What To Shut Off Before The Truck Arrives
Water follows gravity and it does not wait for a plumber to finish his coffee. While the truck is rolling toward your house, you can stop the damage from getting worse. The most important thing to know is where your main shutoff valve is. Every house has one. It is usually near the street, in the garage, or in a closet on an exterior wall. Turn it clockwise until it stops. That kills water to the whole house. If the problem is isolated to one toilet or one sink, look for the angle stop behind the fixture. That little oval handle shuts off water to just that one thing.
If you cannot find the shutoff or the valve is frozen, turn on every outdoor spigot and the bathtub faucets. This bleeds pressure out of the system and reduces the volume of water that can spray from a broken pipe. For a sewer backup, stop running water immediately. Do not flush toilets. Do not run the washing machine. Every drop you send down a clogged line comes back up somewhere, usually the lowest drain in the house. A main line clearing is $300 labor through an existing cleanout and keeping the water off keeps the mess contained until we get there.
- Find the main shutoff and turn it clockwise until it stops
- Use the angle stop behind a toilet or sink for isolated leaks
- Open outdoor spigots and tub faucets to bleed pressure
- Stop all water use immediately during a sewer backup
- Clear the area around the water heater or main stack if you can
Parts At Cost, No Markup
A lot of plumbing invoices have a line item for parts that is double or triple what the part actually costs at the supply house. The plumber buys a fill valve for twelve bucks and writes it up at thirty five. You never see the real price because the receipt stays in the truck. That markup is pure profit hidden behind the excuse of convenience.
Simple Jack Plumbing sells parts at cost. You pay exactly what the supply house charges, no percentage added. You can also buy the part yourself if you prefer. Go to the hardware store, grab the exact model you want, and have it waiting when the truck pulls up. The labor price stays the same either way. A main shutoff valve replacement is $350 labor whether I pick up the valve or you do. The valve itself is whatever the store charges and I hand you the receipt. No padding, no mystery, no convenience fee dressed up as a service.
Common Emergency Jobs And Their Labor Prices
Every price on this page is labor only and marked provisional. That means it is the posted labor number we work from, subject to what the job actually turns out to be once we see it. A diagnostic visit and written quote is $99 labor and that amount applies to the job if you hire us that day. A main line clearing is $300 labor through an existing cleanout. If the only access is through the roof or the line needs to be dug up, we quote that before any shovel hits dirt.
An exposed pipe leak repair on accessible copper or PEX is $175 labor. If the pipe is buried in a wall or under a slab, the labor changes because the access work changes. A leak locate is $200 labor to pinpoint the source before anybody cuts into drywall or concrete. A main shutoff valve replacement is $350 labor, which is the valve you will be glad works during an emergency. An angle stop or shutoff valve replacement is $125 labor per valve, less if we are already there for other work. A water heater tank swap is $450 labor with the heater, pan, and expansion tank sold at cost.
- Diagnostic visit and written quote: $99 labor, applied to the job same day
- Main line clearing: $300 labor through existing cleanout
- Exposed pipe leak repair: $175 labor on accessible copper or PEX
- Main shutoff valve replacement: $350 labor
- Water heater install tank swap: $450 labor, heater at cost
Reserve Your Spot With The Drive Deposit
When you call a plumbing shop at night, you are asking someone to leave their family, get in a truck, and drive to your house. Most shops take your name and address and promise a truck is coming, but they do not actually commit until they have a credit card or a signed work order. The drive fee here works as a deposit that locks in your visit. You pay the round trip drive dollars upfront and that money comes off the final bill when the work is done.
On the homepage there is a price board and a drive gauge. You type your address or ZIP code and the gauge tells you the miles and the drive dollars immediately. You can add jobs from the board to a cart and see the running total before you talk to anyone. Pay the drive fee as a deposit and the visit is reserved. That deposit is not an extra charge. It is part of the final number, deducted from what you owe at the end. If the drive is $40 round trip and the labor is $175, you paid $40 to reserve and you owe $175 when the work is finished. Simple arithmetic, no surprises.
How The Trade Normally Hides Pricing
Plumbing pricing is built on fog. Most shops refuse to post any numbers online. They want you to call so a dispatcher can feel you out, gauge how urgent the problem is, and decide what the market will bear. The same clogged drain might be quoted at three different prices to three different callers depending on the ZIP code, the time of day, and how panicked the voice on the phone sounds. That is not skilled trade pricing. That is sales.
The emergency multiplier is the worst version of this. A shop advertises a low hourly rate to get the phone to ring, then hits you with a two hour minimum, a dispatch fee, a materials surcharge, and an after hours premium that doubles the whole thing. The invoice lands and you cannot trace any of the numbers back to anything you agreed to. Simple Jack Plumbing puts every labor number on the board where you can see it before you dial. The drive is a dollar a mile both ways, calculated by a gauge you can use yourself. The parts are at cost. There is no fog. There is just a plumber, a truck, and a price you already understand.
- No dispatcher deciding the price based on your ZIP code
- No after hours multiplier tacked onto the invoice
- No parts markup hidden in the final number
- No dispatch fee that is really just a trip charge by another name
- Every labor number posted where you can read it right now