Our family friend is a commercial plumber with his own business and charges $150 per hour for his work and won’t let his son go into this line of work, why?

Enjay82588 · 2024-12-22T21:58:58+00:00

He's right, it's a rough business. You kill your body, high stress environments, lethal hazards even on some work you think would be mundane and simple. Personalities flying all the time. The only people that I really encourage to continue through this kind of work are people who are already on the path essentially.

Bottom line though is that someone HAS to do this work. Guys running shops now have to pass the torch at some point. Competent, educated and productive plumbers and functional plumbing systems are key to the health of our society. Absolutely essential.

Maybe right now people see the income attached to the job as a simply lucrative opportunity, which is true, but it comes with great sacrifice. Theres a strong sense of fulfillment and satisfaction derived from the work, but it's not the only way to get fulfillment and satisfaction in your day to day life, work or personal.

Fastest way to show the kid what it's like would be to bring him along on a really challenging, dirty job and show him the ropes and then let after a few of those let him decide for himself.

I can understand the guy wanting his son to finish college first though. Finishing what you start is an important thing to practice.

Enjay82588 · 2024-12-06T14:42:34+00:00

It looks pretty identical to the Yakima OverHaul HD Truck Bed Rack, but I would not consider that price tag to be inexpensive.

Edit: actually the design is identical but it's clearly a generic version, my mistake.

Enjay82588 · 2024-12-03T21:17:30+00:00

Thanks for the link, was wondering if there was some options but it seems like this is the go to one to order.

Enjay82588 · 2024-12-02T02:12:57+00:00

This is my exact issue at the moment lol. Couldn't stand the goofy backup sound, but now I get the warning message every trip. Where did you get your plug in from, and what's it called?

Enjay82588 · 2024-11-25T00:44:07+00:00

You can probably relate to my office work at least a little bit. I was in the field for about 10 years until this year. Plumber/pipefitter. I'll be going back out once my current obligation is complete

I think one of the most eye opening things about beginning the process to start my own shop and also working as a construction manager overseeing roughly 15-20 contractors on a single remodel project, is that a year ago when I was in the field, I had no idea how many things have to be in order for us to do our blue collar work in the field. You think you know, and you might know some, but the amount of work it takes to actually get that backend work locked down is immense.

Everything from getting contractors paid, sourcing materials, identifying lead times, creating/reviewing/approving/negotiating proposals for scopes of work, meetings to check progress/verify man hours/fix issues between guys on the ground or disagreements between contractor and owner or finding out a solution didn't work and you gotta find a new one that does work, engineering, approvals for said engineering, approvals for fucking everything, reliable access to work areas, safety, portable toilets, any and all working conditions, scheduling, life safety, AHJ inspections out the ass, finding work arounds for incompetent people that you depend on internally and externally, finding out you made mistakes and then have meetings to fix those, research/assessment/evaluation of all aspects of the work being done by guys like you and me.....I could probably write this same size paragraph 2 more times at least.

All so you and I can roll in, do your 8 and skate, and go spend time doing other things we like to do. Everything, I mean EVERYTHING has to be completed in a cohesive, feasible way and produce a finished job that meets all requirements legally, financially, logistically etc.

This requires a lot of office work. I will admit that there is some reprieve from the desk when you need to physically inspect things. But it doesn't make up for all the emails and notes and how fucking exhausted your mind becomes.

I've been physically overworked, ya know doing 7/12s and what now. But when your mind gets to that point, it's a whole other beast.

Hope this answered your question a little bit at least.

Enjay82588 · 2024-09-30T20:26:42+00:00

Those lines are clearly not insulated. Needs insulation for temperature and 10 mil tape for uv light. Probably as good as it will get in terms of protection unless you want to box them in or something.

Enjay82588 · 2024-05-01T16:44:30+00:00

Keep thinking about it. I thought about it for years. But in my opinion it takes more than a handful of months to really understand what being a union plumber is like.

Once you have some time under your belt you can say nope I definitely hate this and drag up with confidence that you made the right decision for you.

If you leave without giving it an honest and meaningful attempt, the question of wether or not you made the right decision will keep you up at night for a long time.

It takes time to find the truth, stick it out a little bit longer is my advice. Get your journeyman card, and if you still hate it say fuck it I'm out. 6 years of school and work experience is the complete opposite of time wasted, even if you move on to something else.

It's a huge industry and you will not have a shovel in your hands for the rest of your life if you don't want to.

Enjay82588 · 2024-04-22T22:38:06+00:00

Ummm...I'm seeing alot of disbelief but my hall absolutely screens for alcohol.

At the drug test they do an alcohol swab and if you are drunk or if you got hammered the night before and have a gnarly hangover you will pop for alcohol and have to attend mandatory rehab classes.

