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
245 in total, page 23 of 25.
Countertop cost$20 to $175per sq ftCountertops cost $20 to $175 per square foot installed. Quartz averages $75 to $95. For stone, fabrication and installation are 35% to 55% of the total, so a slab price is not a quote.
Tub to shower conversion cost$2,000 to $12,000per projectConverting a tub to a shower costs $2,000 to $12,000, typically $4,500. About 70% of homeowners doing this job hit a surprise, most often water damage behind the tub.
Kitchen remodel cost by size$8,500 to $106,500per projectA medium kitchen costs $12,500 to $58,500 to remodel, typically $25,500. Floor area is the wrong measurement: kitchens are priced by the cabinet run in linear feet.
Plumber cost$75 to $150per hourA plumber charges $75 to $150 an hour in business hours, most commonly around $110, plus a call-out fee of $50 to $250 for the visit itself. Emergency work runs 1.5 to 3 times that.
Tankless water heater cost$1,800 to $6,500per projectA tankless water heater costs $1,800 to $6,500 installed, typically $3,600. Most of the premium over a tank is not the appliance: it is the gas line and the venting.
Sewer line replacement cost$4,000 to $25,000per projectReplacing a sewer line costs $4,000 to $25,000, most often $6,000 to $15,000. The lateral is your responsibility to the main under the street in most jurisdictions.
Cost to repipe a house$4,500 to $22,000per projectRepiping a house in PEX costs $4,500 to $12,000, typically $7,500 for a two-bathroom house. Copper runs $8,000 to $22,000 because every joint is soldered.
Drain cleaning cost$100 to $800eachClearing a blocked drain costs $100 to $800, averaging around $240. A single slow fixture is at the bottom of that; a main line backing up into several fixtures is at the top.
Sump pump installation cost$1,500 to $4,500per projectInstalling a sump system where a house has never had one costs $1,500 to $4,500, typically $2,400. The pump is the cheapest part of it.
HVAC replacement cost$6,500 to $22,000per projectReplacing a whole heating and cooling system costs $6,500 to $22,000, typically around $11,000. What moves it most is not brand or efficiency but whether the job is a straight swap or a change of system type.