$169 an hour. Any hour.
Most plumbing companies won’t put this on a website.
We think that’s a choice made for the company’s benefit rather than the customer’s — you’re going to ask on the phone anyway, and finding out at the door is how people end up feeling ambushed.
The number before we start
Common jobs are priced flat rather than by the hour. Every tank price below includes supply, install, disposal of the old unit and the permit.
You get the number before we start. For bigger jobs — repipes, drainage, heating replacements — real ranges are published in our cost guides: actual Metro Vancouver figures with what moves them, reviewed quarterly.
There is no call-out fee
Commonly charged just to attend and diagnose, and more after hours. There are three models: waived if you proceed, credited against the repair, or charged on top.
All three are legitimate. The trouble is discovering which one you’re in after the technician is standing in your kitchen.
We don’t charge one at all. You pay for the time we’re working, at $169/hr, and nothing for showing up.
Nothing is waived, credited or added later, because there was never a fee to begin with.
Evenings, weekends and holidays — the same $169
$169/hr at 2am on a Sunday is $169/hr on a Tuesday afternoon.
Most companies charge one-and-a-half or double outside business hours, and some apply a higher call-out fee on top. If you’re comparing quotes for emergency work, ask specifically what the overnight rate is.
Since waiting doesn’t save you money with us, there’s no reason for us to shade that advice either way. Some things genuinely can wait until morning, and we’ll say so.
What’s included as standard
It’s what makes a quote comparable. Every quote we give includes all of this.
Send us what you’ve been quoted and we’ll tell you what’s missing from it.
We don’t
Drywall. We patch, tape, mud and paint, to your preference and quoted before we start.
Excavation restoration. We bring the ground back to original condition as far as we can, and we offer landscaping.
Those two are the most common end-of-job disputes in this trade, and they’re in our scope rather than in the small print. If you’re comparing quotes, ask about each one specifically.
How to compare quotes — including ours
A quote that’s significantly cheaper is usually a different job, not a better price. Four things to check.
Required for tanks, gas, most drainage and repiping. It’s the most commonly skipped item, and unpermitted work surfaces at resale and on insurance claims.
An old tank, or spoil from an excavation, costs money to remove. Someone pays for it.
On a repipe, “we’ll open the walls” and “we’ll leave it paint-ready” are thousands of dollars apart. This is the single most common source of dispute at the end of a job.
Quoted at day rates, performed at night, invoiced at the difference.
Ask the cheaper quote about those four. If the answer is “nothing’s excluded,” ask again about each one individually.
If the job turns out bigger
Sometimes we open a wall and find something nobody could have seen — a previous repair done badly, a vent that goes nowhere, a section of pipe in worse condition than expected.
Work pauses at the point where the surprise appeared. Nothing gets touched in the meantime.
You see what we found, the options, and a revised written price before anything else happens.
The original price stands for the original scope, and nothing gets added to your invoice that you didn’t agree to first.
Quotes, cancellation, permits, payment
Written quotes are free for anything we can assess on site during a call-out, and for larger planned work — repipes, drainage, heating replacements. We don’t charge to tell you what something costs.
We won’t quote a price over the phone for anything we haven’t seen. For a few standard items we’ll give you a range. For anything else, a phone quote is a guess, and the guess is usually low.
Cancel or reschedule with 24 hours’ notice and there’s no charge. We’d rather you rescheduled than had us arrive when it doesn’t suit — just tell us as early as you can.
Where a permit is required — hot water tanks, gas work, most drainage and repiping — we pull it, and the cost is in your quote rather than added afterward.
Permitted work matters to you rather than to us: it protects you at resale, it matters on an insurance claim, and the inspection checks things like venting — which on a gas appliance is a carbon monoxide question.
Payment is due on completion, unless you have an account open with us.
Financing is available on big-ticket jobs — repipes, drainage replacement, heating systems.
What we won’t do
Anyone who does is guessing, and the guess is usually low.
We stop, we show you, you decide. Every time.
If your tank is seven years old with a failed element, we’re not going to sell you a new one.
Emergencies need a decision now. Repipes, drainage and heating replacements do not.
If any contractor asks you to do that, it usually means they can’t pull one themselves.
The complaint about this trade isn’t price. It’s surprise.
A number at the door that wasn’t the number on the phone, a fee nobody mentioned, an invoice with items on it that were never discussed.
Publishing the fees doesn’t make us the cheapest, and we’re not claiming to be. It makes us comparable.
Common questions
There isn’t one. $169/hr at any hour. Published here so nobody’s surprised at the door.
No. $169/hr at 2am is $169/hr at 2pm.
Yes, for anything we can assess on site and for larger planned work.
For a few standard items, a range. For anything else, no — a phone quote is a guess.
We stop, show you, and give you a revised written price. You decide before we continue.
Yes, where one is required. It’s in the quote rather than added later.
Yes on larger jobs — repipes, drainage replacement, heating systems.
A plumber answers, at any hour, and you’ll get a straight number or a straight no.