How To Quote a Heating & Plumbing Job

Your entire business hinges on how well-adjusted your pricing model is. Too high and you’ll struggle to find jobs. But too low and you’ll struggle to make any profit.

Every heating & plumbing business owner knows the feeling of agreeing to do a job that turns out to be more complex or time-consuming than they initially thought. These kinds of jobs end up costing you money and hurt the long-term success of your business. 

Whether you prefer working on installations, renovations, or repairs, this guide will outline how to write a quote for a plumbing job quickly and effectively. We’ll cover: 

Calculate your hourly rate (including overheads)

When it comes to quoting a plumbing job, your hourly rate is the most important thing to know. For most pricing models (read our blog here to find out which is best for you), an hourly rate is used to calculate the final quote. 

• Start by adding up all of your costs. This includes everything from fuel to insurance, tools, software, and rent. 
• Next, work out how many billable hours you have each year. This should subtract any time you aren’t getting paid for, such as any admin work, paperwork, or driving. 
• Then, add on your desired profit. Simply calculating your expenses and dividing it by your billable hours will give you the rate you need to earn to merely cover all costs. 
• Lastly, you can calculate your hourly rate by dividing your costs + profit by billable hours.

Read our full guide on calculating an hourly rate here. You can also use our free pricing calculator to quickly and easily calculate your ideal hourly rate.

Download an accurate hourly rate calculator

By downloading this calculator you consent to receiving marketing emails from Gas Engineer Software.

Visit the property (if necessary)

For regular, routine jobs, it’s not always necessary to visit the property. However, if you’re quoting a larger or more complex heating & plumbing job, paying a visit can let you know what to expect. 

Keep an eye out for things that could make the job more difficult for you. 

• If this is a new customer, has any previous work been done to a shoddy standard?
• Is the customer going to be problematic?
• Will the job involve lots of different (and unforeseen) steps?

Add up all material costs

This will vary on the type of job you’re doing. Try to estimate what materials you will need and how much they will cost. 

As we’ve discussed in our article about trust in the trades, it’s important to try and make your quote as accurate as possible. 

If material costs increase, you can of course speak to your customer and adjust the final invoice – but be sure to let them know. 

Create & send professional quotes in seconds with Gas Engineer Software. Sign up for a free trial.

Using an hourly rate to price plumbing jobs

There are several ways you can calculate your markup on a job – you can read more about the best pricing strategies here.

One way is to calculate all your expenses and then add on a percentage markup. 

For example, if all the costs for a job totalled £120, you could add a 25% markup and charge your customer £160.

However, if you’ve calculated your hourly rate as we did in the example above, you will have already incorporated your profit. 

All you need to do is estimate how long the job will take and multiply that by your hourly rate.

Using flat-rate prices for small jobs

“We scupper ourselves on an hourly rate because we can do things in 10 minutes in the customer’s eye.” – Dan Voice, Prime Fusion.

What your customers don’t see is the time it took you to get there, fuel costs, admin & paperwork, potential callbacks, and, most importantly, the experience required to be able to do it in 10 minutes in the first place.

There are two easy ways you can solve this issue. 

• Charge a fixed rate (You probably already do this for jobs like gas safety checks)
• Implement a minimum charge (Or a callout fee)

How to quote large plumbing jobs

Estimating how long a big job will take is challenging. Even those who’ve been in the industry for decades can get it wrong.

It’s best to break down the job into each individual component. This makes it more manageable, and allows you to then multiply each segment by your hourly rate and add them up.

Doing this will help you set a fair and reasonable price which you can go at a comfortable pace and do your best work.

Remember that bigger jobs are going to be more complex. You should factor in the extra time it takes to do all the admin (such as writing up a quote) for these jobs.

How to create winning quotes for your heating & plumbing jobs

Working out how to price a plumbing job is only half of the story. If you want to go the extra mile, impress your customers, and ultimately get more jobs, you’ll want to send professional quotes. 

Rather than writing out a quote by hand or from scratch, you can download a free quote template or use Gas Engineer Software.

Using proper software will allow you to easily personalise your quotes, make them look professional, and cut down the time you spend on paperwork.

What to include in your plumbing quote

In your quote, be sure to include: 

• Your logo, business name, and contact details
• Your customer’s information
• A quote number (for your records and their reference)
• Itemised prices for each part of the job
• A summary of the total price
• How long the quote is valid for
• Any other instructions for your customer

The actual piece of paperwork is only half of the quoting process. If you want to win as many of the quotes you send out as possible, be sure to read our full guide here: Why Your Quotes Aren’t Turning Into Jobs.