Plumbing Paramedics franchise unit economics
Three Plumbing Paramedics businesses ran 15 territories in 2025 and completed 5,153 jobs between them. A job was worth $693 to $885. Required marketing and software come to $113,148 a year before any percentage, between 233 and 326 jobs of work simply to cover the brand.
- Primary source
- PHP Franchise, LLC, 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document
- Items read
- Items 5 and 6 for fees; Item 19 for sales and any profit figure; Item 20 for the location count
- Population
- 3 of 15 locations
- Our calculations
- Marked on the page with an asterisk. Method
- Last reviewed
- 26 September 2026
Disclosure-based. Not a forecast, not an offer to sell a franchise, and not advice.
The job is the unit here, and it is worth $693 to $885. Three businesses completed 5,153 of them across 15 territories in 2025. Against that sits $113,148 a year of marketing and software that arrives whatever the vans do, between 233 and 326 jobs of pure brand cost.
- A job is worth $693 to $885. $792.59 at the largest business and $885.04 at the single-territory one *, a 28% range in average ticket across three operators.
- Fixed obligations run $113,148 a year. $78,000 of required local marketing plus $35,148 of software and lead generation *, 16.5% of the smallest business’s revenue before a single percentage is charged *.
- The one-territory business out-earns eleven territories per territory by 7.2 times. $1,362,073 against $189,069 *, so territory count shows very little about what a business earns.
- The fee refund repays itself at $1,000,000 of sales. $40,000 back in exchange for four extra points of royalty *, and two of the three businesses passed that in a single year.
- The system went from 1 territory to 15 in two years, then stopped. Four opened in 2023 and eleven in 2024, against zero in 2025, and the brand has sold its own location to a franchisee.
How much does a Plumbing Paramedics franchise make?
The 2026 FDD for Plumbing Paramedics does not publish unit revenue in a form that answers this directly. What it does publish is set out below, starting with Behind the figures: 3 businesses, 15 territories, 2025; Revenue a job: $693 to $885; Fixed obligations a year: $113,148; Jobs to cover the brand: 233 to 326.
The job
Everything reduces to a van, a visit and a ticket.
| Business | Gross sales | Jobs | Territories | Revenue a job * | Jobs a territory * | Sales a territory * |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Business 1 | $2,079,757 | 2,624 | 11 | $792.59 | 239 | $189,069 |
| Business 2 | $1,362,073 | 1,539 | 1 | $885.04 | 1,539 | $1,362,073 |
| Business 3 | $686,140 | 990 | 3 | $693.07 | 330 | $228,713 |
| All three * | $4,127,970 | 5,153 | 15 | $801.08 | 344 | $275,198 |
The sales, jobs and territory counts are as the brand reported it for each business and every other figure divides one by another, marked *.
The busiest business runs 1,539 jobs from a single territory. Against 239 a territory at the eleven-territory operator *, so how hard a territory is worked matters more than how many you hold.
Raising the average ticket by $50 is worth $131,200 at the largest business. *, more than the entire fixed obligation, achieved without one extra van or one extra call.
The gap between the best and worst ticket is $192 a job. $885.04 against $693.07 *, which across 990 jobs is $190,000 of revenue *.
Gross sales here include financing and sales tax. With zero deduction for discounts, rebates or referral fees, so the royalty base is wider than the cash that reaches the business.
The largest business includes the location the brand ran until February 2024. Its eleven territories have traded longer than a new owner's would.
Top performers
What separates the top Plumbing Paramedics performers
Plumbing Paramedics splits its locations into groups instead of publishing one average. The best group averaged $2,079,757 a year. The worst averaged $686,140. Both run the same brand, on the same agreement, paying the same fees.
Decided before you open
- Trade area and site.A 3.0× gap between bands is not an operating gap. Catchment, daytime population and what sits next door set the ceiling before the first customer arrives.
- Territory, and how much of it is real.This model sells from a territory rather than a building. Two owners with the same brand and different ground are running different businesses, and density decides how much driving sits between jobs.
- What you spend to open.Opening costs $95,935 to $193,260, a 2.0× range inside one brand. The high end usually buys more capacity, so the cheapest build is not always the cheapest route to the top band.
Live operating levers
- Jobs, the operating driver.This model bills on jobs. Every job is won again, so the owner works on how many quotes turn into work and what the average job is worth when it does. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites.Fees run about 12.4% of sales. A minimum sits underneath the percentage, so the low-volume location pays the higher effective rate. The brand charges the weakest locations the most. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum and know which side of it you are on, because the answer changes what an extra dollar of sales is worth.
