Prices Shouldn't Be a Secret

Here's how buying plumbing work usually goes: the tank dies on a Sunday, you call three numbers off a search page, and everyone says the same thing — "we'll have to come take a look." Two days later you're comparing quotes with no idea whether $1,900 is fair, generous, or a Sunday-emergency special.

PlumbingCosts.ca exists to flip that order. We publish the typical installed price of a job before you make the first call — by job type, and by city, because a swap in Abbotsford and the same swap in Vancouver are not the same bill. With a fair range in your head, a quote becomes a conversation instead of a leap of faith.

What we are: an independent price reference for plumbing and related home services in British Columbia, built from published contractor rates, supplier pricing, and municipal permit schedules — with reader-submitted invoices folding in as they arrive. The methodology is public and every page shows when its numbers were last reviewed.

What we're not: a plumbing company, a directory selling top spots, or a review site. We don't install anything and we never mark up a number to make a contractor look good.

Meet the founder

The site is built and run by Oleg — a digital publisher, not a plumber, and I'd rather say that straight than pretend otherwise. I got tired of the "call for a quote" wall: every price hidden until someone's standing in your kitchen. So I started gathering what BC jobs actually cost — published contractor rates, municipal permit fee schedules, supplier pricing — and publishing it with the methodology out in the open, so you can check my work instead of taking my word.

As readers send in real invoices, I'll check the ranges against them, and I welcome corrections — if a number's off, tell me and I'll fix it. Nothing here is written by someone holding a licence they don't have. The day a licensed pro reviews a page, that page will say so, with a name on it.

How we make money, plainly: when you ask for quotes through us, we pass the request to licensed local contractors — they pay for that introduction, you don't. Contractors can also advertise on relevant pages, always clearly labelled as advertising. The prices themselves are never for sale.

Got a question, a correction, or a number that proves us wrong? We genuinely want it.