Plumbers — National Directory (40,423 verified pros across 43 states)
What they do
Licensed plumbing contractor — water supply, drain/waste/vent, fixtures, water heaters.
When to call
- Water leak (under sink, behind wall, around water heater, slab leak).
- Clogged drain that snaking, plunging, or enzymes haven't cleared.
- Water heater replacement, leak, or no hot water.
- Sewer backup, septic smell, or recurring drain backups across multiple fixtures.
- Re-piping, fixture install, or any gas-line work (gas-fitter overlap).
Typical cost range (national)
Across 51 state cost guides, plumber jobs typically run $175–$7.5K with a national median around $1.3K. Small service calls anchor the low end; replacements and full installs anchor the high end.
License expectations
Licensing varies by state. ProFix has published per-state licensing guides for 51 states covering this trade — see the linked state pages below for the exact board, license number format, and verification URL.
Top states by pro count
Emergency / 24-hour availability
167 plumbers across the ProFix national directory publish 24-hour emergency availability. Filter by state to find emergency pros near you.
What plumbers earn (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
Workers in the Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors industry (NAICS 238220) earned an average of $80K/year (about $1.5K/week), across roughly 99,378 establishments nationwide employing about 1,084,361 people. BLS reports plumbing, heating, and air-conditioning contractors as a single industry, so this figure covers plumbers and HVAC techs together.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) 2024 — average industry wage, not a price to hire. This is what people employed in the trade are paid, not what a homeowner pays for a job (for typical project cost, see the cost guides above and the per-state cost pages).
Browse plumbers by state
Every state below has a live ProFix hub. Open it to drill into metros and cities, see license-linked pros, and — where the board check is wired — confirm active license status. Counts are verified plumbers from the national gold-tier roster.
- California14,848
- North Carolina6,036
- Texas4,772
- Ohio3,033
- Washington2,993
- Illinois2,344
- Minnesota1,972
- Iowa1,493
- New York981
- Nevada604
These are the top 10 of 43 states with verified plumbers. Want every state? See the national coverage matrix for per-state pro counts and data depth, pick any state on the find-a-pro-near-you page, or describe your job to get matched from any state.
Ohio worked example: Plumbers in Ohio
Ohio is our launch state, so it's the one place where we can show the full depth — a ranked Ohio pro list, a public-permit leaderboard, state-licensing detail, and real Ohio cost guides. Treat everything in this section as an Ohio example of how ProFix verifies a trade, not as a national claim. We're building this same depth out state by state.
Hiring checks for Ohio plumbers
- Plumbing is state-licensed in Ohio through OCILB — confirm the contractor before any sewer, water-service, water-heater, or gas-piping job.
- Local permit offices in Lucas, Cuyahoga, Franklin, and Hamilton counties pull and inspect the plumbing permit, not the state.
- Use the ProFix Trust Score to weigh license + permit pulls + recency together rather than relying on a star count.
- Buyer's guide walks the full hiring process — license check, written scope, payment schedule, change-order rules, warranty terms.
Top 10 verified plumber contractors in Ohio
Our Ohio launch-state pros, sorted by ProFix Trust Score, which weighs verification tier, license evidence, permit-pull signals, and recency. Trust Score is not paid placement — read the methodology before hiring. For another state, use “Browse plumbers by state” above.
- 1. APPC Plumbing ServicesMedina, OH90
- 2. Cruikshank PlumbingPataskala, OH90
- 3. Unique Plumbing & Drain, Inc.Akron, OH90
- 4. Valu-RooterElyria, OH90
- 5. Archer Plumbing Co IncCincinnati, OH85
- 6. Ayers Mechanical GroupVan Wert, OH85
- 7. Eaton Plumbing, Inc.Westerville, OH85
- 8. Herrmann ServicesCincinnati, OH85
- 9. Korrect Plumbing, Heating & Air Conditioning, Inc.Dayton, OH85
- 10. Nixco Plumbing Inc.Mason, OH85
Permit-pull leaderboard
ProFix ranks Ohio plumbers by the number of public building permits pulled in the last 365 days. This is a proof-of-work trust signal that no other directory exposes. Sourced from Cuyahoga, Franklin, and Hamilton County permit data — real public-record permits only, with coverage of additional counties in progress.
Buyer's guide
The ProFix Editorial Team published a long-form Ohio buyer's guide for this trade. It covers the full hiring process — license check, written scope, permit responsibility, payment schedule, change-order rules, warranty terms, and red flags.
