Having to call out an emergency plumber is never at the top of anyone’s wish-list, but sometimes problems occur that only a professional can fix.
Carrying high costs, plumbers are one of the most expensive trades in the business, and one of the best and only ways to cut those costs down is to be proactive with your plumbing maintenance to ensure any niggling problems are looked at as soon as possible.
There are, of course, some smaller jobs that you can tackle yourself without the help of a named professional – unblocking toilets and clogged drains can be done yourself with the help of some nifty tools, while smaller leaks or poorly-fitting joints can be diagnosed and cured with a little know-how.
In this article, we’ll be looking at how much plumbers charge, what affects the cost of hiring a plumber, how to save money when hiring a plumber, what’s involved in hiring a plumber and how to find and hire a plumber
If you want to understand the ins and outs of hiring a plumber for work in your home, keep reading to find out the tips and tricks you need to know.
Topics
How Much Does a Plumber Charge?
To start things off, let’s first take a look at the price of plumbers in general, starting with an hourly and daily charge.
| Plumber Rates | Estimated Labour Cost |
|---|---|
| Cost per hour | £40 to £80 |
| Cost per day | £160 to £300 |
| Emergency call-out per hour | £100 to £150 |
The average plumber will cost you between £40 to £80 in labour per hour, depending on their seniority and skill level. Per day, you can expect costs of between £160 to £300 for work to be completed in your home.
These prices, unfortunately, rise when speed and urgency are taken into consideration, with emergency call-out fees reaching between £100 to £150 per hour. This proves the importance of good housekeeping and keeping an eye on any small issues and having them sorted before they become far bigger problems to fix.
Now that we know the average hourly and daily rates for both planned and emergency call-outs, let’s take a look at some common jobs a plumber might complete for you around your home and their associated costs.
| Job | Estimated Cost | Time Required |
|---|---|---|
| Unblock a toilet | £80 to £120 | 1 hour |
| Repair a burst or leaking pipe | £80 to £160 | 1 to 2 hours |
| Repair a tap | £80 to £160 | 1 to 2 hours |
| Install a kitchen sink | £80 to £160 | 1 to 2 hours |
| Unblock a drain | £100 to £200 | 1 hour |
| Install a toilet | £100 to £400 | 2 to 4 hours |
| Install thermostatic radiator valves | £120 for the first valve, plus £40 to £50 for each additional valve | 1 to 4 hours |
| Install new radiators | £150 to £250 | 2 to 6 hours |
| Install a bathtub | £160 to £320 | 2 to 4 hours |
| Install a shower | £200 to £800 | 2 to 8 hours |
| Plumb in a washing machine | £220 to £300 | 1 to 2 hours |
| Replace a hot water tank | £250 to £450 | 3 to 4 hours |
| Replace pipework | £200 to £1,000 | 4 to 8 hours or more |
Please note that these estimated costs exclude the cost of materials.
Unblocking a toilet can be a job you can attempt yourself with a little know-how and the right set of tools, but for problems that you can’t solve or simply don’t want to, a plumber will charge you between £80 to £120 to get the toilet back up and running again. This will take around one hour to complete in total.
Next up, a common plumbing issue seen in the house can come in the shape of a burst or leaking pipe. Without material costs included, the base labour charge for this fix will be between £80 to £160 and will take between one to two hours to repair.
Along a similar line, fixing a tap so that it no longer leaks or to simply get the water flowing back where it should will cost between £80 to £160, again taking your plumber around one to two hours to finish.
Perhaps you have a new kitchen suite ready to be fitted, and along with new cabinetry and appliances, you have a brand new sink that needs fitting. For a plumber to do this, it’ll be between £80 to £160 (not including the cost of the sink itself), and take between one to two hours.
While it is possible to unblock a drain yourself, some clogs are harder than others to clear, so if your DIY efforts aren’t cutting it, it might be time to call in for some help. Taking one hour to complete, an unblocked drain will cost you between £100 to £200, depending on the severity of the issue.
If you have a new toilet ready to be fitted, you will most likely need the help of a plumbing professional to make sure everything is hooked up correctly. Taking between two to four hours, the costs can range from £100 to £400, depending on the actual time taken and the complexity of the unit.
You might be having your heating system revamped which would require the fitting of new thermostatic radiator valves. Commonly, you’ll be charged more for the first valve and less for the subsequent valves, costing around £120 for your first and then between £40 to £50 for the following ones, taking between one to four hours to install depending on the number you need fitting.
Alongside the thermostatic valves, you may have some brand new radiators lined up to improve your home’s energy efficiency. Minus the price of the actual radiator, you can expect costs of between £150 to £250, taking between two to six hours when the size of your home is taken into consideration, alongside how many radiators you are having replaced.
Moving into the bathroom, a new bath will cost between £160 to £320 to be fitted, taking between two to four hours to fit. If you have a new shower as well, this will cost an additional £200 to £800, taking between two to eight hours to install depending on the complexity of the appliance and the current state of the pipework.