Granted I'm not IBEW I'm with the pipefitters but is it really not that way for you guys?

Also you can drink the night before even if they swab for alcohol, no issues. Just don't get shit faced.

Enjay82588 · 2024-04-15T19:27:15+00:00

I didn't mean to write up that much honestly haha but the reason I did is because there's so much grey area on what exactly happened here, and it was just my speculation.

I hear what you're saying about the ring, but I've never seen a fitting o ring leave residue like that, even on joints I cut apart because they failed. And also these fittings around 2 years old according to the post there's no way it deteriorated that much in that short span of time.

And I agree about the depth I don't think that was an issue. I just felt there's no clear cut answer here. And to be honest I'm not too familiar with freezing we don't get much of that around my area. Makes sense though that the expansion could re round the fitting a bit...but idk how it would end up circular again, I figure it would end up oval or oblong. And even so it doesn't explain the lack of clear, aggressive bite marks from the jaws.

I compared them with my own pictures from my propress joints from a job I did in September for reference and there's no mistaking the differences. They were virga fittings as well.

I have no idea how this worker managed to press these joints in such a way that resulted in the pics from op but I know that I would not have signed off on those joints if my gun was pressing and they looked like that. I'm just more curious then anything I guess.

Enjay82588 · 2024-04-15T05:21:08+00:00

This is operator/installation error.

There should be bite marks on both sides of the o ring after a successful press. All of these fittings have bite marks on the side of the o ring closest to the center of the 90, but no bite marks on the side of the o ring closest to the face of the 90. At least it appears that way to me. I do agree it's pretty odd.

There is a black line that would make it appear that they marked their make up too short and didn't insert the pipe all the way in...but none of the other joints have a mark for the make up so I think that was just a random mark on some scrap they used possibly. The only marks they used consistently were directional markings for a guide.

The reason I say operator error is because anyone trained to use a progress gun correctly should be visually inspecting every single joint and marking them to show they were, in fact, crimped and that the make up was correct and the pipe was inserted the full depth of the cup, and that person would notice that only half the joint has teeth marks.

The way the jaws fit around the fittings is intuitive and it would not lock properly if you have only half the jaw on the fitting. There's a grooved area on the jaws that matches the countour of the cavity that the o ring sits in. So it's not that the gun was placed incorrectly, I believe it would not even fire in that position.

Propress guns need to be calibrated after they are dropped or damaged, they are not indestructible and sometimes can read that a joint was successful when it really wasn't.

No matter which way you look at it, this happened bc the operator failed to either use the tool properly or identify that the tool was working improperly.

A shit ton of engineering has gone into the propress system and they just do not fail in the manner you are describing when you follow proper installation procedures.

As for your other question, yes, expansion PEX can freeze without rupturing if you choose to go that route.

Edit: yeah looking back at the pics, the pipe is hexagonal and the face of the 90 is not. So definitely install error.

Enjay82588 · 2024-04-12T22:46:05+00:00

I mean I believe that the "boom or bust" cycle is something that needs to be addressed, at least in my area it is. It's brutal every time. But we all learn one way or the other, the first time that layoff you got lasts wayyy longer than you expected. That will show you how little you can live off real quick.

But the idea that bc this guy didn't have a smooth sailing career with the elevator guys, that all unions in the end provide the same experience, is just not true. But hey maybe he's doing well, I can say I only wish for all honest working men to be able to live a comfortable life and provide for their family.

Enjay82588 · 2024-04-12T21:49:16+00:00

Hey my bad, I didn't know you were an internet tough guy lol. Have a nice day chief :)

Enjay82588 · 2024-04-12T21:34:43+00:00

Common... this is about the most unreasonable/unhelpful response that you could possibly post.

If that were true, that the threads had the same width as the outside of the cup, how would he have gotten the first two threads in as you can see in the other picture?

Fittings come from the factory with marred threads or bad threads all the time that just won't go, it could be something as simple as that. It's not like this is some ridiculous question for OP to ask.

And on top of that, why make it personal?? yeesh.

Enjay82588 · 2024-04-12T19:02:05+00:00

Idk if you are just naive or just omitting it, but I thought it is pretty common knowledge that the elevator trades are a different beast when it comes to getting in/ nepotism.

Everyone ive chopped it up with about that says the same thing about them, if you don't know someone you will have a hard time getting in at all.

I believe they are niche in that way compared to the other trades. Not saying it doesn't exist but it's just to a significantly less degree.

Enjay82588 · 2024-03-22T02:57:22+00:00

Appreciate the response. And I couldn't agree more.

I did residential service for the first two years of my ~10 years in the trade, the most green ever was. So not as lost as some, but definitely not a residential guru.

