What to charge as a plumber in the UK

Copying the plumber down the road is the quickest way to undercharge. Their van, their hours and their pay target aren't yours. Work from your own numbers instead:

1. 1Add up a year of business costs.
2. 2Add the pay you want before tax.
3. 3Divide by the hours you can bill. That's your break-even hourly rate.
4. 4Add a margin for profit and quiet spells, then turn it into a day rate, a minimum charge and fixed prices for your common jobs.

Last, compare it with what the market pays. Being a little above average is fine if you turn up when you say you will. Being far below it usually means you've missed a cost.

Go through the last 12 months of bank statements. The usual lines are:

• Van: finance or lease, insurance, tax, servicing, tyres and fuel.
• Tools: press tools, drain kit, pipe freezers, a flue gas analyser if you do gas, and replacements.
• Insurance: public liability, tools and, for bigger jobs, contract works cover.
• Registrations and training, including Gas Safe if you work on gas.
• Phone, quoting and invoicing software, and your accountant.
• Marketing: website, listings, lead sites and van signwriting.
• Consumables that never quite make it onto an invoice: fittings, PTFE, flux and solder.

If you work on gas, registration is a legal requirement, not an extra. The Health and Safety Executive says anyone employed to work on gas appliances in domestic premises must be Gas Safe registered. For 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027, Gas Safe Register lists an application fee of £148.38 and a new registration fee of £171.58, both plus VAT, a web renewal fee of £139.78 plus VAT, and £3.34 plus VAT to notify each job online.

For water work, the WaterSafe register says membership is free for most qualified members of its approved contractor schemes, though the schemes themselves may charge.

Driving to the merchant, quoting, waiting for a customer, going back for a part you didn't have and chasing payment all eat into the day. None of it can go on an invoice unless your prices cover it.

Look at two normal weeks in your diary and count the hours you could charge for against the hours you worked. Use that share, not a guess, in your sum.

This is why a self-employed rate looks high next to employed pay. The ONS puts the median hourly pay of employed plumbers and heating and ventilating installers at £18.00 in 2025, but an employee doesn't buy the van, the tools or the hours spent pricing jobs.

The pay in your sum is before tax. For 2026 to 2027 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland:

• Income Tax: 0% on the first £12,570, 20% up to £50,270, then 40%. Scotland has its own bands.
• Class 4 National Insurance: 6% on profits between £12,570 and £50,270, then 2%.
• VAT: registration is compulsory once taxable turnover goes over £90,000 in the last 12 months. Parts count towards turnover, so a plumber fitting boilers can reach it sooner than one doing repairs.
• Making Tax Digital for Income Tax: from April 2026 for qualifying income over £50,000, April 2027 over £30,000 and April 2028 over £20,000.

Working as a subcontractor on building sites? Under the Construction Industry Scheme, the contractor deducts 20% from your payments, or 30% if you're not registered. It counts towards your tax bill, but it hits your cash flow first.

These figures are examples to show the sum. They aren't averages for plumbers and they aren't Ringzel customer data.

1. 1Working time: 46 weeks × 5 days × 8 hours = 1,840 hours.
2. 2Billable time: 72% of that, so 1,324.8 hours.
3. 3Break-even rate: £59,400 ÷ 1,324.8 = £44.84 an hour.
4. 4Add a 10% margin: about £49 an hour, or around £395 for an 8-hour day.

On £42,000 of profit, 2026 to 2027 rates give Income Tax of £5,886 and Class 4 National Insurance of £1,765.80, leaving about £34,348. Not enough? Change the pay line and rerun the sum.

Homeowner cost guides show what customers expect to pay. Use them as a sense check on your own figures:

Sources: Checkatrade's plumber cost guide (June 2026), tap installation guide (June 2026) and boiler service guide (October 2026). For emergencies, MyJobQuote describes a call-out fee of around £75 plus about £60 an hour, with a minimum of one hour and a day rate of about £380 (October 2026), and higher in London.

In the example above, the day rate sits a little above Checkatrade's average and the hourly rate just under it. That's a sign the costs and billable hours are realistic. Your own sum is what counts.

Checkatrade says most plumbers have a minimum charge, usually the cost of an hour's work, and its call-out guide notes there may also be a minimum one-hour charge for emergencies. The common options:

• A minimum charge of one hour, which covers the drive and the first part of the job.
• A call-out fee plus your hourly rate, usually kept for emergency and out-of-hours work.
• Fixed prices for common jobs, with travel built in.

Set your emergency rate on purpose. Checkatrade notes that some plumbers charge up to twice their normal hourly rate for emergencies. Work out what a Sunday night leak costs you, decide the lowest you'd go out for, and say it on the phone. Our guide to out-of-hours call answering covers what to do with the calls you won't take.

Fixed prices reward you for getting faster. Build each one from your hourly rate and how long the job really takes, then add parts and your markup.

Put prices in writing, even by text. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, what you tell a customer about the price can become part of the contract, and if no price is agreed, they only have to pay a reasonable price.

There's no set figure. Your markup has to pay for the time spent choosing and collecting parts, the stock in your van, returns and standing behind what you fit. Whatever you decide, show parts as their own line, and be clear whether you'll fit parts the customer bought, and whether your guarantee covers them.

1. 1Rerun your costs each year. Van, fuel, insurance and Gas Safe fees all change.
2. 2Raise prices for new customers first and give regulars notice.
3. 3Update fixed prices and your minimum charge as well as your hourly rate.
4. 4Track quotes won and lost. If you win almost all of them, you're probably cheap.

Once your prices are right, the next job is filling the diary. Our guide on how to get more plumbing jobs covers Google, lead sites and landlord work, and if you fit boilers, see how to get more boiler installations.

A customer with water coming through the ceiling doesn't wait for a call back. They ring the next plumber. The cost of a missed call is the job's value multiplied by the chance they'd have booked you.

At Checkatrade's £150 average for a burst pipe repair, a missed call that books half the time costs about £75. A missed enquiry for a day's work at the example rate of £395 that books one time in three costs about £132. Put your own figures into our missed call calculator, and read what missed calls cost a UK trade for the full sum.