For plumbers
Quoting for plumbers
Half a plumber's quotes are small and urgent, the other half are bathrooms and hot water units where the customer is comparing three prices. Quote Desk handles both from the same price list: a call-out fee and an hourly rate for the small jobs, fixed-price items for the common replacements, typed-in lines for the rest.
Quote from Harbourline Plumbing
Hot water unit replacement
| Remove old unit and dispose | $180.00 |
| 250L electric unit, supplied | $1,290.00 |
| Install, valves and compliance | $420.00 |
| Total | $1,890.00 |
Sent from the ute. Follow-up goes out Thursday if there is no answer.
What gets in the way for plumbers
Pricing a job from the van
The customer wants a number before you leave. You know the number. Getting it to them in writing means a notepad, a photo of the notepad, or an email from the phone that night. By then they have rung someone else.
The hot water unit race
A dead hot water system is quoted by three plumbers in a morning. The one whose quote is readable on a phone, with a button to accept, is the one the customer can say yes to while standing in a cold shower.
Call-out fees nobody read
If the call-out fee is only in a conversation, it is disputed at invoice time. A fee on a line of its own, in writing, accepted on a phone, is not.
Chasing bathroom quotes
A bathroom quote sits in an inbox for a fortnight while the customer thinks. Nobody likes ringing to ask. A short reminder email at 2, 5 and 10 days does the asking.
A worked example
Plumber work, with Quote Desk
Take a fictional two-van outfit, Clearwater Plumbing, in the outer suburbs. Their price list has twelve items: call-out fee $120 each, labour $110 an hour, hot water unit supply and fit (315 litre electric) $2,350 each, tap set replacement $190 each, toilet suite supply and fit $680 each, blocked drain clear $280 each, and a few more.
A customer forwards a message about a leaking kitchen mixer and a toilet that keeps running. The plumber presses Quote this, picks call-out fee x1, tap set replacement x1, and types a line for the toilet inlet valve at $95. The note says the price includes GST, parts are standard chrome, and the work can be done Thursday morning. Total $405. He sends it from the driveway. The customer accepts it from the kitchen before he has pulled out.
For a bathroom renovation the same list gives the fixed items, and a typed-in line covers the rough-in at a day rate with a whole-number quantity of days. He presses Follow up automatically. The customer accepts on day five, after the second reminder. The first reminder cost him nothing; the second won the job.
Talk of the Trade
Plumbers on Talk of the Trade
Talk of the Trade ranks plumbers by how many Google reviews they have. Figures as of October 2026.
See the lists on Talk of the Trade. Being listed there has nothing to do with using Quote Desk: no listing is sold and no rank changes.
Questions from plumbers
Can I quote a call-out fee and an hourly rate on the same quote?
Yes. Both sit on your price list. Call-out fee x1, labour x the number of hours. For a half hour, price a half-hour item on your list or round the hours.
Can I quote for a hot water unit without knowing the final model?
Quote the unit you would fit as a fixed line and say in the note that a different model will be re-quoted. If the customer wants the other model, send a second quote.
How many plumbers are on Talk of the Trade?
As of October 2026 the directory has 219 ranked lists of plumbers, with 3,200 businesses listed in New South Wales, 2,102 in Victoria and 1,812 in Queensland. Quote Desk has nothing to do with those listings or their order.
Also for
Other trades and shops
Send the next one from the ute.
Free is five quotes a month with no card. If you send more than that, Starter is $39 a month. Either way the set-up is typing in your price list.