HeyBub wrote:
wrote:
My water heater is leaking around the base, and I can see that it's
rusted around the edge. It's 15 years old.

I'm looking around at prices, but does anyone know about how much I
can expect the plumber/installation to cost?

It's a 50 gallon natural gas heater.

And my house is for sale, so now I have a puddle on the basement
floor if we have a showing before it gets replaced.

On the other hand, I get to add "New water heater" to the listing.

Somewhere between $150 and $400 for labor.

Any reason you can't do the job? Here are the steps:

1. Turn off water.
2. Drain and remove old water heater.
3. Position new water heater.
4. Reconnect three (maybe four) pipes.
5. Turn water back on.
6. Dispose of old water heater by leaving on the curb for the urban
fairies.
The above is, at most, a two hour, twenty curse-word job.

Except the new water heater will most likely have both water inlet, water
outlet and gas connection in slightly different positions requiring
adjustments to all the pipes.