What plumbing work costs, and which of it you should not be paying for at all.

Prices vary by region and by how much access the job needs. Where a job has a genuine do-it-yourself version we say so rather than quoting a number for it.

• Pressure drops at every fixture at once
• Every drain in the house is slow, not just one
• The main shutoff will not turn
• Sewer backs up in the lowest fixture after heavy rain
• Stain on the ceiling directly under a bath
• Pinhole leaks in copper, more than one
• Sewer line collapsed and the house is 1945–1972
• Cast iron stack weeping at the joints
• Copper at the meter, galvanised behind the wall
• Pressure over 80 psi at the hose bib
• Floor drain backing up in the utility room
• Gray plastic supply line, leaking at the fitting not the pipe
• Warm patch on the slab, water bill up, nothing visible
• Drain leak under the slab, PVC not copper
• Warm spot on the floor in a house under twenty-five years old
• Tankless unit throwing an error and short-cycling
• Expansion tank at the water heater feels heavy

Things you should not pay for

• Rusty water only on the first draw
• Sewer smell from a room nobody uses
• Hose bib with no vacuum breaker
• Laundry standpipe overflows on the spin cycle
• Angle stop under the sink will not close
• Water heater rusting at the base in an attached garage
• Rubber washing machine hoses
• Water heater is the second one and it is over ten
• One fixture slow, the rest fine
• Toilet runs intermittently with nobody near it
• Regulator original to the house
• Sillcock split after a hard freeze
• Dishwasher draining back into the sink
• Fixtures failing across the house in the same year
• No hot water but the burner is firing
• Water hammer when an appliance shuts off
• Cannot isolate one bathroom without shutting the house
• Hot water instantly, and a high gas bill
• Toilet refills with a bang rather than a hiss

---

Written by Jaylan Jones. I Like To Fix earns a referral fee when a call connects to a contractor. See our business-model disclosure.