For plumbers
Before you sign that plumbing contract, check these three things.
Plumbers sign subcontracts on larger jobs and service agreements with property managers. Both can decide how extra work is approved and paid, how long you answer for your work, and when invoices are due.
This service agreement lets extra work start with no agreed price and starts the warranty only when the whole building is finished.
Extra work with no price agreed first
A request on site with no written price is the easiest invoice to dispute afterwards.
Ask for
Check that extra work needs written approval with a price before you start.
- The warranty starts when the building is finishedLow · Warranty
- Sixty days, with no late interestLow · Payment
The numbers
In May 2025, there were 465,840 wage and salary jobs for plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters in the U.S., with a median annual wage of $63,800.
These figures count jobs, not people, and do not include self-employed work — so they say little about how many plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters work freelance or run their own business.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025, national estimates for SOC 47-2152. Public domain.
Change orders, warranty and payment days
- Change orders — Check that extra work needs written approval with a price before you start, so it is paid rather than disputed.
- Warranty period — Look at how long you answer for your work and when that period starts.
- Payment terms — Check the number of days to pay and what happens if payment is late.
Check the contract before the first call-out
Extra work is only paid if the contract says how. Free: one analysis every 30 days, no card. Each analysis gives a risk read of the key clauses, quotes the contract's own words for its findings, and turns each flagged clause into a specific ask.
Analyze my contract — free- Encrypted in transit & at rest
- Files auto-deleted after 30 days
- Never used to train models
- Informational — not legal advice