Key takeaways
- Each repeat job is one row: labor hours times your labor rate, plus parts times your markup, rounded up.
- The worked rows below use illustrative inputs of $95 an hour, a 30% parts markup, and rounding up to the next $5.
- Group the rows the way plumbing work actually comes in, not in the order a catalog lists them.
- Keep the big custom jobs out of the template. Quote them by hand from the same rate.
How a Plumbing Price Book Is Structured
A usable plumbing book groups rows into the fixture and drain work you repeat most: toilets, faucets, disposals, water heaters, and drain clears. Each row needs a plain job name, a typical labor-hour figure, a mid-grade parts cost, and one line saying what the price covers. The price itself is not typed in. It is calculated from your three numbers, so a change to your rate moves every row at once.
Worked Example Rows
These rows use made-up but consistent inputs so you can check the arithmetic: labor hours times $95, plus parts times 1.30, rounded up to the next $5. The hours and parts costs are illustrations of how a row is built, not survey data. Replace them with your own.
| Job | Typical hours | Parts cost (example) | Example price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Replace a toilet, standard height, wax ring and supply line | 2.00 | $60 | $270 |
| Replace a garbage disposal, existing hookup | 1.50 | $75 | $240 |
| Replace a kitchen faucet, supply lines included | 1.50 | $45 | $205 |
Illustrative only. Take the first row: 0.75 hours at $95 is $71.25, and $22 of parts at 1.30 is $28.60. The sum is $99.85, which rounds up to $100.
Why water heaters are not a template row
A water heater swap depends on fuel type, venting, expansion tank and code, so the parts list varies widely. Price it as a custom job with its own parts line each time, and keep the template for the repeat fixture swaps.
Where to Start With Your First Fifteen Rows
Start with the jobs you ran most often last year. Pull them from invoices or from memory, template those first, and leave the rest as custom line items. Twenty accurate rows beat eighty rows you never finished setting up.
Common Mistakes
Copying a published price list. A downloaded list is a regional average, not your labor rate or your supplier costs. Use it for structure at most.
Rounding down. Round up, so you never absorb the difference on a job.
Never revisiting the numbers. Set a date each year to check your rate and markup against real costs, and adjust the whole book at once.