Plumbing costs
Water heaters, repipes, drain work and the emergency call-outs in between.
Most plumbing work is priced as labor with a part attached, and the labor is priced by access. The same faucet swap is an hour under an open vanity and three hours in a cabinet with a disposal, a filter and a shutoff that will not turn. Almost every plumber charges a call-out or diagnostic fee for the visit itself, and most credit it against the work if you go ahead.
The large jobs — a repipe, a sewer line, a water main — are priced by the foot and by what has to be opened to reach the pipe. Trenchless methods cost more per foot and less in restoration; excavation is the reverse. A slab means breaking and repouring concrete, which is a second trade on the same job.
Emergencies are a different price list. Nights, weekends and holidays commonly run 1.5 to 2 times the standard rate, and a burst pipe is billed at the rate when it burst. The cheapest thing in this category is knowing where the main shutoff is before you need it.
Copper repipe cost$8,000 to $22,000per projectRepiping a house in copper costs $8,000 to $22,000, typically $13,000, against $4,500 to $12,000 in PEX. Soldering labor is most of the gap, and extra wall openings add to both.
Hydro jetting cost$250 to $1,500eachHydro jetting costs $250 to $1,500 per line, typically $475. It beats a cable machine on grease and recurring roots, but on cracked clay, Orangeburg or thin cast iron the camera should come first.
Plumber cost by state$75 to $150per hourA plumber bills $85 an hour in Arkansas and $140 in Illinois. A 65% spread on the same hour of the same work, and it is almost entirely wages.
Emergency plumber cost$150 to $300per hourAn emergency plumber costs $150 to $300 an hour against $75 to $150 in business hours, plus $150 to $350 to arrive. The emergencies that cannot wait are the ones where water is moving and you cannot stop it.
Burst pipe repair cost$150 to $4,000per projectRepairing a burst pipe costs $150 to $1,200, typically $600. What turns that into a $5,000 bill is not the plumbing. It is the drywall, the flooring and the drying.
Water leak detection cost$150 to $800per projectLeak detection costs $150 to $800, typically $350. It is the step people skip and the one that decides whether the repair costs $600 or $6,000, because a leak guessed at is three holes in the wall.
Slab leak repair cost$1,500 to $6,000per projectA slab leak costs $1,500 to $6,000 to repair, typically $3,000. It is expensive because the concrete is in the way, not because the pipe is hard to fix. Three methods exist and they cost very differently.
Frozen pipe repair cost$200 to $3,000per projectThawing a frozen pipe costs $200 to $700 if it has not split and $400 to $3,000 if it has. A frozen pipe is not yet an emergency; one that bursts while you are out is.
Toilet installation cost$200 to $900eachInstalling a toilet costs $200 to $900 including the fixture, typically $400. What pushes it past $900 is not the toilet: it is a rotted subfloor or a flange sitting below the finished floor.
Faucet installation cost$150 to $500eachInstalling a faucet costs $150 to $500 including a mid-range fixture, typically $280. It is one of the few plumbing jobs where the cost is dominated by how awkward the space under the sink is.