You may think it’s time to upgrade your washing machine – or even add one into your home for the first time – in which case, you will be looking at an additional £220 to £300 on top of the sale price of the appliance to have it fitted. This will generally take your plumber around one to two hours to plumb in and to make sure everything is working as it should.
If you live in an older home, you may want to upgrade and update your hot water tank to improve its capacity or efficiency. This will cost between £250 to £450, taking somewhere between three to four hours to get done.
Finally, if you are looking for a complete home plumbing overhaul, you may want to get new pipework throughout your property. As can be expected, this is by far the most expensive job on the list, costing anywhere between £200 to £1,000 to complete, and taking between four to eight hours – and in some cases, even longer – to finish.
Click To Get QuotesWhat Affects the Cost of Hiring a Plumber?
Now that we know the common prices of plumbing projects around the home, let’s take a look at how those prices can rise or fall depending on different circumstances.
The Type of Job
While this subject is largely out of your control – if your pipe bursts, it needs fixing – you’ll usually have to end up paying an emergency fee from your plumber for urgent jobs. As we can see from the price comparison table above, some jobs carry far higher fees than others, and with an emergency call-out fee added on top, you can quickly see your costs start to spiral.
Where you can help to ease the costs here is with good housekeeping. If you are aware of a problem that seems small right now but has the potential to become far bigger if left in ignorance, it’s best to get it fixed in good time before you have no choice.
This way, you can plan jobs instead, which will help keep your costs down as you can pay your plumber the lower cost, instead of having an emergency call. A similar cost-saving exercise is to club all your plumbing jobs into one call-out to reduce your costs, so if there are lots of little jobs needing doing around the home, it’ll save you money to get them all tackled at once by the same plumber than it would to have lots of separate jobs completed throughout the year.
The Complexity of the Job
Again, this is a factor you can’t change – a full change of pipework will be more complex than unblocking a sink, for example. Where you can influence this though is if you are in the process of buying new plumbing appliances for your home.
You can reduce the time required to fit the new items if you choose ones with similar fittings to your old model, and matching up the size of the new with the old will also help with the fitting.
Larger jobs like entire house pipework replacement, costing between £200 to £1,000, are something you will usually have planned for, meaning you can budget for the work and save up when compared with a smaller job such as fixing a leaking tap at between £80 to £160.
Ease of Access
Another non-negotiable when looking at plumbing jobs is how easy it is to reach your house with the required equipment. While this is something you can’t change, you can forewarn your plumber of any access issues so that they can bring extra equipment or make contingencies for the project without having to make multiple trips.
Your Location
The same is true when it comes to if your property has adequate parking for the plumber while they’re working at your property. If you don’t have a driveway, you may want to think about hiring a parking permit for the day of the work so that your plumber can park close by, helping to get the job done in one sitting rather than having it spread out across multiple days.
Prices in the capital cities are likely to be closer to the high end of our estimated costs due to demand, reaching £80 per hour and £300 per day, while those in less populated locations can usually have the same work done for a lower cost of around £40 per hour, and £160 per day.
Whether You Need an Emergency Call Out
Finally, the largest component when it comes to bumping up the cost of your plumbing job is if it is an emergency or not, incurring you an additional call-out fee on top of your job itself.
While the average plumber will cost you between £40 to £80 in labour per hour, if it is an emergency, this fee can rise to £100 to £150 per hour. It’s not possible to foresee all issues in the home before they happen, but if you are aware of slowly developing issues and keep putting off finding a fix for them, it might be best to re-think that tactic and deploy some early intervention instead to help to keep your plumbing costs down, saving you from that additional emergency fee.
How Can I Save Money on Hiring a Plumber?
Plumbing is a highly specialised trade, carrying with it high price points for projects, making it hard to trim down costs on jobs – but there are some ways you can reduce your costs if you are savvy.
The best way to find a deal is to make sure you shop around for the best price by comparing traders with one another to make sure you’re not being overcharged when you could get the same work done for a lower price. Using HouseholdQuotes can help to save you up to 40% on your project’s fee
For some lower-skilled jobs, such as unblocking a sink drain or a toilet, it’s possible that you can perform these duties yourself and sidestep the need for a plumber in the first place. However, this is only advised for low-risk jobs and not for anything more advanced such as touching the heating system as that should only be looked at by a Gas Safe Engineer to ensure you don’t compromise the safety of your home.
Sometimes plumbing emergencies happen without warning – but in some cases, it’s been a slow-burning problem for a long time that’s finally reached the breaking point. In those cases, although it might be appealing to keep your head in the sand and not act until you really have to,
Click To Get QuotesWhat’s Involved in Hiring a Plumber?
When hiring a plumber, you’ll first have to describe the problem or job you want looked at – be that a blocked toilet, changing your kitchen sink for a new model, or fixing leaking compression fittings. This may require you to take photos or videos of the problem so the plumber can correctly diagnose the problem (if there is one), and bring along the correct equipment to carry out the work.
For a plumber to unclog a toilet, they will likely not use a plunger as it only fixes visible blockages – if there is a clog deeper in the drains, they’ll use a toilet auger to push the blockage through or retrieve anything that has fallen in if necessary.
