Getting some plumbing work done? I have been an Edmonton Plumber for the last 19 years, and the most common response I get from clients is “Why do plumbers charge so much?” This article is meant to explain for you why we as plumbers charge what we charge. Most of what I am writing about will be based on prices in Canada and with the Canadian dollar, but you will get the idea of where the costs of doing business comes from. I hope that after reading this you feel better paying a higher price then going with a low ball handyman that may not be in you and your families best interests at hand, and you may not want to be a diy plumber.

When I first started my Edmonton Plumbing company I failed miserably at the whole price objective thing. I needed work and would low ball other plumbers to get the jobs. Often the clients that did hire me were not the best clients, and many times they were the cheapest people in the city. Which means that they wanted the job for a low price and wanted all extras for free. This almost put my company into bankruptcy, which is not good for me, or for my clients.

In Edmonton the average plumber charges 150-185 to come to the door, then 85-92 per hour for every hour after that. If you have a very small job that only takes a half hour you could expect a bill for 192.50 to 231. This price is high, but for good reason. The employee that comes to your house gets paid for his or her time. As well as the costs for the van or truck to get there. The costs for the plumbing company for that half hour of work is as follows:

Plumber’s labour                   65.76

Other staff labour                  26.44

WCB                                      3.29

Employment Insurance            4.11

Vehicle                                 15.00

Guarantee                             46.00

Advertising                             8.00

Overhead                              30.12

Total                                   198.72

As you can see this leaves about 13.03 for profit. Can you see now that there is a lot more to running a business then what someone might think. Yes, there are some plumbers that work out of their homes, have no real advertising costs, and do everything for themselves. These companies might make more per billable hour, but they have a lot more non billable hours to work. For instance when I first started I worked about 45 billable hours per week, and about 20 non billable hours each week. Not counting any overhead if I charged 85 per hour for 45 hours but worked 65 hours then my real hourly rate was only 58.85. Which when you think about the fact that I could work for any plumbing company in the city and make between 41-47 per hour the risk reward ratio is not as high as what you may have thought. One other thing I have not mentioned is that there are many clients out there that rip off the people that work for them. These are called losses. 

After reading this you might think why would anyone want to do this? There is a lot of enjoyment that goes along with building your own company. And as you build you do make more money, plus when you are ready you can sell off the company for a capital gain.