Ask five plumbers what a job costs and you’ll get five answers, a sharp intake of breath, and at least one “depends, doesn’t it”.
It does depend. But not so much that nobody can give you a number. Here’s what plumbing actually costs in the UK in 2026, both for people trying to work out if a quote is fair, and for plumbers trying to work out what to charge.
The hourly rate
Most plumbers land between £40 and £70 an hour, and where you are matters more than anything else:
- London and the South East: £60–£100/hr
- Midlands and most of England: £45–£70/hr
- Northern England, Wales, Scotland: £35–£60/hr
Anyone quoting well under that isn’t cheap, they’re either inexperienced, not Gas Safe registered where they need to be, or about to discover the job is bigger than they thought and come back for more.
Call-out fees
The call-out fee is the bit that catches people out. Typically £60–£120, and it usually covers the first hour, so it isn’t a surcharge on top of nothing.
Out of hours is a different animal. Evenings, weekends and bank holidays run £100–£250, and most plumbers apply a surcharge rather than a separate fee: time and a half, or +50% for a genuine emergency. That’s not opportunism. It’s 11pm on a Sunday and someone’s getting out of bed.
What common jobs cost
Fixed prices for the jobs that actually come up, rather than an hourly rate multiplied by a guess:
| Job | Typical price |
|---|---|
| Leak repair | £80–£150 |
| Blocked drain | £100–£180 |
| Radiator install or move | £150–£250 |
| Boiler service | £90–£150 |
| Power flush | £350–£600 |
| Bathroom suite install | £1,500–£2,500 |
| Boiler replacement (like-for-like combi) | £1,800–£2,600 |
| Boiler replacement (system or conversion) | £2,500–£4,500 |
Boiler replacement is where the range gets wide, because it stops being about labour. Median quotes for a straight combi swap sit around £2,300; converting from a conventional system to a combi means new pipework and can push past £4,000. Same trade, very different jobs.
What pushes a price up
Four things, mostly:
Access. A boiler in a loft with no boarding costs more than one in a kitchen cupboard. So does a third-floor flat with no lift and a parking bay you have to book.
Urgency. Same day is usually +25%. A genuine out-of-hours emergency is +50%. Both are normal.
Parts. A tap is £30 or £300 depending on what you picked. Ask whether the quote includes parts or you’re comparing two different things.
Making good. Lifting floorboards is quick. Putting them back so the room doesn’t look like a crime scene takes longer, and some quotes quietly leave it out.
If you’re getting a quote
Three questions worth asking, and they’ll tell you more than the number does:
- Is it fixed or hourly? If hourly, what’s the estimate, and what happens if it overruns?
- Does that include parts and VAT? A £400 quote and a £480 quote can be identical underneath.
- What’s not included? This is the one that saves arguments.
A plumber who answers those three straight away is usually a plumber who’ll turn up when they said they would.
If you’re the one quoting
Here’s the bit I actually care about, because I build quoting software and I see how this goes wrong.
Most plumbers price by feel. You’ve got a rough hourly rate in your head, you eyeball the job, you knock a bit off because you liked them, and you send a number. It works, right up until you’re doing it eleven times a week in the van at half six.
Two things fix most of it:
If you want the full version of this, including the chargeable-hours maths most people get wrong, read what you should actually charge as a plumber.
Fix your prices for the jobs you do repeatedly. Leak repair, boiler service, blocked drain, radiator swap: these barely vary. Set a price, use it every time. You stop re-deciding, and you stop under-charging the jobs you happen to be quoting when you’re knackered.
Charge properly for urgency, in writing. +25% same day, +50% out of hours. Most plumbers apply this inconsistently or feel awkward about it, which is why they end up doing Sunday call-outs at weekday rates. If it’s on the quote as a line item, nobody argues.
The plumbers who do well aren’t the cheapest. They’re the ones who answer fast with a clear number, because most enquiries go to whoever replies first with something the customer can actually understand.
Getting your numbers down on paper
If you want the fastest version of this: our plumber quote template already has the common jobs, the urgency uplifts and the add-ons built in, with the maths wired up. You change the prices to yours and it does the rest.
It comes two ways. The free online version puts a form on your website so customers price their own job and land in your inbox already qualified. Or if you’d rather not touch software, there’s a £7 spreadsheet that does the same sums in Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers, plus a branded quote you export to PDF.
Either way, the goal is the same: stop deciding your prices one job at a time.
Prices here are UK-wide averages for 2026, gathered from published trade cost guides and our own template data. Your area, your overheads and the specifics of the job will move them, and a quote from someone who’s actually seen the job always beats a table on the internet.