Why a deposit at all?
A deposit does three jobs at once. It covers your materials so you're not floating a $700 water heater on your card. It filters out price-shoppers — someone who won't put money down was never going to book. And it commits the customer: paid jobs almost never no-show, unpaid ones do.
If you've ever bought parts for a job that "went with someone else" before you started, that's the problem a deposit solves.
Typical deposit amounts by job size
| Job size | Typical deposit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Service call / small repair (under ~$500) | Often none, or the service call fee up front | You're doing the work same-day; the fee itself is the commitment |
| Standard job ($500–$2,500) — water heater, fixture set, drain work | 25–50%, or the cost of materials | Covers parts; balance due on completion |
| Multi-day job ($2,500+) — repipe, remodel rough-in | Deposit + progress payments tied to milestones | Don't finance a week of work; get paid as phases complete |
A common rule of thumb: ask for enough to cover materials plus your first day of labor. You should never be more out-of-pocket than the customer is.
Check your state's rules first
Several states cap what contractors can take up front on home improvement work, and some of those caps are aggressive:
- California — on home improvement contracts, the down payment is capped at $1,000 or 10% of the contract price, whichever is less (CSLB rule). A $6,000 repipe means a maximum $600 deposit.
- Maryland — home improvement contracts are capped at one-third of the contract price up front.
- Other states — many have no cap, but licensing boards still expect deposits to be "reasonable". Progress payments tied to completed work are the safe pattern everywhere.
Rules change and definitions matter (a "home improvement contract" isn't the same thing as an emergency repair in every state). Check your state licensing board's site before you standardize on a number — this article is general guidance, not legal advice.
How to word the deposit on your quote
Put the deposit on the quote itself, not in a follow-up text. Two patterns that work:
- Percentage: "A 30% deposit ($183.72) is required to schedule the job. Balance due on completion."
- Fixed amount: "Deposit to book: $150. Applied to your final invoice; balance due on completion."
Show the deposit as a dollar amount even when it's a percentage — customers commit to "$150", they hesitate at "30%". More wording examples in how to word payment terms on a plumbing invoice.
Collect the deposit from the quote itself
QuoteHawk puts a pay-now link on every quote you text — the customer views it, taps, and pays the deposit by card. No chasing checks, no separate payment app.
Make it easy to pay, or the deposit costs you jobs
A deposit requirement only works if paying it takes less than a minute. If the customer has to mail a check or meet you for cash, the deposit becomes friction — and friction loses jobs to the plumber who texted a payment link.
Whatever tool you use, the flow should be: customer opens the quote on their phone → sees the deposit amount → pays by card on the same screen. That's the whole reason we built QuoteHawk around texted quotes with payment built in.
When to skip the deposit
- Repeat customers who always pay — the relationship is the commitment.
- Emergency calls you're doing right now — collect the full amount on completion instead.
- Warranty and callback work — obviously.
Everywhere else, ask. The plumbers who feel awkward about deposits are usually the ones financing their customers' jobs for free.
The bottom line
Charge a deposit on any scheduled job where you're buying materials: 25–50% or materials-plus-first-day, capped by your state's rules, written on the quote as a dollar amount, payable by card from the quote link. Start with our free plumbing quote template (it has the deposit line built in) or build the quote in the free quote generator.