Context you underwrite around
- The reporting screen.3 of 15 locations are behind these figures. Locations open less than the full year, brand-owned, or not meeting the reporting criteria are excluded, so the numbers describe locations that cleared that screen, not the system as a whole.
- What the disclosure leaves out.Item 19 publishes no profit or cost data for franchised locations, no median, no attainment figure. Anything below the sales line has to come from the franchisor or from owners you call.
What is owed whatever you sell
A hundred and thirteen thousand dollars before the first call.
| Obligation | Rate | A year * |
|---|---|---|
| Local marketing | $6,500 a month minimum | $78,000 |
| Digital lead generation | 20% of advertising spend, $100 a month minimum | $15,600 |
| Technology | $650 a month | $7,800 |
| Field service software | $279 a month a license plus $300 for marketing features | $6,948 |
| Digital marketing services | $375 a month | $4,500 |
| Financial management software | $25 a month a license | $300 |
| Fixed total | n/a | $113,148 |
| Royalty | 5% of gross sales or $1,500 a month | n/a |
| Brand fund | 2% of gross sales | n/a |
The brand reported the rates and monthly charges. We multiplied them by twelve, taking lead generation at 20% of the $6,500 marketing minimum, marked *.
The all-in load runs 12.44% at the largest business and 23.49% at the smallest. *, eleven points of difference, almost entirely because $113,148 lands identically on both.
Covering franchise fees take 326, 236 and 233 jobs. *, so the smallest business spends nearly a quarter of its year’s work on this.
Local marketing alone is 88 to 113 jobs a year. *, a $78,000 obligation that sits outside the fee table entirely and may be reduced only at the brand’s discretion.
The digital lead generation charge grows with your own advertising. 20% of spend, so raising marketing to $10,000 a month raises the charge to $2,000 *. A fifth of the marketing budget is paid to the brand as a fee.
The $1,500 monthly minimum royalty applies below $360,000 of sales a year. *, well under all three businesses, and combinable across contiguous territories on request.
Five ways to pay less at the door
The $40,000 fee has five different prices. (Items 5 and 6)
| Program | Terms | What it costs instead * |
|---|---|---|
| Franchise option | Fee refunded; royalty rises from 5% to 9% for ten years | $40,000 back at $1,000,000 of sales |
| Conversion | Fee waived; royalty cut to 2% for 24 months | For operators already above $250,000 |
| Military and first responder | 20% off the first franchise | $32,000 |
| Multi-unit, three or more | 25% off the second and later | $30,000 each |
| Hard to serve markets | Up to 10% off | $36,000 |
Every program and rate is as the brand reported it and the third column applies them to the $40,000 fee, marked *.
The refund costs four points of royalty for a decade. Which at the three disclosed businesses would run $27,446, $54,483 and $83,190 a year *, so the $40,000 comes back once and leaves many times over.
Break-even on that trade is $1,000,000 of cumulative gross sales. *, reached inside the first year by two of the three businesses here.
The conversion route is the only one that cuts the ongoing rate. 2% instead of 5% for two years, for a plumber already billing above $250,000, worth $7,500 a year at that threshold and far more above it *.
Fees actually charged in 2025 ranged from $0 to $40,000. So the list price is a starting point.
An existing owner earns $25,000 for a successful referral. Which is 62.5% of the fee the new owner pays *, an unusually large share of it.
Territory and the system
Fifteen territories, three owners, one state.
| Year | Start | Opened | Terminated | End | Company-owned end |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 1 |
| 2024 | 5 | 11 | 1 | 15 | 0 |
| 2025 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 0 |
| Three years | n/a | 15 | 1 | n/a | n/a |
Every figure is as the brand reported it, with an outlet counted as a territory so the 15 at year end are held by three businesses.
Twelve of the 15 territories are in Indiana. With three in North Carolina and Wisconsin emptied by the single termination, so this is a regional system.
Eleven territories opened in Indiana in 2024 alone. Which is the eleven-territory business in the revenue table, one owner accounting for the whole year’s growth.
The brand sold its own location to a franchisee in 2024. And has operated zero of its own since. Every business in the system is franchisee-run.
A territory holds at least 100,000 single-family homes. Delineated by zip codes or census tracts, with zero minimum quota attached, and the brand is unable to change it unilaterally.
Opening costs $95,935 to $193,260, of which $40,000 is the fee. A wrapped van costs $5,500 to $11,500 for the first three months, equipment $5,000 to $25,000. Three months of working capital at $20,000 to $50,000.
