Overview
Half of plumbing arrives as an emergency, and emergencies are where pricing discipline goes to die. Somebody has water coming through a ceiling at eleven at night, they are calling four numbers off Google in the order the results loaded, and the number you invent while tired is reliably the wrong one.
This book is 320 plumbing services with the decision already made. Service, repair, drain, and installation work, Good / Better / Best on every line, emergency multipliers built in rather than improvised, and a settings sheet that reprices everything from one field.
Sample line items
Real entries at Philadelphia metro calibration for 2026.
- Single-fixture clog clear: $210. Main drain snake to 50 feet: $420
- Hydro-jet, residential: $560. Heavy commercial duty: $840
- Camera inspection, standalone: $420
- 50-gallon gas water heater, like-for-like: $1,820. Electric: $1,580
- Tankless gas: $2,950. Thermal expansion tank: $340
- Toilet, standard floor-mount: $610. Pressure-assist: $930. Wall-mount: $1,340
Look at the drain block. Six services, six prices, and a contractor carrying one drain number in his head is wrong on most calls. Here is the full walkthrough of how the book is built.
What's inside
- 320 plumbing services across service, repair, drain, and installation
- Good / Better / Best tier pricing for every line item
- Emergency and after-hours rate multipliers built in
- IPC-aligned service categories
- Service code column ready for QuickBooks integration
- Formula-driven, update your hourly rate and prices recalculate
- Editable Excel workbook that also works in free Google Sheets
Why the emergency multiplier is in the book and not in your head
The multiplier applies to the work rather than sitting on top as a flat callout fee, so it scales with job size. A $420 main drain snake becomes $630 after hours. A $210 fixture clear becomes $315.
The reason it belongs on a settings sheet is that the eleven-at-night version of you negotiates worse than the Tuesday-afternoon version. You are tired, the customer is upset, and the number you pick under those conditions is too low almost every time. Decide it once in daylight, apply it to everybody, read it off the page.
Who it's for
Plumbers running service calls and standard installations who want to give a real number on the phone instead of a shrug and a truck roll. Particularly useful if you take after-hours work and have never settled on what it should cost.
Who it isn't for
Repipes, bathroom remodels, and new construction rough-in are estimated from scope and drawings. This book deliberately does not pretend to flat-rate them, and any book claiming it does is selling you something.
Works best with
A price book on its own is one piece. These three are what turn it into a system.
- Break-Even Labor Rate Calculator, Your loaded hourly rate is the input every one of the 320 lines depends on
- Flat Rate Options Presentation Template, Present the three tiers on paper instead of reciting them in a basement
- Contractor Forms Bundle, Get the scope signed before the work starts, not after the argument
See the full system on our How It All Works page.
Why buy this one
It was built by a working tradesman who has priced this work in the field, which is why the drain section splits six ways and the water heater section accounts for whether the existing venting and gas line can be reused. Those distinctions come from doing the work, not from a data licensing agreement.
- Buy once, keep it. No per-seat pricing, no renewal date, no losing your catalog if you cancel.
- Fully open. Every formula is visible and editable. Change what you disagree with.
- Works where you quote. Excel, Google Sheets, tablet, phone.
- Real support. Message on Etsy and the builder replies, usually inside a business day.