Plumbing prices
These are the prices we charge, not starting-from figures that change once someone is standing in your basement. Every number below is a real job we do at a real price. Where a job genuinely varies, you get the range and what moves it.
All prices are plus HST. Labour and materials are included unless a line says otherwise.
A like-for-like tank replacement is $1,700 for a 40 gallon electric and $2,900 for a 50 gallon power-vented gas unit, both with a new mixing valve.
Switching fuel types or going tankless costs more because the venting and the gas line change. Every price below includes the unit, the install and the mixing valve.
You need an exterior wall for the venting, gas or propane near the equipment, and space to mount the unit. Coming off a tank also means new venting, core holes, gas work and plumbing changes, which is the difference between the two lists above. If your house does not have the right conditions, the price changes or the job is not the right call. We will tell you which before you commit to anything.
Replacing a boiler or combi, supplied and installed, runs $8,000 to $16,000+. Where you land inside that depends on how much has to move.
The unit itself is rarely what separates one quote from another. The work around it is.
Snaking a drain with the toilet left in place is $300. A water-jetted kitchen sink is $650.
Those two prices buy different results, and the difference is worth understanding before you pick.
A snake pokes a hole through the blockage. Water comes back, and so does the clog, usually within months. Jetting pressure-washes the inside of the pipe back to something close to its original bore, and that result tends to hold for years.
If you want the cheap fix because you are selling the house in six weeks, say so and we will snake it. If you want it gone, jet it.
Supplying and replacing an existing toilet runs $450 to $750, depending on the toilet you pick. All three prices include the unit, the seat and the install. If you have already bought a toilet, installation on its own is $225.
If you supply the faucet, installation is $225. If we supply it, installation is $150 to $200 plus the cost of the faucet.
Faucets range from about $100 for a basic one to $400 and up for a nicer model, with some running close to $1,000 for the faucet alone. Two real examples, so the range means something.
The one thing we need to know is whether your sink is single hole, two hole or three hole. It changes which faucets fit. Look at the deck of the sink, count the openings, and have that ready. Almost nobody thinks to check, and it is the question that decides the answer.
Pipe repairs run $300 to $3,000. That spread is wide because a pinhole in an accessible copper line and twenty feet of drain inside a finished wall get described the same way and are nothing like the same work.
What decides it is access, material and length. We can usually narrow it on the phone once we know those three.
If your pressure has dropped, put the softener into bypass. If the pressure comes back, the softener is the cause and it needs replacing rather than running. Softener resin can break down and pass through the screen that is meant to hold it, and once it is loose in the system it looks like fine yellow sand. If you can already see it in a tap aerator, it has travelled.
Diagnosing it is $225. Replacing the softener is the good outcome. The expensive one is replacing what the resin has fouled on its way through, which across taps, toilets, the dishwasher and the washing machine can reach $7,000.
A dishwasher hookup runs $225 to $500. A washing machine hookup or valve replacement runs $225 to $600.
Replacing a pump in an existing pit is $625. A brand new pit and pump, which means cutting the concrete and digging, is $2,400.
These prices are for a like-for-like swap, where the plumbing and drain are already in place. A 30,000 grain softener is $1,500 and is the right size for most households of two to four people on municipal water across Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge. If there has never been a softener, add about $400 for the extra piping and the drain run.
Prices are for Pinnacle units with 10% cross-linked resin, a grade above what most big-box softeners use, and include the equipment and the installation. Hard water also scales up inside faucets, fixtures and anything that heats water, so treating it protects more than the equipment you can see.
Find your area and the number of people in the house. Water hardness is measured in grains per gallon, and it varies more across this region than most people expect. These are residential starting ranges. Commercial systems are sized separately around the equipment, the peak demand and the actual usage.
