Earlier today and young man asked me how to become a plumber. After a lengthy reply he then queried about gas fitting and electrics. He wanted something to fall back on in case his career at the local shoe repair shop faltered. In a related story, a few months ago a young lady who used to work at the local coffee shop asked some advice as she and her girlfriend had decided to take a two week plumbing course and then start working as plumbers.

My reply to both of these queries was the same. Firstly make sure you’re going into the business because you want to. Working in any trade is hard work so you better like what you’re doing. In the case of the young woman I offered her two days on site while I changed a boiler so she could see for herself what she might be getting herself into.

Day 1: Get up early and pack tools and supplies, pick up my new helper, get to customer’s home before 8:00am so we can get the keys, test the gas and then shut off, shut off the water and the electrics. Lay down coverings through out the house as the boiler is in the loft, unpack the truck and lug everything upstairs, drain the boiler and pipe work, label everything, remove the current boiler and get it outside, remove the old flue, remove the old cabling as it was not installed safely when it was originally put in, go get some lumber and make repairs to the roof trusses which the previous installer had cut most of the way through because he screwed up measuring where the boiler mounted in relation to the offset flue, start the power flush running in the background while continuing install (all the time running back up and down the loft ladder to switch the direction of the power flush and opening and closing radiator valves throughout the house), tea break, unpack the new boiler and tape the template up to the new location in the loft, sink plugs into wall and set up coring gear to cut through new flue hole, cut the hole, cut the hole, take a break, cut the hole, lunch break, back in the loft to hang the boiler mounting bracket and start re-piping the gas, test the gas, cold feed in and test for leaks, hot feed out, disconnect and clean up and put away the power flush unit and related bits and pieces, re-pipe the flow and return pipe work, general cleanup before lugging the new boiler into the loft, tea break, unpack and lug the new boiler up into the loft and hang on mounting bracket, check to make sure everything fits like it should, start tightening up the pipe connections and install the flue, go outside in gale force winds climb up the ladder about 10 metres and solder up the safety valve pipe work as well as seal around the new flue with mortar and plug up the old flue hole with bricks and mortar, tea break, back into the loft to remove lots of fibreglass insulation so the a new condensate pipe can be run to the houses internal waste stack then test for leaks and connect to boiler, replace all fibreglass, itch, itch, it’s now the end of day one, general cleanup of workspace and locate all tools and lug everything back downstairs, pick all floor covers and hoover up before the homeowners arrive, drop of my new helper, go home and do some paperwork, pay some bills, etc, relax, see my partner, sleep.

Day 2: Get up early and pack tools and supplies, pick up my new helper, get to customer’s home around 8:00am as we already have the keys, shut off the electrics. Lay down coverings through out the house, unpack the truck and lug everything upstairs, start to trace the old boiler circuit back to an improperly earth single socket which in turn was run off the ring main, with the wrong gauge and type of cable, pull up carpet and flooring back to the ring main connection, relay proper 2.5mm T&E back to the single socket, run a spur to the loft for boiler, install back box and fused connection to the loft, connect fused spur to the boiler, connect new RF room thermostat to boiler, test all connections and record reading, energise circuits and make appropriate tests, put back all the flooring with screws, put down the underlay and carpets, kick the carpets, add heating systems chemical stabiliser to bathroom radiator, back up to loft to start filling the heating side of things, check for leaks as well as run around the whole house bleeding the radiators, no leaks, remove the bleed screw from the boiler pump and rotate, replace plug, test gas pressure, turn on boiler and continue to bleed air while pump is circulating, everything appears to be working normal, tea break, everything still appears to be working normally, start cleaning up again, pack most tools, everything still appears to be working normally, general cleanup of workspace and locate all tools and lug almost everything back downstairs, pick all floor covers and hoover up, lunch, back to house to update notes, fill in Benchmark log book, take note of several other reading, done, drop of my new helper, go home and do some paperwork, pay some bills, etc, get back in the car around tea time and go to customers house to show them how to use the new boiler and controls, show them what was repaired regarding their electrics, get paid, go home and do some paperwork, pay some bills, etc, relax, see my partner, sleep.

I know that those of you in the know will have noticed that I did skip a few steps here and there but that’s mostly the way a boiler swap from a non-condensing to a condensing boiler happens. My new helper decided that a two week course was probably not going to go far in preparing her for this kind of work and that this kind of work is just hard work especially if like me you don’t generally use a helper.

I relate this story for those of you who want to work in the trade. If, like me, you like to work with your hands, use your brain, don’t mind making a hundred trips up and down peoples stairs, like a change of scenery almost everyday, like driving and don’t mind traffic, like dealing with lots of different types of people, like red tape, licenses, memberships, courses, salespeople, accountants, the tax man, insurance, bank fees, endless paperwork and low pay then have I got a deal for you!