What an emergency plumber costs: the call-out fee and the repair

Our emergency plumber call-out fee is £60, whatever the time: that gets an engineer to your door. Once they have found the fault, they tell you what the repair will cost and you decide whether to go ahead. The repair price is agreed with you on site before any work starts. Nothing is added afterwards.

£60 call-out at any hour

The call-out does not change with the clock or the calendar. A burst pipe at four in the morning on a bank holiday costs the same to get someone out to as a dripping stopcock on a weekday afternoon. There is no night surcharge on it, no weekend rate and no extra for the first hour.

That matters when you are deciding whether to ring now or wait until the morning. With the price of the visit fixed, the only question is how urgent the problem is, not how much more it costs after dark.

What the call-out covers

The call-out pays for an engineer to come to you and work out what is wrong. In practice that means:

travel to your address anywhere in London or inside the M25
finding the cause, not just the symptom (a wet ceiling can come from a pipe, a waste joint or a bath seal)
explaining what has failed and what the options are, in plain words
a price for the repair before anything is fixed

If you decide not to go ahead with the repair, the call-out is what you pay. You are never committed to work you have not agreed to.

How the repair price is agreed

Once the fault is found, the engineer gives you one price for the repair: parts and labour together. You say yes or no before any tools come out. If they find something else once the work is under way, such as a second corroded joint behind the first, they stop and agree that with you too. Nothing appears on the bill that you did not say yes to.

We do not publish an hourly rate. Emergency jobs vary too much for one: re-seating a toilet valve and replacing a boiler pump are different jobs, and a fixed figure agreed on the spot tells you more than a rate multiplied by a guess.

What makes a repair cost more or less

Three things decide most repair prices.

Parts. A tap cartridge, fill valve or washer costs little. Boiler parts such as a circuit board, fan, diverter valve or pump sit at the other end, and the price varies by make and model.
Access. A pipe you can see under the sink is quicker to reach than one under floorboards, inside a boxed-in stack or behind tiles. Flats with communal risers or shared stopcocks can add time.
Time on the job. A like-for-like part swap is quicker than tracing an intermittent fault. If a part has to be ordered, the engineer makes the leak or boiler safe first and tells you what the return visit involves before you agree to it.

Brand-specific boiler faults are covered in our boiler fault code guides, which say which parts usually fail for each code. For leaks, see leaks and burst pipes.

When it is worth calling out tonight

Some problems can wait for daylight and some cannot. Call now if water is coming through a ceiling or light fitting, if a pipe has burst and you cannot stop it at the stopcock, if you have no heating or hot water and someone in the house is elderly, very young or unwell, or if a toilet is the only one in the home and it will not flush or is overflowing.

A slow drip under a sink, a radiator that is cold at the top or a tap that will not quite shut off can usually be contained and booked for a normal visit. Our emergency plumbing help guides cover the safe steps to take while you wait.

If you can smell gas, do not ring a plumber first. Open windows, turn the gas off at the meter if it is safe to reach, avoid switches, then leave and call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999. More on that is on our Gas Safe boiler repairs page.

Paying

Payment is due when the work is finished: the call-out plus the repair price you agreed. The engineer tells you how you can pay at the same time as they give you the price, so there is nothing to sort out at the end. Landlords and letting agents who need the bill addressed to them should say so when booking.

Cancelling

If the problem sorts itself out or you find someone closer, tell us as soon as you can. The full terms on cancellations, complaints and your rights are on our terms of service page.

To book, use the contact form with your postcode and a line on what is happening.

Typical costs by job

What each kind of repair usually involves and costs across the market, so you know the range before anyone arrives.