As a plumber, this call sounds all too familiar. And just when you're sitting down to enjoy a relaxing Sunday brunch.
Ring…Ring… You let your voicemail pick up the call
Customer: (Sunday 8:58AM) I had a busted pipe down in the basement last night. I spent the whole night cleaning up the mess down there. Can you send somebody over to stop the leak?
Customer: (later at 10:44AM…same caller…a second voicemail) We have a leaking pipe in the basement. It started yesterday and flooded the floor. We've been cleaning it up and everything. And we turned the water off, but the pipe is still leaking. No one can use any water, so we're just waiting to see if someone can come today.
Do homeowners call plumbers on weekends?
In our Kept Plumbing Call Study, we analyzed 1,394 calls to a local Long Island plumber and found that 8% (112 calls) of his calls landed on the weekend. Doesn't sound like a lot? Those 8% of your calls translate to as much as 13% of your revenue coming in just from the weekends. Ugh–hard to ignore.
How many weekend calls are actual real jobs?
In an analysis of 1,394 calls to a Long Island plumbing company between March and July 2026, 64.3% of weekend calls were qualified leads. We dug deep into the actual call transcripts to find out for you. While only 8% of calls came in on the weekend, those calls generated a whopping 64.3% lead rate (people calling about actual work they needed done). Compare that to 92% of calls landing on weekdays, with a 38.7% lead rate. So at a 64.3% lead rate, those are customers calling with urgent needs–and possible new installations to fix the problem. Even harder to ignore those weekend calls.
Weekend vs. Weekday Calls
One Long Island plumbing company
1,394 calls · March 13 – July 31, 2026
| Calls | Weekend | Weekday |
|---|---|---|
| Total calls | 112 | 1,282 |
| Qualified leads | 72 | 496 |
| Not leads | 40 | 786 |
| Lead rate | 64.3% | 38.7% |
Weekend means Saturday or Sunday, any hour. A qualified lead is a caller with a real plumbing need, not a sales call, wrong number, or spam. Weekend calls made up 8% of total volume. Source: Kept Plumbing Call Study · getkept.ai
Why are weekend callers different from weekday callers?
In our Kept Plumbing Call Study, transcripts showed that customers called on weekends with…a hot water tank leaking, no heat, water coming out of the ceiling, bathroom pipe dripping through the ceiling, a leaking valve flooding the basement, etc. However, customers calling on weekdays were a mixed bag–repairs, estimates, appointment changes, existing jobs, etc.
What happens when a weekend call goes unanswered?
You've been there. You're working 24/7 and just need to catch a break. You just want to be at your son's baseball game. Or some time to work on that 1975 Corvette you've been wanting to finish up for the show. So you don't pick up the phone. But now you've missed the $12K heating system install that the customer needed stat. Ouch–expensive!
How should a plumber handle weekend calls?
Your choices:
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Pick up the calls yourself - It's always best when handled by you, but then, you're already stretched too thin
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Hire someone to pick up your calls - You get your free time back, but hiring someone at $15 an hour to cover, say 12 hours on Saturday and 12 hours on Sunday, that's $360 a weekend/$1440 a month/$17,280 a year. Or pay for an answering service that bungles your messages half the time. Both are a pretty penny.
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Let calls go to voicemail and return them later - Except that a large number of callers will hang up and move on to call the next plumber. By the time you've called back, the job is gone.
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Automate call handling - More small businesses are putting an AI receptionist on the line, discovering affordability, increased revenue, and best of all–freedom from their phones. And no, this isn't about middle-of-the-night calls–across 41 weekend days in our study, not a single one came in between 8:00PM - 7:00AM.
Questions Plumbers Ask
What does a 64.3% lead rate on weekend calls mean for my business?
Those weekend calls are most likely real jobs, and many of them will lead to new installations. These are customers who never had time to get estimates from other plumbers (less competition) and have no other choice but to get the job done right away.
Are weekend plumbing calls emergencies?
We found that yes, weekend calls skew heavily towards emergencies: no heat, no hot water, a burst pipe, water coming through the ceiling. Customers understand that plumbers need their weekends, too, and are only calling if they have something that can't wait until Monday.
What time do most weekend calls come in?
2x as many calls came in on Saturdays than Sundays. And more than half of all weekend calls in our study came in from 9:00AM - 1:00PM, just when you're at your child's soccer game or out for brunch.
Should a plumber charge more on weekends?
For sure. Customers understand that you're taking time away from your family and from well-deserved time off to go to their home and restore their heat or hot water. They're upset about their problem, but they also understand that your weekend time is a premium.
Martha Knaupp is co-founder of Kept, an AI receptionist service for plumbers, contractors, and other local trades on Long Island. A former educator, she built the Kept Plumbing Call Study by analyzing every inbound call to a working plumbing business over five months — the transcripts, not just the totals.