Cost for plumber

[ScumOfTheRoad]

Asking what people pay for plumbers. Our combi boiler went on the blink and I contacted a plumber. The heat exchanger plate needed replaced.
I paid of course.  90 pounds per hour.  In London area.

I have no objection to people making a decent living, just musing if that is the going rate.

[robgul]

You want to have a look at the Pimlico Plumbers charge rates!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our man works out at around £40 ph - but that's in Warwickshire - I think my daughter, at Feltham, was charged around £45ph from a plumber found on Checkatrade or similar.

[Sergeant Pluck]

They are all like that in London.

We had to get Pimlico plumbers out when we moved in here. They charge more or less £1k for a full day’s work. On the other hand, when they did come they arrived on time (to the second), and worked systematically and continuously without any messing about. 

The landlord had previously tried to get the letting agency’s nominated plumber to do the work. They didn’t charge Pimlico rates, but still the thick end of £100 per hour, but did absolutely nothing during the course of 3 visits other to than to “assess” the job, which mainly entailed saying “oh, all that would have to come out” and “you could be looking at a big job here”. That advice cost hundreds.

Last week we had a washing machine guy out to confirm what I had told the landlord - that the bearings had gone in the washing machine. £94 for 5 minutes, and I think he could have got the job done in 30 seconds. Conclusion: bearings gone.

To be fair, if the machine had been repairable, he’d have done it for the same cost as he does >90% of his jobs in less than an hour.

[jiberjaber]

I'm sure others are available but would be interesting to see how much he charges....

[Kim]

For every drippy tap or heat exchanger, there's a really horrible drains job where £90/hr is cheap.

[grams]

My flatmate blocked the toilet with a huge wad of paper and called out Pimlico Plumbers once because we lived in (an unglamorous part of) Pimlico. They charged over £100 callout to tip a bucket of water from a great height. Took all of two minutes, which is quite a spectacularly hourly rate.

And that was - whelp - 15 years ago.

[De Sisti]

They are all like that in London.

We had to get Pimlico plumbers out when we moved in here. They charge more or less £1k for a full day’s work.

[Basil]

Boiler started venting black sooty smoke and then died.
Called plumber.  Who not only turned up same day, wearing a jacket displaying the Firebird logo (the brand of our boiler)¹, but refitted a valve that was not correctly set and dismantled the whole thing to clean out the sooty deposit. (to be fair, I helped with the cleaning process, standing and scrubbing at the utility room sink as he handed me parts)
Probably 2 hours work.  £60 in pound notes.  No idea what a proper invoiced charge would have been.

¹. Mrs B asked me if he had asked for the make of boiler over the phone.  When I agreed that he had, she opined that "He probably has a whole dressing up kit of various branded jackets in his van"
 

[Blodwyn Pig]

Asking what people pay for plumbers. Our combi boiler went on the blink and I contacted a plumber. The heat exchanger plate needed replaced.
I paid of course.  90 pounds per hour.  In London area.

I have no objection to people making a decent living, just musing if that is the going rate.

Actually it probably didn't need replacing, just clogged up, causing lack of hot water and / or banging.  Ours has had this happen maybe 5 times in the last 10 years, they get bunged up, as they keep making the  gap between the plates smaller to increase the output. our plumber removes the exchanger unit, puts it in a bucket, fills all the 4 holes with ' spirit of salts', then adds water, then.......fizzzzzzz,.... crackle ..... sput....and all the gunge froths out, and then the water is black, he rinses it thro with clean water, and refits.....et voila.  cost us about £50 cash each time.


Oh,  and I'm a stone's throw from THAT London.

[Regulator]

They are all like that in London.

We had to get Pimlico plumbers out when we moved in here. They charge more or less £1k for a full day’s work. On the other hand, when they did come they arrived on time (to the second), and worked systematically and continuously without any messing about. 

The landlord had previously tried to get the letting agency’s nominated plumber to do the work. They didn’t charge Pimlico rates, but still the thick end of £100 per hour, but did absolutely nothing during the course of 3 visits other to than to “assess” the job, which mainly entailed saying “oh, all that would have to come out” and “you could be looking at a big job here”. That advice cost hundreds.

Last week we had a washing machine guy out to confirm what I had told the landlord - that the bearings had gone in the washing machine. £94 for 5 minutes, and I think he could have got the job done in 30 seconds. Conclusion: bearings gone.

To be fair, if the machine had been repairable, he’d have done it for the same cost as he does >90% of his jobs in less than an hour.

We had a similar experience with Pimlico Plumbers (whose minimum hourly rate is now £105 per hour for plumbing issues https://www.pimlicoplumbers.com/rates ).  They arrived when they said they would, worked flat out and the parts were not overpriced.  The work was very high quality - and they identified a couple of other potential issues that we were able to address.

We have a very good firm locally, Nutcombe Plumbing and Heating.  Not the cheapest - but very reliable.... and they have one of the sexiest plumbers you'll ever see (if you ever use them, ask for Perry).

[ian]

Basically, when you need a plumber, you need a plumber and they know it. We have the BG homecare thing which is very expensive, but on the few occasions we've needed them they've popped up like magic and addressed the problem.

We had a blocked radiator which wasn't covered and BG wanted £850+VAT to powerflush the system. We did find a local company but there was a six-week wait (they charged £400+VAT) and that was an entire day of gurgling and now we have a hot radiator.

For general stuff, we have an odd-job man who'll stick his hand down any blocked drain for about £15.

[Jurek]

I had the boiler replaced in March of last year.
Guy's hourly rate is somewhere between £70.00 and £90.00 ph.
(I cannot accurately remember how long he was here for - but it was a late start - after 10:00 - and a finish at around 17:00 / 18:00)
Would recommend.
He is local to you.
Drop me a PM if you'd like his details.

ETA - Somewhat oddly, his invoice was around £500.00 less than when I had the boiler replaced (by someone else) when I first moved in here around 14 years ago.

[ian]

Part of the reason I spurned BG quote for a powerflush (apparently an enema for your heating system, though it doesn't seem they describe it that way in the literature) was that I thought it would be an hour or so's work turn up, plug it in and give it the full Gwyneth.

Probably a bit more reasonable when I learned it was a whole-day cleansing, but anyway, half the price when I got someone else (or rather my wife did through her extensive list of contacts). Honestly, the colour of the liquid coming out suggested that it was in need of a day-long cleanse.

[Cudzoziemiec]

¹. Mrs B asked me if he had asked for the make of boiler over the phone.  When I agreed that he had, she opined that "He probably has a whole dressing up kit of various branded jackets in his van"
 

https://youtu.be/CVFcIJWe0zE

[Mrs Pingu]

This is what the plumber who did our bathroom has on his website:
General repairs & maintenance   £60+VAT for the first hour (includes travel time) £40+VAT for each additional hour, charged to the half hour.
Installations and larger repairs   Quote on request
Gas certification & landlord safety checks from £70+VAT
Service includes all required checks and issuing of certificates

[Mrs Pingu]

The emergency call out we had to our boiler from another company last Saturday afternoon was charged at £195+VAT! He would have been here less than an hour. Weekend distress rates tho innit.

[phantasmagoriana]

The last-but-one plumbers we got in charged a £200 call-out fee.

We didn't use them again...