The Filter Is Sold at Cost, No Markup
Most plumbing shops buy a water filter for two hundred dollars and sell it to you for four hundred. That is how the game works. The parts markup is where the profit hides. You never know what the real price is because the labor looks reasonable and the equipment line is padded. I do not do that. The filter, the RO system, the softener, the cartridges, every part is sold at what I pay for it. You see the supplier invoice. You pay that number.
You can also buy the filter yourself. If you know what you want and you order it, I will install it. The labor price does not change. I do not charge extra because you supplied the part. A lot of tradesmen will tell you they cannot stand behind customer supplied parts, which is fair, but they also use it as a reason to mark up their own. I tell you what the part costs me and let you decide. If you find it cheaper, buy it. I will still do the work.
This approach works because the labor is priced honestly from the start. There is no need to make up margin on the back end by inflating the equipment cost. You know exactly what you are paying for my time and my skill. The parts are a separate line item at cost. That is the whole deal. It is how I would want to be quoted if I were the one writing the check. No games, no surprise markup, just the real numbers.
Drive Fee, a Dollar a Mile Both Ways
Every plumber charges a trip fee. Most call it a service call or a dispatch fee and it is a flat number that covers some mystery distance. I charge a dollar a mile, counted both ways. That means the round trip from my base in Killeen to your door and back. You type your ZIP or address on the homepage and the drive gauge gives you the miles and the dollar amount before you ever pick up the phone. No guessing.
If you are in Harker Heights, the round trip is about 8 miles, so the drive is $16. Copperas Cove runs about 11 miles out, which is $22 round trip. Belton is around 20 miles out, a $40 round trip drive. Salado is about 24 miles out, $48 round trip. Temple is roughly 29 miles out, $58 round trip. Georgetown is around 45 miles out, a $90 round trip. Round Rock is about 55 miles out, $110 round trip. Waco is roughly 60 miles out, $120 round trip. Austin is around 70 miles out, $140 round trip.
The drive fee is the only charge that changes based on where you live. The labor is the same in Temple as it is in Killeen. The parts cost is the same. You pay the round trip miles and that is it. When you book, the drive fee is the deposit that reserves the visit. That deposit comes off the final bill. It is not an extra fee on top. It is your money applied to the job. If the round trip is $40, your final bill is $40 lighter because you already paid the drive.
Whole-House Versus Under-Sink, What Makes Sense
A whole-house filter goes on the main line where water enters the house. It catches sediment and strips chlorine before the water branches off to the water heater, the bathrooms, and the kitchen. Every tap in the house gets filtered water. That means the shower does not smell like a pool, the laundry does not get dingy from sediment, and the ice maker makes clean ice. The downside is that a whole-house filter does not soften the water. It cleans it, but the hardness minerals still pass through.
An under-sink filter treats just one faucet, usually the kitchen sink. It is a smaller unit that tucks into the cabinet. You get great drinking water and cooking water from that one tap. The rest of the house stays unfiltered. A lot of people start with an under-sink system because it is less involved and the drinking water is what bothers them most. Then they add a whole-house unit later because they get tired of scrubbing the shower. Either way, the labor is $400 for the install.
A reverse osmosis system is the next step up from a standard under-sink filter. It pushes water through a membrane that strips out almost everything, hardness minerals included, but only at that one sink. You get a little dedicated faucet on the counter. The water tastes like nothing, which is exactly what you want. An RO system wastes some water in the process, it is just how the technology works, but for pure drinking water it is hard to beat. Labor is $400, provisional on access under the sink.
- Whole-house: every tap gets clean, chlorine free water
- Under-sink: one dedicated drinking water tap
- Reverse osmosis: strips hardness and everything else
- Softener: handles hardness for the whole house
- Start with what bothers you most and add later
How the Booking and Cart Work
On the homepage there is a price board with every job I do and a drive gauge. You type your address or ZIP code into the gauge. It tells you the round trip miles and the drive dollars right there on the screen. No phone call, no sales pitch, no waiting for a text back. You see the number instantly. Then you can add jobs from the price board to a cart. The cart shows a running total of the labor plus the drive. You know the cost before you give me your name.
When you are ready to book, you pay the drive fee as a deposit. That locks in the visit. The deposit is not an extra charge. It comes off the final bill. If your round trip drive is $22 to Copperas Cove and your filter install labor is $400, you pay the $22 to reserve the slot. On install day, the remaining balance is $400 plus whatever the filter costs at the supplier price. That is it. No dispatch fee tacked on later. No fuel surcharge. No minimum job charge hiding in the fine print.
The cart system means you build your own quote. You pick the jobs, you see the numbers add up, and you decide. If you want a whole-house filter and a cartridge change on an existing under-sink unit, you add both. The labor totals and the drive stays the same because it is one trip. You are in control of the scope. I am not upselling you on a bunch of stuff you did not ask for. It is the opposite of the typical plumbing sales call where a guy stands in your kitchen and writes a number on a tablet.
Common Questions About Filtration Work
People ask if they need a plumber for a filter install or if it is a handyman job. You can buy a filter at the hardware store and try it yourself. Some people get it done without a leak. A lot of people get halfway in and realize the fittings are not matching up, the pipe needs a section cut out, or the shutoff valve is old and will not close all the way. That is when they call. A filter install is not complicated plumbing, but it is still plumbing. Water under pressure finds every mistake.
Another question is whether a whole-house filter drops the water pressure. A properly sized filter does not restrict flow enough to notice. If you have a big house with a lot of bathrooms, the filter housing needs to be sized for the flow rate. I check that before ordering the unit. A filter that is too small will choke the pressure when two showers are running. The right unit for your house will not. We figure that out based on the pipe size and the number of fixtures.
The last thing I hear a lot is about softeners versus filters. A filter takes out sediment and chlorine. A softener takes out hardness minerals. They do different jobs. A lot of houses in Central Texas need both. The softener handles the scale and the filter handles the taste and smell. You can do them at the same time or start with one and add the other later. The labor for a softener install is $450. The labor for a filter install is $400. If you do both in one visit, the drive fee is still just the one round trip.