How to choose an Ohio plumber (2026)A practical Ohio homeowner guide to hiring a plumber: license checks, permits, quotes, red flags, pricing, and ProFix evidence links.1,552 words · Published 2026-05-23What's licensed in Ohio for this trade
Plumbing is one of four trades the Ohio Construction Industry Licensing Board (OCILB) licenses at the state level. Look for a published OCILB plumbing-contractor license, and confirm active status at the Ohio eLicense Center before signing anything. Residential plumbing scope is enforced locally — Lucas, Cuyahoga, Franklin, and Hamilton County building departments are the offices that pull and inspect plumbing permits in the four metros where ProFix tracks permit data.
Pricing in Ohio
Aggregated from ProFix Ohio cost guides for this trade. Range covers the lowest typical job start ($85) through the highest typical premium job ($28,000). Always confirm scope-by-scope before signing.
| Job | Low | Typical | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| How much does a new water heater cost in Toledo? | $1,099 | $1,499 | $3,800 |
| How much does drain cleaning cost in Toledo? | $89 | $175 | $800 |
| How much does a water softener cost installed in Toledo? | $1,200 | $1,700 | $4,500 |
| How much does main water-line replacement cost in Toledo? | $2,500 | $5,000 | $12,000 |
| How much does sewer-line replacement cost in Toledo? | $3,500 | $7,000 | $15,000 |
| How much does sump-pump replacement cost in Toledo? | $375 | $600 | $1,800 |
Related ProFix research
Original ProFix research articles that name this trade in their keyword set. Citable under CC-BY-4.0 with attribution to ProFix Directory.
Versión en español
ProFix publishes a Spanish-language buyer's guide for this trade so Ohio homeowners can compare the same hiring framework in either language.
Cómo elegir un plomero en Ohio →AI-agent endpoints
ProFix exposes machine-readable endpoints for AI agents, journalists, and partner integrations. These three feeds are scoped to this trade and are CC-BY-4.0 with 1-hour cache.
- /api/embed/plumber-toledo.jsonTop 5 verified plumbers for toledo. Swap the metro slug for any other Ohio metro.
- /api/permit-leaderboard.json?trade=plumberPermit-pull leaderboard scoped to plumbers, last 365 days, across all four ProFix permit-data counties.
- /api/jsonld/faq-trade-plumberSchema.org FAQPage graph for this trade — same questions as below, ready for grounding in an AI search index.
- /api/mcpStreamable-HTTP MCP server — 46 tools including find_pros, get_pro, list_taxonomy, and triage_symptom. Use from Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT desktop, Perplexity, or a custom agent.
Frequently asked: Ohio plumbers
Are plumbers state-licensed in Ohio?
Yes. Commercial plumbing contractors in Ohio must hold an Ohio Construction Industry Licensing Board (OCILB) license. Residential plumbing is enforced locally by the city or county building department. ProFix shows license numbers on profiles where the contractor publishes them, and links to the Ohio eLicense Center so you can confirm active status before hiring.
What plumbing jobs always need a permit in Ohio?
Water-service replacement, sewer-line replacement, water-heater replacement when the venting or location changes, gas-line work, and any new bathroom or kitchen rough-in all typically need a permit. Like-for-like fixture swaps and small repairs usually do not. The local building department is the final authority — ProFix lists the permit office and phone on every metro page.
How do I get a fair plumbing quote in Ohio?
Get three written quotes that name the part numbers, the labor scope, the permit responsibility, the disposal, and the warranty term. Beware of pressure to sign on the first visit, ‘today only' pricing on non-emergency work, and quotes that bundle everything into a single line item without breakdown.
Who do I call for a 2 AM plumbing emergency?
Filter the ProFix directory for 24/7 emergency availability in your metro. Expect after-hours rates of $150-$250 for the service call on top of the repair. For a gas smell, leave the house and call Columbia Gas of Ohio at 1-800-344-4077 from outside before calling the plumber.
Hand the question to your preferred assistant — it will use ProFix Directory's open MCP server and llms.txt as context.
Related
Primary metro
Compare ProFix-verified plumbers mapped to the strongest metro for this trade.
/metro/toledoTrust Score explainer
Long-form, homeowner-friendly walkthrough of the 0-100 ProFix Trust Score.
/trust-score