Plumbing Price List Template: A Fill-In Table for Your Rates

A plumbing price list is a table of the jobs you do most often, each with a unit, a rate, and a note about what the rate covers. You keep it on file and pull numbers from it when you write quotes. An estimate is a different document. The price list says what a drain clearing costs on your books. The estimate says what it costs this customer, on this job, with these parts and this many hours. Keep the two separate and you'll quote faster without underpricing.

Below is a fill-in template you can copy into a spreadsheet or print. The sample rates are placeholders to show the format, not market data. Replace them with your own numbers before you use the table with a client.

What goes in a plumbing price list template?

Four columns do most of the work: the service, the unit it's priced by, the rate, and a notes field that says what the rate includes and excludes. The notes column is the one people skip, and it's the one that prevents arguments later.

How is a plumbing price list different from an estimate?

A price list is a reference you use for every customer, so it has no customer name, no address, and no date. An estimate is a document for one customer. It names the job, lists the parts, sets the labor hours, carries an expiry date, and asks for approval. Our plumbing estimate template is the document you hand the customer. The price list is the source of the rates on it.

The two are easy to mix up because many shops keep both in the same place. If you ever email a customer the whole price list, they'll read it as a set of prices you're willing to haggle over, not a quote for their job. Send the estimate instead. For a fuller breakdown of the difference, see our post on invoice vs. estimate.

How do you set the rates on your own price list?

Start with your last twelve months of invoices. List the ten jobs you billed most often by count, then the ten that brought in the most money. Those two lists usually overlap, and the overlap is where your price list should start.

For labor, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a median annual wage of $63,800 for plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters as of May 2025. Divided over 2,080 hours, that's about $30.67 an hour. That figure is a wage, not a billing rate. Your rate has to cover the truck, the tools, insurance, fuel, the callbacks you don't get paid for, and the weeks with no calls. Build your hourly rate from your own costs first, then check it against what competitors near you charge.

For parts, add the cost you pay plus whatever markup you set. Write the markup down. If you can't say what a part's markup is, you'll discount it on the phone without noticing.

Worked example: turning the price list into one estimate

A homeowner calls about a slow kitchen drain and a leaking faucet. You clear the drain with the cable machine and it takes one visit. The faucet needs a new cartridge, and it takes an extra hour and a half because the shutoff valve is stiff. Using the sample rates above:

The price list supplied the first two lines. The parts line came from your cost sheet. The estimate is the only one of the three that the customer sees, and it has the customer's name, the work described, and the expiry date. When the customer approves it, the same line items carry over to the invoice, so the number they agreed to is the number they pay.

What should the notes column say?

Use it to head off the questions you'd otherwise answer on the phone. Say what's included in the rate, what's billed separately, and what could change the price. "Up to 50 feet" on a drain line, "excludes permit fees" on a water heater, and "after-hours at time and a half" on labor each save a conversation later. Keep the notes short. A long note in a price list is a sign the rate should be split into two services.

Where to start

Fill in the template with your own numbers, then turn the jobs a customer actually asks about into estimates. If you want the quoting side set up, our free estimate and quote templates for any job cover the rest of the trades in one place. Start with the table, and check it against your last month of jobs before you share it with anyone.

Frequently asked questions

Should I give customers my plumbing price list?

Give them an estimate for their job instead. A full price list invites them to compare line items and negotiate them one by one. If a customer asks for your standard rates, you can share the hourly rate and a few common services, with the notes attached.

How often should I update the rates?

Review them at least once a year, and whenever a supplier raises part costs. Date the list so you know which version a customer saw. An undated price list is hard to defend if a quote from last spring gets questioned.

Does a flat-rate price book work the same way?

It's the same idea. A flat-rate price book assigns one all-in price to each common job instead of billing by the hour. The template above works for either approach. Pick the unit column that matches how you bill.

What's the difference between a price list and a rate sheet?

People use the terms loosely. Here, a price list means a table of services with units and rates, and a rate sheet is usually a shorter list of hourly and after-hours rates only. If your shop has both, keep them as separate documents so an estimate doesn't pull from the wrong one.