Owners ask
How much does a plumbing business make? Revenue, margins and owner pay
Short answer: most plumbing business owners keep 5% to 8% of revenue as net profit, and well-run ones reach 10% to 20%, according to 2026 industry guides. At $200,000 of revenue per tech, an 8-tech shop bills about $1.6 million. At 5% to 8% net, that is $80,000 to $128,000 of profit, on top of the owner's own salary.
Software is a small share of revenue but a large share of profit.
How much does a plumbing business make in revenue?
Revenue is driven by headcount. One 2026 benchmark guide puts a healthy target at $150,000 to $250,000 of revenue per technician a year, and says anything under $100,000 a tech points to weak scheduling or idle trucks. Another guide, covering shops from $1 million to $10 million, quotes $338,000 to $380,000 per plumber and calls anything under $300,000 a warning sign. Those two ranges barely overlap, so treat per-tech revenue as a number you measure in your own books, not one you copy.
Take the cautious end. A 3-tech shop at $200,000 a tech bills $600,000. An 8-tech shop bills $1.6 million. A 15-tech shop bills $3 million. Revenue is not income. Everything below depends on what is left after the trucks, the payroll and the subscriptions.
What is a good net profit margin for a plumbing company?
Between 5% and 8% is average, 10% to 20% is well run, and 2% to 3% is a shop in trouble. Those bands come from an April 2026 guide that applies them to a $2 million shop: $40,000 to $60,000 for the poorly managed, $100,000 to $160,000 for average, and $200,000 to $400,000 for the well run. The same guide is not consistent with itself, quoting 15% to 20% as the well-run range in another passage. Another 2026 benchmark page lists 10% to 18% as the average and 18% to 22% for the best operators.
These are marketing-blog numbers, not audited filings. I found no government source that splits plumbing out cleanly, so use them as a range to test your own books against. What does hold across them is that the mix of work moves the margin more than any other single factor.
| Type of work | Gross margin | Net margin |
|---|---|---|
| Emergency and reactive service | 35% to 45% | 8% to 13% |
| Repipe projects | 25% to 35% | 8% to 14% |
| Drain and sewer cleaning | 50% to 65% | 12% to 18% |
| Membership programs | 75% to 85% | 15% to 22% |
| Mixed model, 40% recurring | 42% to 50% | 14% to 20% |
Source: one benchmark guide with no publish date, read Nov 4, 2026. Treat the figures as directional.
The pattern is easy to read. Recurring revenue and drain work carry the best margins, and one-off installation work the worst. Owners who add memberships are moving along this table.
How much does the owner of a plumbing business take home?
The owner collects two things: a salary for running the shop, and the net profit that is left. Mixing them up is the most common mistake in these comparisons. A guide that says "20% net" may or may not have paid the owner a wage first.
The wage has a floor you can look up. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports median pay of $63,800 a year ($30.67 an hour) for plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters, using May 2025 data. That figure covers employees across the trade, so it is a reference for what the owner could earn by taking a job, not a pay scale for owners.
In the example below, the owner draws a $120,000 salary and also keeps the net profit. So the owner's total take is salary plus profit, and the shop's real margin is only what survives after that salary is paid.
Where does the money go? A worked example for an 8-tech shop
Example, not a client result. The revenue per tech sits inside the $150,000 to $250,000 benchmark above. Costs are assumptions chosen to land near the average band, so replace them with your own. Software prices: ServiceTitan at the CostBench midpoint of $374 a tech a month (the vendor publishes no price, read Nov 4, 2026), plus Podium Core at $399 (CostBench), CallRail Lead Conversion at $150 and Zapier Team at $69 a month, as listed in October 2026.
| Line | Per year | Share of revenue |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue (8 techs x $200,000) | $1,600,000 | 100.0% |
| Direct costs (tech wages, materials, permits) | $880,000 | 55.0% |
| Gross profit | $720,000 | 45.0% |
| Office and dispatch payroll | $190,000 | 11.9% |
| Vehicles, fuel, tools | $112,000 | 7.0% |
| Insurance and licensing | $48,000 | 3.0% |
| Marketing and lead costs | $80,000 | 5.0% |
| Software subscriptions | $43,320 | 2.7% |
| Rent, accounting, phones, other | $60,000 | 3.8% |
| Owner salary | $120,000 | 7.5% |
| Net profit | $66,680 | 4.2% |
Arithmetic: software = ServiceTitan 8 x $374 x 12 = $35,904, plus ($399 + $150 + $69) x 12 = $7,416, total $43,320. Overhead and salary add to $653,320. $720,000 - $653,320 = $66,680. Owner's total take: $120,000 + $66,680 = $186,680.
Software is 2.7% of revenue, which sounds small. Against net profit it is not: $43,320 is 65% of the $66,680 left. Cut the software line in half and net profit goes up by about a third.
One benchmark guide places software, licensing and insurance together at about 4% of revenue for an average shop and 3% for a top one. In the example those three lines come to 5.7%, which is the reason the net margin sits below the average band. A UK guide from June 2026 also lists software subscriptions among the overhead items that quietly pull net margin down.
How much can a lower software bill change net profit?
