain snaking$95$500per job
Water heater repair$150$750per job
Water heater installation$800$2,000per job
Tankless water heater$1,400$3,900per job
Burst pipes$200$3,000per job
Main line water leak repair$600$4,500per job
New plumbing pipes$370$2,100per job
Sump pump installation$640$2,100per job
Sewer line cleaning$190$570per job
Sewer camera inspection$270$1,740per job
Sewer main installation$1,430$5,800per job
Gas line repair$250$750per job

Source: HomeAdvisor, how much does a plumber cost. Last price check: September 13, 2026.

The source says it was updated using automation technology and reviewed by an editor, and does not say which job rows include materials. Its water heater installation row, $800 to $2,000, sits inside neither end of HomeAdvisor's own water heater guide, which prices the tank alone at $600 to $2,500 before $150 to $450 of labour, and its sewer main installation row differs from the same publisher's sewer guide. Emergency work is described as time and a half to triple the hourly rate.

Worked example

One hour of a master plumber, a toilet repair and a drain cleared, then three hours of a journeyperson on an after-hours call.

  1. Master plumber, 1 hour. $80 to $200.
  2. Toilet repair. $100 to $300.
  3. Clearing a clog. $95 to $500.
  4. Total. $275 to $1,000.
  5. After hours, 3 hours plus a service call. $280 to $580, or $420 to $1,740 at the source's time and a half to triple.

The high end is nearly four times the low end, which is the source's spread, not this page's. It is the case for getting two written quotes.

The formula

A sum of published ranges:

low = Σ row low × quantity    high = Σ row high × quantity
hours
against an hourly rate
jobs
against a per-job range
after hours
1.5 × low to 3 × high, as the source describes

Adding lows together and highs together gives a range wider than any one job.

Why this page prints a price at all

This site does not publish prices of its own. It quotes dated, bylined ranges and adds them up for you.

Adding them up is also how the contradictions show: the general plumber table and the dedicated guides from the same publisher do not agree on a water heater, a sewer main or a whole-house repipe.

One publisher, two prices for the same job

HomeAdvisor publishes a general guide to what a plumber costs, with a table of common jobs, and separate guides for several of those jobs. Where both price the same job:

HomeAdvisor general and dedicated guides, both updated June 2026
JobGeneral plumbing guideDedicated guideAgainst each other
Water heater installation$800 to $2,000see noteHomeAdvisor's water heater guide prices a tank unit at $600 to $2,500 before $150 to $450 of labour, and a tankless heater at $1,400 to $3,900 installed
Sewer main installation$1,430 to $5,800see noteHomeAdvisor's sewer guide gives $1,388 to $5,323 for a replacement
Tankless water heater$1,400 to $3,900$1,400 to $3,900agree

The general table's water heater installation ends at $2,000. The dedicated guide's tank unit alone reaches $2,500 before any labour. A quote above the general figure is not necessarily high; it may be the dedicated guide's range.

The estimator uses the general guide's rows because they are the ones built to be added together, and prints this table so the difference is visible.

Pipe by the foot, and a repipe range below its own table

HomeAdvisor's repiping guide prices pipe by material per linear foot:

As published by HomeAdvisor, updated June 17, 2026
PipeLowHighUnit
PVC pipe$2.00$4.50per linear ft
CPVC pipe$0.50$3.00per linear ft
PEX pipe$0.40$4.00per linear ft
Copper pipe$2.00$12.00per linear ft

Its headline range cannot be a whole house. The guide says repiping a house costs $373 to $2,121, $1,247 on average. Its own table by house size, at $4.50 a square foot, starts at $3,600 for 800 sq ft and reaches $13,500 for 3,000. The headline range is below the smallest house in its own table, which suggests it describes partial repipes or individual runs rather than a whole house.

Source: HomeAdvisor, how much does it cost to repipe a house, Written by HomeAdvisor staff writer, reviewed by Jeff Botelho, updated using automation technology and reviewed by editor Ryan Noonan, read 2026-09-13.

How the plumbing estimate is added up

Hours times a rate, jobs times a range. A master plumber's hour is $80 to $200 in the source, a toilet repair $100 to $300. The total adds every low end and every high end.

That makes the total wider than a real invoice, which will not land at the bottom of every range at once. Two written quotes will tell you more than the width of this one.

After-hours work is described by the source as time and a half to triple the hourly rate. The estimator applies that to everything when you choose it, which overstates any part of the bill that is parts rather than time.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a plumber cost per hour?
HomeAdvisor's June 2026 guide gives $45 to $90 an hour for an apprentice, $60 to $110 for a journeyperson and $80 to $200 for a master plumber, with a service call of $100 to $250 including the first hour.
How much does PVC pipe cost per foot?
HomeAdvisor's repiping guide gives $2 to $4.50 per linear foot for PVC, $0.50 to $3 for CPVC, $0.40 to $4 for PEX and $2 to $12 for copper, without saying whether that is material only.
How much does it cost to repipe a house?
HomeAdvisor's table by house size is $4.50 a square foot: $3,600 for 800 sq ft, $6,750 for 1,500 sq ft, $11,250 for 2,500 sq ft. Its headline range of $373 to $2,121 is below every one of those, so it cannot describe a whole house.
What does an emergency plumber cost?
HomeAdvisor describes after-hours work as time and a half to triple the hourly rate. The estimator applies that to the whole total when you choose after hours.
How much does it cost to install a water heater?
HomeAdvisor's plumber guide says $800 to $2,000; its dedicated water heater guide prices a tank unit at $600 to $2,500 plus $150 to $450 of labour, and a tankless heater at $1,400 to $3,900 installed.
Why is the range so wide?
The source's ranges are wide, and adding several together assumes every one lands at its low or high end at once. A written quote for your job narrows it.

Check these numbers yourself

How every figure here is verified: Sources & Method. Who builds this: About. Found something wrong? Tell us and it gets fixed or removed.

Figures on this page last checked against the source documents on 2026-09-13. Codes are amended locally; confirm against the edition your jurisdiction enforces.

Related calculators

Every figure on this page is HomeAdvisor's, read on 13 September 2026, and none is this site's. Summed ranges are wider than any single job. Plumbing work commonly needs a licensed plumber and a permit.