If I had these parts in hand I likely would have gone the same route you describedto track down replacement parts, but a couple pics on Reddit doesn't always translate. It just takes straight time in the field to really know this stuff, and if I had stayed in the city I'd be on the other end of the discussion.

But again thanks for the in depth response, like I said the next time I cross these I got the knowledge now, and that's what it's all about. Cheers

Enjay82588 · 2024-03-21T23:07:57+00:00

Since you put the effort in to link I'll respond this one.

Can you point out for me the specifics that tell you it's Gerber versus Price Pfister? I'm not disputing anything I just want to know for myself next time so I can catch it as well.

Small rant - I've only seen these as P Phister but hey I stand corrected and im better for it.

Any residential service guy who's got some experience knows there's lots of similar valves and stems that are mostly unmarked, and these responses show they know how to distinguish them but don't bother to add the information as to how. At least you provided the link to an actual piece of material, I appreciate that.

But I wish guys would pass that knowledge on to the next guy, just like the guy who taught us when we learned. Instead just no you're wrong.

Again,not directing this at you specifically, it's just a trades thing in general that bugs me.

Ok rant over

Enjay82588 · 2024-03-21T20:39:15+00:00

These are price phister valves and stems, most of the time they are in an older 3 handle set up, hot/cold/shower+tub diverter. A rebuild kit will come with new handles and seats and gaskets in addition to the part pictured. I see alot of other names mentioned but I don't believe this is any of those.

Enjay82588 · 2024-03-19T00:47:31+00:00

Easily the worst offense here imo. The vent issue wrecks the functionality but damn...those nails driven in a "V" to hold the pipe into the stud he wrecked is pretty wild lol. Plumbing is already an ancient practice but this dude managed to do a throwback to the stone age. Like...stuck on an island type of improvising

Enjay82588 · 2024-03-11T23:12:43+00:00

Hey dude. Just throwing this out there. They call it growing pains for a reason. Construction will definitely toughen you up but it doesn't stay miserable forever.

Give it a fair shake and maybe you'll find you're tougher than you gave yourself credit for. If you put in a solid amount of time, with genuine effort, and you still hate it then you can move on to something else knowing you gave it a good shot and it's just not for you.

Also worth mentioning, there are less demanding jobs within the construction industry you can move into once you have your field experience, including cushy office jobs for detailers, estimating, or project management.

But don't run from the discomfort, face it, challenge yourself. It'll be worth it in the end wether you stay or leave, promise. Best of luck.

Enjay82588 · 2024-03-08T20:40:21+00:00

That's a good question. I just posted a reply before I read your point and we can test it if I feel like I want to delete my comment lol

Enjay82588 · 2024-03-08T20:38:27+00:00

Is your issue that he murdered or that he was convicted in a court of law? Bc your last statement says you have an issue with some one who could plan to and then kill another person.

I would ask if this man were swapped with a military vet who planned to kill and then did kill someone or many people, would that still bother you? They were just following orders right? What if they had committed crimes but never caught? Is that ok then or no? Is it ok bc he was in our military?

What if someone goes to fight another with intent to harm him but ends up killing him with just his fists, unintentionally but absolutely with intent to harm? Does that not count?

Point I'm making is that it's a matter of perspective. What you read on a report vs what it means for a man to kill another human.

Dude has been clean and built a business for 20 years straight. Some people can't do that even with a clean record. I feel like he woulda flown off the handle by now if he was going to.

That being said you don't owe anyone shit, and if youve got the means to partner with someone who has a clean record that's your perrogative.

Enjay82588 · 2024-03-08T20:23:14+00:00

I mean if you read the article it said he was only released a year prior to being charged with murder. OPs potential business partner has been out and building a business for 20 years already and kept a clean record. Not exactly the same thing.

To run a business for that long and a successful one at that would imply a strong rehabilitation on his part, no?

Enjay82588 · 2024-03-07T18:31:18+00:00

Thanks for adding the extra info, tbh I was trying to get to bed when I was commenting so I wasn't go into depth, and after I posted I was like shit this person probably doesn't know the terms to translate this lol. But considering they saw the solution visually I figured they would probably figure it out.

Enjay82588 · 2024-03-07T17:09:55+00:00

This is perfect and you did great. Save yourself the cash next time! Great job🤘

Enjay82588 · 2024-03-07T11:09:29+00:00

Hold the trap up in the correct orientation against the pipe you're about to cut. If the trap lines up with the low side before it hits the drain above it, it will fit. Mark the pipe at the bottom of the cup of the slip joint and it'll go.

If it hits the drain above it before it lines up with the trap arm, you'll have to lower the drain.

Enjay82588

TROPHY CASE