The whole cabinet, doors open
A person and a wrench have to fit in there. A disposal, a filter, and a pull-out shelf are all labor that never shows up in a close-up.
Plumbing / PLM
Quoting and job management software for plumbing businesses
Customers photograph the fixture, the stops, and the shutoff. Mason asks the plumbing questions, prices the work your rate sheet already covers, and hands you the leaks and the drain calls with the photos collected.
Quoting and follow-up work today. Booking, crews, and invoicing do not yet. Anything below that describes them is tagged.
Join the waitlistIntake / What plumbing customers get asked
Questions a homeowner can answer.
No takeoff. No trade words. Every question below gets answered by looking, counting, or holding a tape. Mason asks only the ones that fit the job the customer described.
- 01
Which fixture is it — toilet, kitchen sink, bath sink, tub, shower, water heater, or outside spigot?
This picks the line on your rate sheet. Every question after it only narrows the price.
- 02
Is water moving right now, or only when you run the fixture?
Active, uncontrolled water may need priority under your company rules. A drip that appears only under load may be scheduled differently. Both are symptoms for your team, not diagnoses or automatic rate choices.
- 03
Open the cabinet. Are there two small handles on the pipes going into the wall?
Working stops mean the job starts. No stops, or stops that will not turn, adds valve work and a house shutoff before anyone touches the faucet.
- 04
How many drains are slow — one, or every one in the house?
One slow fixture can suggest a local restriction. Several slow drains can point farther downstream, including the main line. The answer shapes the next question and the dispatch, but it never diagnoses the cause.
- 05
Hold a tape from the wall behind the toilet to the middle of the bolt caps. Is it 10, 12, or 14 inches?
Rough-in decides which bowl fits. Guessing it costs a second trip nobody gets paid for.
- 06
Count the holes in the sink deck where the faucet sits. One, three, or four?
Hole count and spread decide which faucet fits and whether a deck plate goes on the list.
- 07
Does a metal pipe run out of the top of the water heater into the ceiling, or does only a wire go into it?
That is the difference between a gas swap and an electric swap. It changes the parts, the labor, and whether your permit line belongs on the quote.
- 08
What floor is it on, and is there a finished room underneath?
A finished ceiling under the work turns a repair into a repair plus access. Better the customer knows that before your tech is standing there.
Photos / The shots that matter for plumbing
Six pictures that move the price.
The customer never has to know what any of it is called. They point the camera where Mason tells them. Your team reads the picture.
Straight down at the stops and supply lines
Corroded stops, compression fittings on old copper, a braided line well past its day. This is the shot that decides whether the quote can be exact.
The water heater rating plate, plus the space around the tank
Gallons, fuel and connection layout come off the plate. The space around it tells you whether the old tank comes out the way it went in.
The stain, wide and then close
A stain says where water landed. It does not say where it came out. This shot is what turns the job into an on-site look instead of a guess.
The floor at the toilet base with a tape in frame
Rough-in, flooring height, and a soft floor all sit in one photo. A soft floor is a different conversation before a bowl is even ordered.
The main shutoff where water enters the house
If it cannot be found or will not turn, the first hour of the job goes to the street. Worth knowing at quote time, not at eight in the morning.
If a shot is missing or blurry, the customer gets one clear request for a better one.
Pricing / How plumbing quotes get built
Flat rate per fixture, until the job goes behind a wall.
Mason works from the book you already price out of. It does not build a rate, and it does not average one.
The units the book prices in
- Per fixture, flat: faucet set, toilet set, disposal, hose bib, angle stops.
- Per water heater, by gallons and fuel, with separate lines for pan, expansion tank, and haul-away.
- Per drain cleared, by where you get in — under the sink, at the clean-out, or off the roof.
- Per foot for repipe, sewer, and water service.
- Supplied by you or supplied by the customer. Same labor, two different lines.
- A diagnostic or trip charge, a minimum, and an after-hours rate sitting on top of all of it.
What moves the number on site
Crawlspace, basement, or slab. Whether the work sits over a finished ceiling. What the existing pipe is made of and what adapter the new part needs to meet it. Stops that will not turn. A second body for a 75-gallon tank up a flight of basement stairs. Permit and inspection lines you set yourself.
What cannot be priced from photos
A leak has no price until somebody opens the wall. A slow drain and a root-filled main line look the same from the sink. Pressure complaints, sewer smell, and anything that comes and goes are diagnosis, and the diagnosis is the job — not a line on a sheet. Nothing under a slab, behind tile, or inside a wall gets a number from a photograph, and gas work goes to a person every time. Mason sends all of it back as a price range, a company review, or an on-site look, with the answers and photos already attached.
Kitchen faucet swap, customer supplies the faucet, stops photographed and turningExact quote
50-gallon gas water heater, same size, in the garage, plate photographedExact quote
One slow bathroom drain, nothing else in the house affectedPrice range
Brown ring on a ceiling under an upstairs bathOn-site look
Plenty of shops run plumbing and heating out of the same building. The HVAC and electrical pages cover how those jobs come in. Pricing is the same whichever trades you run.
Calendar / What plumbing jobs need
Coming soonWater off is the whole schedule.
Booking is not built yet. Scheduling is where it will live. This is the part of plumbing it has to respect before it goes anywhere near your board.
- 01
Water off means no water
A repipe starts in the morning, not at three in the afternoon. The customer has to be told which hours the house is dry.
- 02
Emergencies reorder the day
A burst line has to be able to push everything behind it without any of it getting lost.
- 03
Tanks need drain time
An old water heater has to cool and drain before it moves, and it has to leave with the truck.
- 04
Inspections belong to the inspector
Sewer, gas, and water heater work waits on a window you do not control.
- 05
Digging waits on a locate
That is a call placed days ahead, not the morning the crew shows up.
- 06
Parts decide trip count
Cartridge-specific repairs turn into two visits unless the photo caught the brand.
- 07
The first freeze fills the board
So does the week before a holiday, for drains. Seasonal load is not a surprise, so the calendar should not act surprised.
Straight answers
What plumbers ask us first.
01Can Mason price a leak from a photo?
No. It will not put a number on water when it cannot see where the water is coming from. The photos and answers come to you as a company review or an on-site look, and Mason keeps following up with the customer in the meantime so the lead does not go quiet.
02I price flat rate out of my own book. Does that survive?
Yes. Mason reads your rate sheet, shows you the services and prices it found, and you confirm them before a customer sees anything. It does not invent a line for work you do not sell.
03What happens to my dispatch fee and my minimum?
You set both, along with your after-hours rate and the lowest price you will allow. Mason applies them and never goes under the floor you set.
04Do customers have to know what a shutoff valve is?
No. They are told to open the cabinet and photograph what is under the sink. Your team reads the picture. Nobody on the customer side has to name a part.