Cost Home Book is written and edited by the Cost Home Book editorial team. The team builds the site's cost models from publicly available US wage statistics, supplier price lists and permit data, and updates each guide as those sources change. It has no affiliation with any contractor, manufacturer or lead-generation service. Figures on this site are estimates for reading a quote, not quotes.
How the figures are built
Every cost band starts as a national figure with a date on it. Where a guide is priced from published data, the labor leg follows the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the trade that does the work, and the materials leg follows a Producer Price Index series for what it is made of. Once a guide's sources section is published, both are named and linked at its foot, with the release they were read from.
The one number no dataset supplies is how much of a job is labor and how much is materials. That split is a judgement, it is stated on the page, and it is the difference between a roof price that moves with roofers' wages and one that moves with asphalt. How we calculate costs sets out the arithmetic, and the editorial policy is explicit about which figures are derived and which are estimates.
Independence
We have no affiliation with any contractor, manufacturer, marketplace or lead-generation service. The site is funded by display advertising and nothing else — no referral fees, no commissions, no paid placements. No advertiser sees a figure before a reader does. How the site is funded.
Corrections and contact
If a figure here does not match what you were quoted, that is worth knowing and we would rather hear it. Send the page, the figure and what you were actually quoted to corrections@costhomebook.com, or see the corrections policy for what happens next. Anything else: hello@costhomebook.com.
Guides by the Cost Home Book editorial team
237 in total, page 15 of 24.
Gas line installation cost$15 to $40per linear ftRunning a gas line costs $15 to $40 a linear foot, with most household jobs between $300 and $1,200. The most common reason people need one is a tankless water heater, which draws four times what a tank does.
Septic tank pumping cost$300 to $700eachPumping a septic tank costs $300 to $700, typically $450. It is the cheapest maintenance in the house measured against what it prevents: a failed drain field is $8,000 to $25,000.
Well pump replacement cost$900 to $4,500per projectReplacing a well pump costs $900 to $4,500, typically $2,000. Most of the difference is depth rather than the pump. Diagnose first: a $400 pressure tank fails far more often than the pump does.
Hot water recirculation pump cost$300 to $1,200eachA recirculation pump costs $300 to $1,200 installed, typically $600. Run continuously it turns a water-saving device into an energy-wasting one, so the control matters more than the pump.
How long does plumbing last$4,500 to $12,000per projectCopper lasts 50 to 70 years, PEX 40 to 50, cast iron drain 50 to 100. Plumbing is the system that fails quietly for years and then all at once, and the material in your walls says roughly where you are.
Blower motor replacement cost$400 to $1,800eachA blower motor costs $400 to $1,100 for a standard PSC and $600 to $1,800 for a variable-speed ECM. A blower that will not start is the motor about a third of the time and a capacitor or board the rest.
HVAC cost by house size$6,500 to $20,000per projectA full changeout runs about $9,600 in a 1,100 square foot house and about $12,400 in a 2,800 square foot one. The house more than doubles; the bill goes up by less than a third, because most of what you pay for is the crew and the day.
HVAC replacement cost by state$6,500 to $22,000per projectThe same system costs $9,350 in Arkansas and $12,850 in Illinois. Equipment ships nationally and costs much the same everywhere; the two technicians who spend a day fitting it do not.
Furnace repair cost$150 to $3,500per projectMost furnace repairs cost $150 to $700. The failures that stop a furnace are usually cheap and predictable. The one that ends the conversation is a cracked heat exchanger, and that is a replacement.
Heat pump repair cost$180 to $4,000per projectMost heat pump repairs cost $180 to $900. A heat pump fails in every way an air conditioner does, plus two of its own: the reversing valve and the defrost control. Both often show up as a bill rather than a breakdown.