It doesn't seem that high for two licensed, trained, insured guys to work in an attic for an hour in addition to any travel time. The expense also goes to pay the guy in the office setting up the appointments.

I think it's high, and I'm not stupid about the cost of overhead, etc.
You should ask about the rate ahead of time. If they are billing $75-100 an hour per they are making plenty of $

Look, a person making $70k a year is getting about $33 an hour. Let's add another 50% to that for taxes and benefits and we are at ~$50 an hour. Add another $25-40 for overhead and profit.

There should be a truck charge of $50-75 to show up. So I'd say 200 - 275 is generous.

Jake, in service work, your math doesn’t work. What if the employee has less then 8 billable hrs per day, what about travel time. In CA, workers comp is around 25% for the trades. Someone has to answer the phone, someone has to manage the business, rent, insurance, equipment. Overhead is around 200-400%.

This is a good illustration of why developing some simple DIY skills can save lots of money...

"This is a good illustration of why developing some simple DIY skills can save lots of money..."

Also illustrate's that plumbers chase cars and lick themselves when not ripping people off.

Jim Mat: If overhead is 200-400% then that company needs to go out of business.
I understand a person may not get 8 billable hours - but they probably aren't making $70k a year either. A good business is one where they can keep their guys busy with paying jobs, not sit around the shop. You can make all kinds of excuses why $200 an hour is reasonable - but none of them float. With those kinds of excuses, a gallon of milk should cost $50 (they have to pay for rent, advertising, stock clerk, etc)

It's very simple. Ask the plumber before the visit how much it will cost. My plumber would never surprise me like that. He would tell me in advance that the job requires 2 people, and he would ballpark the costs of the supplies and the labor. Love my plumber!

Some people never heard "what ever the market will bear" and most plumbers are happy to find out.

There are maybe a handful of plumbers under 30 in the entirety of this great land. All the kids went to college. The old guys can take their pick of the work, and they can charge what they want. If you don’t want to pay the market rate? Do it yourself. Everyone that didn’t want their kids getting dirty or sweating did this to themselves.

Have your kids become plumbers instead of accountants. When someone is having the toilet overflow into their house, the’ll pay whatever it takes to make it stop. I think most of y’all are just jealous that a plumber can take home over 150K after overhead. And yeah, overhead is HUGE. Bigly huge. Because the demand is there, but so is the liability in sue happy America.

Here's a true story,experienced first hand. You decide how valuable plumbers think their time is REALLY worth and if they gouge prices. A couple of years ago,a friend needed several sections of temporary steel pipe 14"to 20" diameter x 6' to 8' long. He's an exellent welder and I own a nice wire welder so we decided to fabercate the pipe from used water heater tanks. After contacting 4 plumbing companies about buying some old heaters,I gave up and went to the steel yard for new pipe. Old heaters bring $2 per hundered weight at recyclers. Depending of size,residential heaters weigh from 85lbs to 125lbs. Two of the four would never price their old heaters because they were too interested in what I had found to use them for. One wouldn't even talk to me and the fourth wanted $20 each. If their time is so valuable and they are working to control overhead and make ends meet,why would they take time to haul their scrap to recycler when I was offering double what scrap yard pays? The answer is,because they are a bunch of inbred greedy fools that begrudge the general population. I have contracted hundreds of tradesmen over the years and as citizens and business people,plumbers are at the bottom of the barrel. Besides plumbers,I had one other contractor file lien against mine or my employers property. They lost every time when I presented the contract to state comptroller with proof scope of work wasn't followed was reason for withholding payment. Plumbers are so accustomed to jerking people around they often don't understand and pay little attention to contracts.

Just to be clear, I'm not anti-trades nor do I believe people shouldn't be able to make a living. I understand pretty well the skill and knowledge that's involved as well as the investment in tools and such.

That said, we need to do a much better job at developing skilled trades and depend less on gouging people. Someone who is fast, competent and professional can be worth $100 an hour. Unfortunately that's not what we get many times.

"Someone who is fast, competent and professional can be worth $100 an hour. Unfortunately that's not what we get many times."

Another first hand experience related to what you are saying Jake. I initiated a service call where the complaint was little to no warm water in child care restrooms. The system consisted of a 50 gallon residential electric water heater equipped with a tempering valve. After the plumber and helper replaced the water heater,they were called back because water temperature was now sometimes warm but cold other times. They replaced the tempering valve this time but performance was still erratic. I was in the building on an unrelated issue when they showed up for the third time. After much fumbling and head scratching,they called for another plumber to come help figure it out. The tempering valve was again changed but didn't help. While Larry,Curly and Moe were at lunch,I went in to have a look. The lower element was wired wrong(probably from the factory,possibly by someone between factory and installation and possibly by by Larry and Curly but I have no way of knowing),basicly taking it completely out of operation. I called the office to demand they send one of their HVAC techs to assist Larry,Curly and Moe. The tech quickly found and corrected the problem by looking at schematic on heater. The tech knew me but I never introduced myself to the 3 stooges. I called my companies accounting to have a tickler attached to the invoice when it arrived requiring my approval before paid. You guessed it,there was several Micky Mouse charges for things rangeing from "flushing and blowing out lines" to "new disconnect" to "replace crimped supply". When I called and confronted the general manager,he growled,swore, defended the bumbling fools and insisted the full amount of bill minus one of the tempering valves be paid. I can go on forever with similar incidents involving different plumbers that support my view of plumbers but first I would like to hear how you defenders justify what I just told you.

