Reprice your open Rheem quotes before you eat the loss

Morning, boss.

Three things are moving money this week: lead pipe deadlines, water heater prices, and how you write a quote. Pull up your open bids before you finish your coffee.

Rheem raised wholesale water heater prices on June 1. Every fixed-price bid you wrote in May with a Rheem tank in it is now under water. Today is a check-your-quotes morning.

🔧 Code/Permit. Florida's HB 803 changes permit expiration and inspection windows statewide. Some permits now lapse on inactivity or a missed inspection. Audit your active permits before one expires on you. Bill text

🧰 Materials. PEX-A is running $3.50–$7.00/ft installed. National whole-home repipe averages about $7,500 in 2026. Use published pricing to defend your quote when a homeowner pushes back. Repipe guide

📹 Tool. One hit on an unmarked utility line costs thousands in damage and an insurance claim. Budget a locator into project overhead before the job starts, not after. Locating

💵 Tactic. Reprice every open quote with a Rheem unit you bid before June 1. The wholesale hike already landed. What changed

📈 Service number of the day: 14% projected plumber job growth this decade, nearly 3x the 5% average. The labor pool is the constraint, not the work. Trends

Four things worth your five minutes:

• Licensing & Code: Lead action level drops to 10 ppb in 2027. Your repipe pipeline just got longer.
• Jobs Market: Heat pump water heaters and a retirement wave are reshaping your demand.
• Tech & Tools: Flat-rate pricing kills the hourly sticker-shock objection at the door.
• Money: Your insurance should run about 1% of gross. Check yours this week.

The federal lead action level tightens from 15 ppb to 10 ppb in 2027, and every lead service line has to be out of the ground by 2037.

EPA is still defending the rule that forces all lead service lines out within 10 years. Funding is flowing to municipalities now. In New Orleans, 7 of 10 homes already fail at the current 15 ppb threshold. Drop the bar to 10 and the failing list grows.

💡 Why it matters: Millions of lead lines are still in the ground. The work is funded and mandated. That is steady residential and municipal volume for the next decade, not a one-season bump.

Why it hits your call volume:

• Funded demand. Municipal programs have money and a deadline. Get on the bid lists now.
• Test-driven leads. A tighter threshold means more failing homes and more homeowner calls.
• Spec risk. On municipal jobs, confirm which standards are active before you finalize.

Bottom line: Build your lead service-line marketing this month, before the bid lists fill.

BLS projects 14% plumber job growth this decade, nearly 3x the 5% average. Hybrid heat pump water heaters are growing at 18.5% a year through 2031.

Two forces pull at once. Demand climbs. The labor to meet it is retiring. Hybrid heat pump units carry a federal tax credit up to $2,000, and tankless runs 24–34% more efficient than a tank. Homeowners are asking for both.

💡 Why it matters: The work is coming faster than the workforce. Shops that build an apprenticeship pipeline now lock in a cost advantage while everyone else bids against a shrinking labor pool.

Why it hits your ticket margin:

• Higher-ticket installs. Heat pump and tankless jobs price above a basic tank swap.
• Tax-credit close. The $2,000 credit is a closing tool. Put it in the quote.
• Labor leverage. An apprentice you train now beats the tech you have to poach in 2028.

Bottom line: Train ahead of the demand curve, and sell the tax credit on every water heater quote.

Five flat-rate pricing platforms now bundle cost and margin math, scheduling, dispatch, and invoicing in one tool.

Hourly billing invites the clock-watching question: why is it taking so long? Flat-rate moves the talk to the job, not the hours. It also lets you present Good/Better/Best at the door, which lifts close rates and average ticket.

💡 Why it matters: Same labor, same parts, better presentation. Flat-rate shops report higher close rates and bigger tickets than hourly billing. The price objection moves off the clock and onto the value.

Do this:

• Price your top 20 jobs as flat-rate before you roll it out.
• Build a Good/Better/Best sheet for water heaters and repipes.
• Bake your real margin into every line, not a guess.

Bottom line: Switch the quote from hours to outcomes, and stop losing jobs to sticker shock.

New benchmarks show a one-van, one-employee shop spending around $600/month on a standard coverage stack (BOP, workers' comp, commercial auto, tools), with total annual insurance near 1% of gross revenue.

Individual policy benchmarks: GL about $115/mo (note: a BOP at $166/mo typically includes GL), workers' comp $195/mo, commercial auto $225/mo, tools and equipment $19/mo. By revenue: a $250K Georgia shop runs about $2,500/yr; a $1M Tennessee shop about $10,000/yr.

💡 Why it matters: If your premiums run far above 1% of gross, you are overpaying or carrying the wrong stack. Far below, and you may be underinsured for the jobs you actually run.

Mortgage rates dropped below 6% for the first time in three years: a leading signal for home-improvement volume. SBA is pushing working-capital loans up to $5M. SBA 7(a) covers $40K–$80K per van for fleet expansion.

Do this:

• Recheck your premium against 1% of gross.
• Model the van payment first, before you shop the truck.
• Line up a working-capital line ahead of the slow-receivable months.

Bottom line: Add capacity now, payment modeled, to catch the rate-driven volume coming.

Know a plumber who reads every quote twice but never reads the news?

Forward them this edition. We keep working plumbers sharp on code, materials, and money in five minutes a morning.

Refer a colleague and they get the same desk you do: permit changes, copper and PEX moves, and the numbers that hit the ticket.

No pitch. No spam. Just the brief, every morning.

• EPA moves to rescind four PFAS drinking water standards
• Florida HB 803 rewrites permit and inspection timelines
• EPA defends the 10-year lead service line replacement rule
• New Orleans: lead detected in 7 of 10 homes tested
• Rheem wholesale water heater prices rose June 1
• 2026 whole-home repipe cost benchmarks
• Flat-rate pricing platforms compared
• SBA highlights working-capital loans up to $5M

How are you handling open quotes after the June 1 Rheem hike?

• 🔧 Repricing every Rheem bid now
• 🩹 Eating the difference to keep the job
• 📦 Pre-stocked, so I'm covered
• 🗓️ No open quotes right now

Plumbers.news is the five-minute morning brief for licensed plumbers and small plumbing contractors. We cover code, permits, materials, tools, and money so you can run a sharper shop. Written by trade people, for trade people.

The Plumbers Desk.