Plumbing and Well Quote Review ($99): A Builder Puts Your Plumbing, Well, Pump or Water Treatment Quotes on One Grid and Tells You Which to Sign

Plumbing & WaterIndependent review

Plumbing and Well Quote Review: A Builder Reads Your Quotes Against Your House Before You Sign

Up to three quotes, or one quote plus your water test report, on one grid, with a plain answer. No plumber or dealer behind it, no commission on who you hire.

Three quotes to plumb the same new house: $11,900, $16,400 and $21,800. One includes the fixtures and the water heater, one says “rough-in and trim” and nothing about the well line, one counts 14 fixtures and another counts 11. Or three water treatment quotes for the same well: a $2,400 softener, a $6,900 “complete system” and an $11,000 package, and only one of them looked at a lab report. That is normal. The review puts them on one grid, prices what each one left out, and tells you which one to sign or what to ask first.

Reviews are done by an Ontario builder who has been building since 1979, with 300-plus houses behind him; the plumbing on his own builds is done by licensed plumbers he hires, and wells by licensed well contractors. Checked October 2026. Turnaround three business days.

What you get

Plumbing and Well Quote Review
$99

Up to three quotes, or one quote plus your water test report. HST added at checkout.

  • Every quote put on the same line-by-line grid, side by side
  • The plumber checked on the Skilled Trades Ontario public register; for pump work, whether the installer works for a licensed well contractor
  • What each one leaves out, in dollars: fixture count, trim, fixtures supply, the water heater, the underground, the water service or well line, the sump or ejector, the permit, patching
  • For water treatment: whether the equipment matches your lab results, in the usual order, and what the upkeep costs a year
  • For a pump, tank or well line: the size against your house and well record, and what a fair price looks like
  • For a backwater valve or sump: the permit, and the subsidy you may qualify for, before you book
  • The questions to send back to each company, and a plain answer: sign this one, go back to that one with these questions, or walk
Order the quote review

More than three quotes, or a full new-house plumbing package with drawings, is quoted separately; email first. The review is not a plumbing design, a water test, a well inspection or a building inspection.

How it works

  1. Order. Pay by card on the Stripe page. HST is added at checkout; you get an emailed receipt and a page telling you exactly what to send.
  2. Send the paper. Reply to the receipt email with the quotes as PDFs or clear phone photos, your lab report or Public Health Ontario result if water treatment is involved, the well record if you have one, and the result from the rural water system calculator, the water treatment selector or the plumbing cost estimator if you ran one.
  3. Get the answer. Within three business days: the grid, the licence check, the blanks priced, and the recommendation with the questions to send back.
  4. Use it. Send the questions, get the revised quotes, sign the right one. Often the cheap quote comes back higher once the fixtures and the well line are in, and the big treatment package turns out to be two pieces of equipment your water does not need.

What it is not

It is not a site visit, a water test or an inspection. Nobody comes to the house for $99, and nobody opens your well. The quotes, the test report, the well record and your photos are what gets read. Only a licensed plumber can do the plumbing you hire out, only a licensed well contractor can be paid to work on your well, and only the building department inspects. If the paper shows something that needs a person first (E. coli in the water, a sump draining into the sanitary sewer, a gas line in a plumbing quote with no gas contractor named), the review says so and says who.

What the review looks for

  • A plumbing quote from a company where nobody on the job appears on the public register.
  • “Rough-in and trim” with no fixture count, or 11 fixtures on one quote and 14 on another for the same plans.
  • “Fixtures by owner” and no allowance anywhere, or a water heater that is in one quote and missing from two.
  • A treatment package sold without a lab report, or a UV system with no sediment filter ahead of it.
  • A softener quoted for water that tested soft, or for an iron problem it will not handle on its own.
  • A pump and tank replacement with no pressure switch, pitless or wiring in the price, and no horsepower stated.
  • A backwater valve quoted with no permit, which can cost you the subsidy in Toronto or Ottawa.

Before you order, the free version

The line-by-line grid is on the site and you can fill it in yourself. The hiring page, the plumbing permit page and the well water testing page cover most of what the review checks. If the grid answers it, keep your $99.

Questions people ask

Can you review just one quote?

Yes. One quote gets the same grid, checked against what a complete quote for your job should include, so you know what to ask before you sign it.

Will you tell me which plumber or well company to use?

I will tell you which quote is the one to sign, and why, and what to ask before you do. I do not keep a list of plumbers to send you to and I do not take a commission. If the house is in Simcoe County, Muskoka or the Georgian Bay area and the work is part of a build or renovation you want us to price, say so in the email.

Can you tell me what treatment my water needs?

From a lab report, yes: what each result means against the Health Canada guidelines, what equipment fixes it, in what order, and what is upsell. Without a recent bacteria test I will not recommend anything except the test. If E. coli shows up, the answer is the health unit and a fix at the well, not a purchase.

Is the fee refundable?

If I cannot read what you send (illegible photos, a quote with no scope at all), I will say so before starting and refund it. Once the review is written, it is not.

Three pieces of paper, one answer

The grid, the licence check and the questions, in three business days, for $99. Then sign the right one.

Order the quote review, $99Back to the section