| Area | Hardness (gpg) | 2 to 4 people | 5 to 6 people |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ayr | 18 to 24 | 30,000 | 45,000 to 60,000 |
| Baden | 20 to 25 | 30,000 | 45,000 to 60,000 |
| Breslau | 18 to 24 | 30,000 | 45,000 to 60,000 |
| Bright | 71 to 97 | Twin alternating 45,000 to 60,000 | Contact us |
| Cambridge | 16 to 22 | 30,000 | 45,000 |
| Elmira | 20 to 28 | 30,000 to 45,000 | 45,000 to 60,000 |
| Georgetown | 20 to 25 | 30,000 | 45,000 to 60,000 |
| Guelph | 30 to 35 | 30,000 | 45,000 to 60,000 |
| Halton Hills | 9 to 11 | 30,000 | 30,000 |
| Kitchener | 18 to 24 | 30,000 | 45,000 to 75,000 |
| Milton | 8 to 10 | 30,000 | 30,000 |
| New Dundee | 20 to 25 | 30,000 | 45,000 to 75,000 |
| New Hamburg | 20 to 25 | 30,000 | 45,000 to 75,000 |
| Plattsville | 71 to 97 | Twin alternating 45,000 to 60,000 | Contact us |
| St. Jacobs | 20 to 28 | 30,000 to 45,000 | 45,000 to 75,000 |
| Waterloo | 18 to 22 | 30,000 | 45,000 |
| Wellesley | 22 to 30 | 30,000 to 45,000 | 45,000 to 75,000 |
Bright and Plattsville commonly have iron and manganese as well as very hard water, which usually means a twin alternating system and separate iron treatment. Well water is different again and needs testing rather than a chart.
Both sit at 8 to 11 grains per gallon, which is genuinely soft. A softener there solves a problem you probably do not have. We would rather tell you that now than sell you a unit you will not notice working.
Household size can still push you up a size. Six people in a Milton house go through enough water that a 30,000 grain unit earns its place even on soft water.
Your own water can also sit well off these figures, particularly on a well. Treat the chart as a starting point and get the water tested before anyone sizes equipment for you. We test the water on site at every installation, and if your reading sits well outside the range for your area we will tell you before we put anything in, not after.
Running a new reverse osmosis system, assuming we can get at the location, is $1,200. Swapping an existing unit is $650.
A commercial backflow test is $275 for the first device and $200 for each additional device tested at the same address on the same visit. A residential test is $225.
Reporting is included and so is the filing fee. We file the test report with the municipality on your behalf and we pay the fee out of that price. It is not a separate line on your invoice and it is not something you have to chase.
Additional devices are $200 each when they are at the same address on the same visit. If you have devices across several buildings, each site is its own first test. We would rather say that here than have you budget on the wrong number.
A Moen Flo leak detection and prevention device, installed on a residential main, is $1,500 to $1,700.
The device sits on your main line, watches the flow, and shuts the water off when it sees a pattern that looks like a leak rather than like someone running a bath.
A drain camera inspection is $500. Adding a locator, which gives you the position and depth, brings it to around $700. A detailed written report with photos is $50 on top of either camera inspection.
Replacing an existing outside tap is $300, including the tap and the labour. A brand new one that needs piping run and a hole drilled is about $1,000 all in as a guideline. How far the water has to be run is what moves it.
The plumbing for a bathroom runs $5,000 to $10,000, including standard fixtures.
We do the plumbing scope: the rough-ins, the supply and drain work, the valves and the fixtures. We do not do tile, drywall, paint, flooring or glass. If you are running a full bathroom renovation, we are one trade in it, and we work alongside whoever is doing the rest.
What moves the number inside that range is how far the fixtures move from where they are now, and what you pick. The toilet and faucet prices above are the grades we work from, so you can see what a standard fixture means in dollars before you choose.
Replacing a broken sewer from the building to the street is $10,000 to $12,000. Replacing a leaking water service line from the curb stop to the meter is $8,000 to $10,000.
These are guidelines rather than flat prices, because every excavation is different. Both figures assume traditional excavation, no vac truck, no cribbing or shoring, and somewhere on the property to lay the soil.
The expensive part of this job is getting to the pipe, not the pipe. If your sewer has failed and your water service is old, adding the second line while the ground is already open costs $3,000 to $5,000 instead of the $8,000 to $12,000 it would cost on its own day.
Plumbing a new home or a substantial renovation runs $40,000 to $50,000.
That covers two bathrooms, a kitchen, laundry, and a mechanical room with equipment such as a water heater. Where it lands in the range depends on whether you are on city or well water, sewer or septic, whether water treatment is needed, and which fixtures you choose.
Before you budget
Every price on this page is real. Here is what changes one, so nothing on your invoice is a surprise.
Some jobs cannot be priced honestly from a list. A leak nobody has found yet, a boiler that needs diagnosing, a house where the last work was done badly enough that we need to see it before quoting. For those, the price comes after somebody looks, and we will say so rather than name a number we would have to walk back.
Next step
Tell us which line above you are looking at and we will confirm the price for your house, or tell you what would change it. If your job is not on this page, ask and we will price it.
548-255-2662Monday to Friday, 7am to 5pm.