Sophie this isn't about electricians nor other trades. This is specificly about plumbers,don't attempt to confuse readers here. I have never grouped electricians with the likes of plumbers,N-E-V-E-R.

I donno, kind of depends on who you hire, how much you know in the first place, and how much prep work you do. I had a main line valve and another close by compression fitting replaced for soldered and had the area all exposed and ready to go, he only charged me two hours and materials. I had also taken pictures of the project and emailed it to him ahead of time so he had an idea (because I live out of town and didnt want him to have to drive back for something).

Now if he shows up and has to diagnose what is going on, and open things up to work on it, it takes longer and is more work. Might not have what he needs to fix it, etc. I would say getting up into the attic and moving around insulation to find a leaky pipe is more than an hour of labor, and probably why you got charged more. Did you have said leaky pipe exposed and ready to go or did they have to find it?

I would say not all plumbers are bad guys, all being the key word, I am sure there are those that would screw the little old lady out of a couple hundred for a toilet flapper.

Life lesson here: Learn as much as you can, so you dont get screwed. This applies to everything. If you know what the job involves and about how much it should cost, you know if they are ripping you a new one.

The $/hr is no more. Many trades people (spot services like fixing a pipe) charge by the job. Nobody makes money at $75 an hour. First they don't work 8 hrs a day. There's travel time, down time. The company needs to pay for a truck, truck stock, insurance/maintenace on the truck. Then they have to pay into workman's comp, and they need general liability insurance. Maybe the need to renew their license every year - another expense. Then there is vacation / sick time / 401K / health insurance. Many employees need to attend OSHA training and maybe educational courses to keep them up to date.

The 'new' trades people (25 years old) are aware of this. I don't know what afrome home is worth - but $400 - that general maintenance.

Seems a bit steep, but I would still call it a win. They provided a service to you that you couldn't/chose not to do yourself. There is a premium charge for that. I have found that if you find a good plumber, electrician, etc... they will give you a better deal if they know you are going to give them repeat business. If you are a one & done customer then what is the use of cutting you a deal??

I learned this about 20 years ago. A pipe in my new homes basement sprung a leak over night. It was Sunday. I called around.

One guy was nice enough to tell me "look, I have to charge you $600. But you sound like a young guy, and you're not dumb. You can fix it yourself. Go down to Menards and talk to the plumbing department."

So I did. And I do.

Now when I need a plumber, I need a plumber. And I don't mind paying for one.

So many people begrudge a professional charging market rates. A professional makes most jobs look easy. That's because they are professionals. They have the right tools; the right training; and the right experience. And a professional can be a plumber, an electrician, an accountant, or an investment portfolio manager. If you think they are overcharging, then DIY.

75% of it goes to taxes and compliance by the time that $400 becomes groceries in the fridge, but you get good consumer protection....

Its probably about right. You had 2 professionals on at you place for 1 hour. They must have been efficient to compete the job in one hour. The one hour at you place was only part of their time and charge. Before leaving for this job, they checked the truck to insure they would have enough of the right material for the job. Before that, someone may have estimated the cost and time - that was not free. There was travel time to the job and operating cost of the truck may have been more than $0.50 per mile. The truck and 2 men were insured. There is a cost for the time the truck and equipment are on the job. As you can see, the labor charge for the 2 men is only part of the cost. In addition to the costs, there must be some profit else the business will fail, and there would be no incentive for continuing the business.

The alternative would have been for you to do the job. Do you think you could have done it in one hour? This includes gathering all the needed materials and equipment.

I have a $500.00 minimum charge which used to be $270.00. If you don't agree to it over the phone, I'm not getting out of my chair. I don't care if you live next door and it takes me 5 minutes to fix your problem.

Your brother is going broke. He may be a terrific plumber, but he's a poor businessman.

As a professional in NYC area .... that pricing seems completely inline with what I would expect it to be.

I’m sure a search for a Craigslist guy doing a job a side job would be less. But no legitimate company would be very far off those numbers.

Banchitta-

Reminds me of the time my neighbor hired a plumber on Craigslist. The guy and his helper showed up, spent an hour assessing the situation, asked for $250 in cash so they could go buy parts; took the cash and left...and that was the last time the "plumber" was ever seen.