Questions we get asked
Questions an owner asks.
What do these businesses bill?
In 2025, three businesses billed $2,079,757, $1,362,073 and $686,140, running 2,624, 1,539 and 990 jobs across 11, 1 and 3 territories respectively.
What is a job worth?
$792.59, $885.04 and $693.07 at the three businesses on our reading, or $801.08 across all 5,153 jobs. That average ticket is the single number this model turns on.
What does the brand take?
A 5% royalty or $1,500 a month, whichever is greater, plus a 2% brand fund contribution. Separately you must spend at least $6,500 a month on local marketing. Technology costs $650 a month, field service software $579, online marketing $375, accounting software $25. Franchise fees take 20% of your advertising spend for lead generation.
What does that total?
On our reading $113,148 a year of fixed obligations before any percentage. Works out at 12.44% of revenue all in for the largest business and 23.49% for the smallest, between 233 and 326 jobs of work.
Should I take the fee refund?
Only with the arithmetic in front of you. It returns the $40,000 in exchange for the royalty rising from 5% to 9% for the full ten-year term. On our reading that covers its costs at $1,000,000 of cumulative gross sales, which two of the three businesses here passed inside a single year.
Are there other ways to reduce the fee?
Four. Military and first responders pay 20% less. Buying three or more at once takes 25% off the second and later ones. Hard-to-serve markets get up to 10% off. An existing plumbing operator above $250,000 gets the fee waived plus a 2% royalty for 24 months. Fees actually charged in 2025 ranged from $0 to $40,000.
How is the territory defined?
At least 100,000 single-family homes, by zip code or census tract. It is expressly non-exclusive, though the brand will keep another Plumbing Paramedics site out of it while you comply. There are zero quotas, and the brand is unable to change the boundaries unilaterally.
Which two numbers should run monthly?
Average revenue a job against $801, because $50 on the ticket is worth more than the entire fixed obligation at scale. Jobs completed. Because 233 to 326 of them go to the brand before anything reaches you.
- No revenue figures. The filing makes no financial performance representation, so there is no disclosed sales number for any location.
- No profit figure. The filing reports sales and not earnings, so what an owner keeps is not disclosed.
- No cost lines. Wages, rent and cost of goods are not broken out, so margin cannot be rebuilt from the document.
- No attainment figure. The filing does not say how many locations reached the average it publishes.
- No ramp. The filing does not show how a new location builds up, so the first-year curve has to be assumed.
Questions worth putting to Plumbing Paramedics
The filing answers what it answers. These are the gaps an owner or a buyer should close directly.
- What do locations at the median spend on wages and rent as a share of sales? The filing reports sales only.
- What separates the highest-selling locations from the lowest: trade area, years open, size, or the owner?
- How long does a new location take to reach the average you publish, and what does the build-up look like month by month?
- At what level of sales do the minimum charges stop applying and the percentage take over?
- How many Plumbing Paramedics locations closed, were sold, or changed hands last year, and why?
Run your own numbers.
The Franchise Finance Diagnostic runs the same checks on your own numbers. It scores where you stand and compares you with Item 19 of your brand’s FDD. It works out what one location earns and spends, and builds a 13-week cash forecast. Checks whether you are ready to open another one. It is free and it runs in your browser.
Launch the diagnostic →What is your average ticket?
A structured review of your unit economics, cash forecast. Reporting, built around $801 a job, $113,148 of obligations that arrive whatever the vans do. A fee refund that repays itself at $1,000,000 of sales.
Request the reviewthe franchise library, all 243 brands · how franchise unit economics work · running the books across several locations · what Averan does for franchise owners
Plumbing Paramedics reads against the rest of the mechanical trades group: Aire Serv · Benjamin Franklin Plumbing · Mister Sparky · Mr. Electric · Mr. Rooter · One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning. The mechanical trades guide compares all of them on the same figures.
Questions owners ask next
The figures above raise these, and each one is answered on its own page.
- At what level of sales does a minimum fee stop costing me more than the percentage?How royalty, ad fund and minimums actually work on a monthly statement.
- How much cash do I fund before a new location covers its own costs?A 13-week forecast for the months before break-even.
- My payroll percentage keeps climbing. Is that a payroll problem?Usually it is a revenue problem wearing a payroll costume.
- How much of Item 19 can I rely on?What a financial performance representation does and does not tell you.
- What should I be looking at every week?The handful of numbers that move before the P&L does.