Why handymen quote by the job, not the clock
Handymen sell a price per task because customers compare faucets, not hours, and because a fast handyman paid by the hour earns less for getting better. Some owners work out an hourly target on paper, then refuse to bill by it, because a customer watching the clock is a customer arguing about every minute.
The hourly rate still builds every price, it just stays inside the business. Hours for each task times your break-even rate, plus parts, gives the task price; the visit costs are added once per trip. How to set that rate is on how much a handyman charges per hour.
A good habit is a price list per job type (fans, faucets, lights, disposals) with the hours updated after every job. Your own timings beat anyone's list, because they are your speed in your customers' houses. If your last three faucets took 1.2, 0.9 and 1.5 hours, you price the next one at the slow end, not the fast one.
Faucet, toilet and minimum prices real handymen charge
Owners we studied charge $180 for a faucet, about $265 for a toilet and $100 to $150 just to show up. These are single owners' prices in their own towns, not averages.
| A | B | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Job | Price one owner charges |
| 2 | Kitchen faucet, customer's faucet | $180 (Chicago area) |
| 3 | Shutoff valve, part included | $60 each |
| 4 | Toilet swap, small parts included | about $265 |
| 5 | Minimum per visit | $150 ($120 very local) |
| 6 | Trip fee or job minimum, then hourly | $100, then $50 an hour (Oklahoma) |
Outside the US, one Australian handyman priced a new clothesline at $781 AUD including GST, with an hour of work, disposal of the old one and two trip fees, and sent a cheaper option alongside it. Small UK jobs often get quoted as a plain number said out loud: 80 pounds, 120, 90.
Prices in California, Texas, New York and Florida will all differ from the Chicago area. Use the table to test your own prices, not to copy them.
One visit, four tasks: the faucet, valves, toilet and fan job
The sample visit prices at $916.61 before tax for a kitchen faucet with 2 new shutoff valves, a toilet replacement, and a hallway light swapped for a ceiling fan, with the customer supplying the faucet, toilet and fan.
| A | B | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The sample visit | Amount |
| 2 | Valves, lines, wax ring, fan box and a dump fee | $134 |
| 3 | About 3.5 hours on the tasks, plus truck and tools | $366 |
| 4 | The hours and extras around the visit | $199 |
| 5 | Markups, safety cushion and profit | $217 |
| 6 | Price before tax | $916.61 |
The $217 above full cost is about 24% of the price, kept after the owner's own wage. Counting the task hours and the time around the visit, about 5.5 hours, the owner's time earns about $131.65 an hour against a break-even of $92.17.
The price is well over the minimum charge, so the minimum doesn't come into play here. On a single 20-minute fix it would, and that is its whole job.
Why the sheet comes in higher than $595 of per-task prices
The per-task prices in the table, for the faucet, two valves, pulling the disposal and the toilet, add up to $595, and the fan would add more; the sample charges $916.61 for the same visit. The gap is the cost around the tasks, which the sheet puts on its own lines instead of folding into each task price.
The fan-rated ceiling box, the dump fee for the old toilet, the store run, setup, cleanup and the invoice are each counted separately. A $60 valve is also cheap next to what a plumber would charge for the same work. If your per-task prices already carry those costs, you will land closer to $595 plus the fan; if they don't, the gap is money you are giving away.
The half hours inside every visit: store run, drive, setup, cleanup
On the sample visit, the time around the tasks adds about $199 to cost, and leaving it out would drop the price from $916.61 to about $665. On small jobs, the drive and the parts counter can take longer than the work.
- The parts run. The trip to the hardware store before you show up is work the customer never sees. It happens on nearly every job, so it gets a line and the parts get a markup.
- The drive both ways. Ask where the job is before you say any price. Forty minutes each way on a one-hour fix more than doubles your time.
- Clearing under the sink and laying drop cloths. The customer pictures you walking straight to the tap.
- Cleanup and the office work after. Nobody thinks about the vacuuming or the invoice. If someone at home schedules, builds invoices from your photos and chases payment, that time is a cost too.
- Better fixings than the ones in the box. The bolts and screws packed with fixtures are often cheap, so buy your own. Every toilet gets a new supply line, a separate wax ring and new bolts.
- Hauling the old toilet away. A trip and a dump fee, neither of them on the new fixture.
How the drive and office time turn into a rate is covered on the handyman hourly rate page; the point here is that each one is priced once per visit, not once per task.
Rusted bolts, dead shutoff valves and the disposal in the way
The surprises in handyman work live under sinks, so ask before you quote and put the rest in your terms. The same faucet swap can take under 30 minutes in one house and 2 hours in the next, when the mounting nut under the sink turns out to be rusted solid.
So ask whether it is a single or double sink and whether a disposal has to come off, and add to the faucet price the moment you hear yes. If the customer says the valves leak, new valves go on the quote. If the valves don't shut off at all, your terms should say you need access to the main water shutoff before you start.
Anything hidden behind a wall or under a floor gets priced and approved as a change order before you fix it. Bad wiring you only find once the old light is down is the classic example.
Should you charge for the estimate visit?
Yes, for in-person visits, while phone and photo estimates stay free. Some owners charge $100 for an in-person consultation, and others charge two trip fees when a customer wants them to look first: one to look, one to do the job.
Every free drive-out is your time and your truck on a job you may not win. Crediting the fee to the job if they book is an easy way to sell it. Whether what you hand over is a firm quote or a rough estimate matters too; see quote vs estimate.
Five-minute favours and other handyman pricing traps
Most handyman losses come from small things done for free or priced for the easy version. These are the traps that come up again and again.
Pricing the easy version. Quote the job you will really find, with the stuck bolt and the dead valve, not the one where everything comes apart on the first try.
One more thing while you're here. The extra light or the second tap asked for on the day. Do only what is on the signed work order, and send anything new back for a price first.
Charging less to win the job. Unless you are faster than the competition, a lower price means one thing: you make less on the same hours.
A rate picked out of the air. One owner's first $60 an hour was chosen because it split evenly between three partners; with all three on a job, each made $20.
Never checking the result. In the sample Job Log, one job took almost twice its quoted hours and lost money. You only see that if you log real hours, which is what job costing is for, and markup vs margin shows why a 20% add-on keeps less than 20%.
What we found no prices for: ceiling fans and callbacks
None of the owners we studied gave a current US price to hang a ceiling fan, so this page doesn't quote one. The only fan figure we found is one owner's early $75, which he gives as an example of charging too little.
Nobody put a number on callbacks or warranty trips either. The sample leaves that line for you to decide; track your own returns and fold them into overhead and profit. You can price all of it, task by task and visit by visit, in the Handyman Pricing Calculator, or check your rate first with the free true hourly rate calculator.