Kudzu... I think everyone falls for one of those at some point or another. 😂

So what's your point? Were you going to go up there and fix your leaky pipe? There's a reason why we work in this trade. It pays very well and not many people want to do the work. We don't even know what was done. Before complaining why don't you show some pictures of what was performed. We are charging you $110 just to show up at your door and that's not even to turn a screwdriver yet. I swear some of you homeowners that complain about the price of work to be done just makes me laugh. Just because two guys did a job in an hour's time, I bet it was most likely more than an hour's time. Anyway it doesn't mean that you got ripped off. To text at $110 an hour each which again I'm going to say they were there for at least an hour and a half to two do the math $110 an hour per technician per hour plus parts and going to get them.you most likely got a good deal and don't even know it. Plumbing and electrical are the highest paying trades in the industry with plumbing having a shortage of people in the trade.I bet you were pleased when you didn't have raw sewage leaking into your home anymore. God bless!

I get calls to re-strap sinks in place regularly. I have a $500.00 minimum charge if you live within an hour away. We're doing two tomorrow and each takes just over an hour. No one is putting a gun to my customer's heads. If you want a guarantee that the sink will never leak, never have gunk, and never fall again made by a licensed plumber, I'm your man. Or call your handyman, have the rusting clips/glue blocks reinstalled, they'll fail in a year or so, and you've set that money on fire.

I have a $150 minimum; $500 seems pretty crazy to me unless you are big company like roto rooter. i live in the bay area northern california.

You are going broke my friend. My new minimum is $750.00.

Mark_rachel, how do you think a plumber or any other tradesperson will get repeat business if they overcharge out of the gate? How do you know a ”new-to-you” customer is a ”one and done” customer. Respect is a two way street. Any plumber work their salt should be aiming to make every new customer into a repeat customer through fair prices, good work , and honest dealings.

What I've come to find out lately is that for residential work, not commercial work which is higher skilled labor and more expensive than residential, almost all plumbing companies in the greater Seattle/Tacoma areas will not give you an hourly rate over the phone. They will say they only bid jobs. What they actually are charging is between $400 to $600 per man hour once there on your job. I have a friend who was charged $500 to remove and install a standard two piece toilet that he provided. It took the plumber one hour labor, plus one hour round trip to and from the job, plus a wax ring and bolts. Another plumber told me he was told by his company to charge a customer $600 instead of $400 which he wanted to charge for an hours work on a job he just finished. I was told by a plumber that the "Don't start freak'in" company is the most expensive. Once a journeyman, or not nessassarily a journeyman, plumber is on the job, the labor alone to remove and replace an exposed shower valve per line with Pex is $350 for the hot, $350 for the cold, $350 for the line from the valve to the shower head. That's $1,050.00 for around 2 to 2-1/2hrs labor. If it's a tub valve add another 1/2hr to 3/4 hr and $350 for the tub line. If it's ProPress with type L copper, or type L sweated copper it's $550 per line now. That's $2,200.00 for a tub valve. It takes about 3 to 3-1/2 hours to install a tub valve with sweated copper and half the time with Pex. 3/4 the time with ProPress. Two years ago labor ran $550 to $650 to remove and replace an exposed shower valve with type L copper sweated. An 8 hour for one journey can run $3,200 to $4,800 labor including travel time and use of tools and van. My son is a commercial plumber in Salt Lake. His company is union and figures it runs them $100 hr. to employ him with vacation, sick leave, medical, and taxes. Thats $800 a day cost for a commercial journeyman. I don't know what yhe company charges for his time. It's all competative bid work and they dont like to loose bids. My suggestion is if you need a resude tial plumber is to try and find a good independent plumber with a good reputation and referalls, or move to Portland. Portland still runs about $150 hr. for a journeyman plumber...and so does Texas!

We're going to refinish a stainless steel sink for a customer soon. It'll take my guy less than an hour plus drive time. The customer agreed to $750.00. I'm not doing it for less; we're busy enough. Customer satisfaction guaranteed.

This isn't a burst water pipe emergency. You've got $1,500.00 to get the wrinkles out of your forehead with botox, you've got half that to get the scratches out of your sink. Just like your dermatologist, I put no gun to your head.

I am a plumber and I think that 400 USD for an hour is kind of too much.

Nicola:

How far are you driving on that $5.00 a gallon gas to get there please?

Actually, I'm grateful for guys like you. My rates are so high, I can't afford to do my own callbacks.

Such an awful thing, but my plumber charged around 250$ for about 2 hours of work. It is still a big price. Besides, my hot water system still works incorect. Can someone suggest to me a good plumber with normal prices in Sydney?

400$ hr is a bit much, IMO, but that's not taking into account what a shop has to do to run with profit. If it is sky high in your mind, you might be right, check other shops. Don't expect a "hey, I'll do it for$$" banter.

People really want plumbers to work for the cost of sh_t. The fact is, they won't. You wouldn't so why would they? Quality shops are all around. You have to sift through them just like a brand of toilet paper or food item. Those shops that pay their plumbers 25$hr are not giving you that guy for the same price. That's their best asset and they'll charge AMAP for him. Look, tradesmen do not have to live to anyone's dictates or whines anymore than you as a customer so. Be smart about it, check around. Heaven knows I'm checking like crazy for an orthopod when I'm in need. I'm not taking joe schmoe MD just at his word.