help!!! Thinking of becoming a plumber

[rubysdad]

Hello everyone,

I have recently been considering becoming a plumber, I have absolutley no experience or qualifications.
I was just wondering weather it was still a booming industry?
There are plenty of companies offering to train me up within months (seriously?? months???) however they all want thousands of pounds.

can anyone offer me any advice on the best route to take? I cant study full time as I have a family to look after so I need to continue working while I learn.
Is it worth taking a home learning course?
what courses do you recommend as i am a bit baffled...
any help would be very much appreciated.

 

[johnmcginty]

Hi mate I did fast track a year ago and enjoyed it , if you have a lot of business sense, tenacity huge testicles and a bank balance to match go for it...though don't expect it to be easy whichever route you take.
1, No it is not a booming industry ..is anything booming these days.
2, thousands on fasttrack or college over two years ( if you are over 19yrs old you will find this difficult)
3, You will have to go self employed as nobody will take you on...ever! sorry mate
4, that means you will have to spend this just like I did.

cousre £6000
van £2000
liability £ 300
van stuff £ 1000
tiling course £ 400
tiling tools £ 600 minimum
initial outlay £500
Advertising £ £ 1000
Tools £ 1000

Total £ 12, 800

That is just to start off hopefully then you will make around £ 300 a week if you are lucky for the first year . Good luck mate and speak to lots of plumbers in your area and on here , think very carefully and dont dive into anything until you absolutely know it is what you want to do . I am glad I did the course (fast track) as I was not happy with what I was doing before.

 

[dontknowitall]

Great post John! (I too started last year).

£300 a week (to my mind) is the upper limit of a new plumber this year. Last year people were still fitting bathrooms and things but this year most of my work has been repairs which tend to be measured in hour or two jobs as opposed to day or week jobs.

Rubysdad - it's a big world, the plumbing world, so it's probably best to concentrate on one area of it - general plumbing like repairs is the easiest, fitting bathrooms requires much more than gluing pipes together and they don't teach you carpentry on these courses then there is boiler maintenance and installation, etc, etc.

The (seven week) course I was on promised the world and was brilliant.

But when I left I was only happy with the simple types of jobs to begin with and didn't touch heating. They told us how to bleed a radiator but there was no lesson or practical. They just assumed we all knew. And who is going to own up to NOT knowing how to bleed a radiator?

We learned about W plans, S plans and Y plans. We all nodded our heads and fell asleep. No pipework to show us - just slides. And when you look inside an airing cupboard it looks nothing like what you're shown in the classroom!!

Electrics was covered in 3 days and I will now only use an electrician. It probably didn't help that I had a hangover all the while when learning the Part P!

It's a big, big learning curve after the course. Great fun, but very testing at times!

Imagine someone taking a word processing course. They can't then become a personal assistant to a FTSE 250 company's managing director in their first job as they need experience and probably loads of other qualifications first. It's the same with plumbing.

If I was in your shoes, I'd try and find a cheap course to see if it was what I was hoping to learn. Then stuff some business cards through doors near to where you live and find out how few people phone you. (Around 1 per 100 cards and that's for a dripping tap.)

BUT if it gets the enthusiam going and perhaps a breakthrough, then another course later. A recession is a great time to start a business, but you have to have the finances to see you through a good 18 months or so.

Best of luck!!