Facility & commercial rate benchmarks · Denver
Commercial plumbing rates in Denver.
Estimated median rate: $84/hr, range $72-$117/hr, for commercial and facility-side plumbing work in Denver.
Estimated from O*NET OnLine (U.S. Dept. of Labor/ETA), from BLS OEWS metropolitan area wage estimates
Estimated median$84/hr
$72$117
What affects the rate
- Emergency vs scheduled: same-day or after-hours emergency calls run well above scheduled maintenance visits.
- After-hours and weekend work: typically carries a premium over standard business-hours rates.
- Contract vs ad-hoc: vendors on a standing contract usually price lower per hour than one-off, ad-hoc jobs.
- Code and certification requirements: trades with stricter local licensing (electrical, HVAC/gas) typically carry a premium tied to certification cost.
What's different in Denver
- Labour market: Colorado has moderate union density in commercial trades, generally higher than the Sun Belt states in this set but below Chicago, Boston, or the coastal metros.
- Climate and seasonality: Semi-arid climate with cold winters and large day-to-night and seasonal temperature swings; hail is a significant, recurring driver of commercial roofing work in the Denver area specifically.
- Code and licensing: Colorado licenses electricians and plumbers at the state level; the City and County of Denver applies its own building and energy code requirements on top of state licensing.
Frequently asked questions
- Is this a real measured rate, or an estimate?
- This figure is an estimate, not a measured billed rate: it's Denver's own hourly wage for plumbing work (O*NET OnLine (U.S. Dept. of Labor/ETA), from BLS OEWS metropolitan area wage estimates, 2025), multiplied by a documented 2.5-3x service multiplier that converts an employee wage into a billed commercial rate. That multiplier covers labour burden (payroll tax, workers' comp, benefits, PTO), overhead (vehicle, dispatch, insurance, licensing), utilisation (not every hour is billable), and margin. It is not drawn from actual invoices or job records. Evalystar is building toward measured, job-derived rates for this same page as real vendor data accumulates. Shown below, not hidden, so you can check the arithmetic.Wagex Multiplier= EstimateLow$28.81/hrx 2.5$72/hrMedian$30.72/hrx 2.75$84/hrHigh$39.11/hrx 3$117/hr
- Why a range instead of a single number?
- A single average hides the real spread in the underlying wage data and in the multiplier itself. We show the low, median, and high ends of the estimate so the range reflects that uncertainty honestly, rather than implying more precision than a modelled figure can support.
- Is this a residential or commercial rate?
- Commercial. This figure tracks facility-side plumbing work for businesses, property managers, and multi-site operators in Denver. Commercial rates typically run above residential rates for the same trade, reflecting insurance, code compliance, and scheduling requirements that residential work doesn't carry.