For a kitchen sink swap, the plumber will isolate the hot and cold water supply to the tap and start to unscrew the pipes below. The clips holding the sink in place will then be removed, and the old sink can then be lifted out of place.
The steps will then be reversed, inserting the new sink and attaching clips and reattaching the pipes. Finally, once everything is back in place, the water supply can be reinstated and checked to make sure everything works as it should.
Looking at something like fixing a leaking compression fitting, your plumber will assess the extent of the leak, and try to tighten the fitting some more to see if that fixes the problem. However, if the problem isn’t solved, the plumber will have to take the fitting apart and investigate further, using tape to enhance the olive seal or replace it entirely to help to improve the fit.
How Do I Find and Hire a Plumber?
A great way to cut down your search time is to seek out recommendations from friends, family and neighbours to see if they have used a plumber recently and if they would recommend their trade to you. This way, you can save time on your search and get your project booked far quicker.
There are cases where this mightn’t be possible, either due to poor experiences with traders or limited availability in your area – which is where using HouseholdQuotes comes in as a helping hand. Instead of spending hours searching between multiple websites and tabs, you can consolidate your search to one website to see who has the best deal for you, usually helping to save you up to 40% on your project’s fee.
It’s a good idea to take a look at registered traders on the Chartered Institute of Plumbing and Heating Engineering (CIPHE), HETAS and Association of Plumbing and Heating Contractors (APHC) lists, as these will only list trusted traders who fit the exacting criteria as set out by the trade bodies. Similarly, you can look at the Gas Safe Register and check your trader for their Blue Flame Certification before agreeing to work with them.
Click To Get QuotesEnsuring the Professional Is the Right Fit
When it comes to plumbing jobs, you want your tradesperson to be competent and qualified to do the job at hand. If jobs aren’t completed correctly, there is a high risk of property damage occurring as a result, costing you extra time and money to then get them right.
Whether or not your tradesperson is coming from a word-of-mouth recommendation or not, you must do your homework to ascertain if they have the right skills and experience to complete the job you want to do in your home. Take a look at their past experience; have they undertaken similar work to what you require recently, and what was the outcome?
If there are photographs or videos of their past work, make sure you take a look to see if the finish is what you’re after. Similarly, if the trader has any references on their website or comparison sites, make sure you take a read to find out if their work standard is on par with their work ethic.
You should always seek out a written quote before agreeing to any project, and with plumbers, it is paramount that you take into consideration any call-out fees or VAT to be added to the quote. Many plumbers have a call-out charge that often equals how much they charge per hour, so, if your plumber charges £40 per hour, he or she may also levy a £40 call-out charge on top of their labour costs, bringing the total to £80.
Take a look to see if they’re part of any membership bodies or hold accreditation for their work, and double-check that they have insurance in place before any work starts to keep you and them covered in the event of any problems during the work.
Finally, if you are having new appliances installed by your plumber, it’s a good idea to ask about any guarantees the appliances carry and how you go about getting those instated – some will only be determined if you have an accredited professional fit them, so make sure you know all of this before having any work started.
Final Checklist
When a plumbing problem arises, it may be tempting to just call the first person you find to fix the problem – but if you’re able to plan your project a little more, you can take advantage of doing some final checks to ensure you’re getting the best person in for the job. Here’s our final checklist to make sure you have everything considered when it comes to booking some plumbing work.
- For jobs that aren’t emergencies, is it possible for you to fix them yourself? You can bleed radiators and learn to unclog toilets and drains quite simply and will help to save you money
- Ask friends, family and neighbours if they have used a plumber recently and if they would recommend them to you
- Use HouseholdQuotes to find a reputable trader if word-of-mouth recommendations aren’t possible
- Take a look at the tradesperson’s experience and references – do they sound like the kind of person you want working for you?
- Find out if there are any hidden charges – does the quote include VAT or does that need to be added? What about call-out fees?
- Ensure they have relevant qualifications and insurance before agreeing to work with them
Click To Get QuotesFrequently Asked Questions
Can I Do Plumbing Work Myself?
Bleeding a radiator is also a relatively simple task once you know how to do it, which can save you from having someone called out to fix your heating for you. However, there are some jobs only a professional plumber should tackle, such as larger jobs like replacing bathroom suites or handling the heating systems in a more complex way than just bleeding radiators.
Although it might seem like an enticing option when you can keep costs low by attempting the job yourself, it’s not always advised if you don’t have the knowledge or the credentials to ensure you’ll do the job safely, so it’s best to leave it to the professionals if you are ever unsure.
Is VAT Included in a Plumber’s Quote?
If you are unsure of any charges, it’s best to get things straightened out before work starts so that there are no nasty surprises at the end of the project, getting written confirmation of expected fees before work begins.
Why Do Plumbers Charge So Much?
One of the best ways to ensure you’re paying a fair price for your plumbing job is to have early intervention if you think a problem is about to arise. Prices skyrocket when you need to call someone in an emergency, so if you are aware of a problem in your home and are perhaps putting off having anyone to come and see it until it gets unbearable, it might be best to re-think that strategy and opt for earlier detection instead.