Take the same shop and swap only the field service software. Housecall Pro Max costs $299 a month for 8 users plus $35 for each extra user, as shown on its pricing page on Nov 4, 2026. With 8 techs and 2 office logins that is $299 + 2 x $35 = $369 a month, or $4,428 a year.
- Rented, as above: software $43,320, net $66,680, 4.2%.
- Swap ServiceTitan for Housecall Pro Max: software becomes $4,428 + $7,416 = $11,844. That frees $31,476, so net becomes $98,156, or 6.1%.
- Check the trade-off: Housecall Pro Max may lack features ServiceTitan has. Whether the cheaper plan covers your dispatch, pricebook and memberships is for you to test before you move.
Owners comparing the options will find prices and the per-user trap in plumbing software for small business, and the per-tech math in ServiceTitan pricing.
Where does CNL fit, and when is renting the better call?
Often, renting wins. In the example above, the cheapest line is Housecall Pro at $11,844 a year for the whole software stack. Nothing CNL builds beats that on cost for an 8-tech shop that fits one low-priced plan.
CNL rebuilds the software trades shops rent (ServiceTitan, Podium, Housecall Pro, Jobber, Service Fusion, FieldEdge and the tools around them) as one system the shop owns: code in your GitHub, data in your own cloud account. The Core stack covers 2 to 4 tools and costs from $18,000 once plus $590 a month, with hosting at about $150 a month at cost. There are no per-tech or per-seat fees, the monthly fee is locked for 24 months, and you can exit with 30 days' notice.
For the example shop, that means a rebuild of ServiceTitan, Podium, CallRail and Zapier would cost $18,000 + 12 x ($590 + $150) = $26,880 in year one, against $43,320 rented. After that it is $8,880 a year. Against ServiceTitan pricing it pays back in about 6 months ($18,000 divided by the $2,870 monthly difference). Against the Housecall Pro swap, it does not: three years of Housecall Pro and the other three tools is $35,532, while the owned stack is $44,640.
That is why the audit exists. It is free, and in five business days it returns a line-by-line rebuild plan, a fixed fee and the payback month. CNL only starts when the audit shows the rebuild paying for itself within 12 months of going live. If renting is cheaper for your shop, the audit says so. Email, accounting ledgers and payroll are not rebuilt either way.
Is your software bill eating your plumbing profit? We will price it.
Tell us which tools you pay for. Within five business days you get a free, line-by-line audit: what each tool costs you a year, what we would rebuild as one system you own, a fixed price, and the month it pays for itself. The plan is yours to keep either way.
Get my free audit Fixed quote. No per-tech fees. No call needed to get the plan.Questions owners ask
How much does the average plumber make a year?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports $63,800 a year in median pay for plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters (May 2025 data, page updated Oct 29, 2026). A shop owner is paid differently: a salary plus whatever profit remains.
What is the profit margin on a plumbing business?
Industry guides read in November 2026 put average net margin at 5% to 8% and well-run shops at 10% to 20%. Shops mixing in recurring membership work sit at the top of those bands in the one benchmark that breaks it out.
How many techs does a plumbing business need to make money?
There is no sourced cutoff. The math is revenue per tech times techs, minus costs. With $200,000 a tech in revenue, a 3-tech shop bills $600,000 and its fixed overhead (office, insurance, software) takes a bigger share than at 8 techs.
Is software a big expense for a plumbing business?
One guide puts software, licensing and insurance at about 4% of revenue. In the 8-tech example the software line alone was 2.7% of revenue but 65% of net profit, because net margins are thin.
Does a higher margin mean more money for the owner?
Not by itself. A 15% margin on $400,000 is $60,000, while 5% on $1.6 million is $80,000. Margin and revenue both matter, and the owner's salary is separate from both.
Sources
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics, plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters: median pay $63,800 (May 2025 data, page modified Oct 29, 2026, read Nov 4, 2026): https://www.bls.gov/ooh/construction-and-extraction/plumbers-pipefitters-and-steamfitters.htm
- Steph's Books, plumbing profit margins: net bands by management quality, revenue per plumber (Apr 4, 2026): https://stephsbooks.com/blog/plumbing-profit-margins
- Lightning Path Partners, plumbing company profit margins: margins by work type, revenue per tech, overhead shares (undated, labelled 2026, read Nov 4, 2026): https://lightningpathpartners.com/blog/plumbing-company-profit-margins
- BigChange, plumbing business profit margin guide, UK overhead items including software subscriptions (Jun 9, 2026): https://www.bigchange.com/blog/plumbing-business-profit-margin-guide
- Housecall Pro pricing: Max $299 a month for 8 users, $35 per extra user (read Nov 4, 2026): https://www.housecallpro.com/pricing/
- CostBench, ServiceTitan estimate $250 to $498 per user a month (snapshots Mar 6 and Jul 16, 2026): https://costbench.com/software/field-service-management/servicetitan/price-history/
- CostBench, Podium Core $399 a month (verified Jul 8, 2026): https://costbench.com/software/review-management/podium/
- CallRail pricing, Lead Conversion $150 a month (read Oct 29, 2026): https://www.callrail.com/pricing
- Zapier pricing, Team plan $69 a month billed yearly (read Oct 29, 2026): https://zapier.com/pricing