Looking for some work is available

[Paul Vickovic]

Evening guys and girls,

I thought I would post in and see if there was any plumbing work about as I have noticed couple of weeks ago quite a lot of people / companies have started to get busy and needing an extra man. I am just hoping I haven't come too late and missed the bus!

I'll explain a little bit about myself to start with.

My name is Paul. I am 25 years old and live in the county area of Cambridgeshire in a place called Peterborough.

In the past 2-3 years I have managed to complete both level 2 and level 3 Technical Certificates in plumbing studies and have worked most weekends helping a property developer with various jobs changing Rads, taps, toilet cisterns and repairing the odd leak here and there.

I also got a couple of jobs with a local heating engineer which was assisting him with installing a new heating system. So while he did all the gas side of the job the boiler etc, I installed the radiators replacing them from them electrical heaters with the bricks in (wow they were heavy!) and I ripped out the cylinder. The job was great because he got to show me a bit of the gas side of the job and I got to keep busy and do a good job of the other side of plumbing, the unfortunate side to it all was that after this job his company was financially unstable and couldn't go on any longer, I was working for free but still unfortunately working with him came to a halt.

So I am just posting to see if anyone out there is interested in an extra pair of hands. I can drive and willing to commute if need be. I feel that Peterborough is located in a good position with London not far south and Peterborough is close to other surrounding areas that most of you here in this forum are from.

I am a mature guy who enjoys working in the plumbing industry and likes to make a good proper job of it, I still work with the property developer now and then but I want to learn new things and progress and the property developer doesn't have any plumbing experience for me to progress further in the career.

I am happy to work in all areas of plumbing be it a company who just focuses on bathroom installs to someone who does everything as I would love the experience and enjoy all aspects of plumbing / gas work.

Thanks guys,

Paul

 

[gasmanrob]

Now THATS an intro and worth responding to!

You sir should look for companies operating in mechanical sector. There is so much about at the moment! If high rises aren't springing up out of the ground then arts, culture and exhibition centres are! Not sure how long it would take you to get down to the smoke but between batersea and Elephant & Castle there's at least two years work!

 

[AMW]

Have you tried local companies? Peterborough has a lot of plumbers in or around surrounding areas

 

[Paul Vickovic]

Thanks gasmanrob, do you know any companies yourself that might be recruiting in that sector of work? definitely interesting thank you for the information.

Hi AMW, Yes I have tried the local companies but not much luck, I keep trying the same companies every so often to see if they will give in. Like you said there is quite a lot of plumbers in Peterborough but most of them want you to be apprenticeship served and have gained an NVQ which I unfortunately don't have at the moment so that gives me a disadvantage in that case, If given the opportunity I think I could be a great asset. I have little bit of experience but not the papers which most companies ask for as requirements.

This is why I thought I would post here and see what is going on in the plumbing forum.

 

[gasmanrob]

Don't know who's got what sites but the likes of Watkins, boostfine, marble and Russell (think that's it's spelling) are a good place to start.

Just google m and e in London that should provide you a short list to approach.

 

[Unregistered]

I managed to find Boostfine and Watkins easily on google. I will be contacting them as they both look like great companies even says on Watkins website that they are continuously looking for plumbers just hope they aren't looking for qualifications because that is the only thing that holding me back at the moment and plumbing is most definitely something I want to pursue myself in.

Couldn't seem to find marble and russell as it came up with jewellery stores.

Is the MNE the engineering exhibition?

Once again thanks for the help gasmanrob. If you know of anyone interested in an extra pair of hands then let me know I like to keep my options open

 

[gasmanrob]

No sorry might not have been clear. Doing M & E gets you away from house bashing and gets you working in places like exhibition centres, fitting district heating to flats, industrial units, care homes, office blocks, zoo's the list is endless.

The market is smaller then domestic plumbing and heating but I find the range of work much more varied. One day I'm purging a great big mother of a gas line another I'm first fixing a hospital, I've been running a hotel conversion into a house and I've worked in some very interesting places. The politics and health and safety can be a bit much but you learn to get on with it.

Best of all not a cream carpet in sight!!

 

[gasmanrob]

Oh and here's the one you couldn't find my mistake on the spelling and pronunciation

Maybourne and Russell Ltd

 

[Paul Vickovic]

Wow that is really interesting sector to be looking into I am definitely going to look into this with more detail.

That is quite a vary of jobs definitely my cup of tea though and did you say you have worked on a conversion from a hotel into a house or did I misunderstand that bit!

So the market is smaller but would you say they are more successful because of all the planning and organizing these big jobs have to take into account which keeps these business nice and sturdy.

How long have you worked in this area of work? any pros and cons compared to domestic work of water / gas? Do you have your own business in this area or you work for one?

 

[gasmanrob]

Yes that right a hotel into a house! 21 bedroom listed Tudor built place bathrooms bigger then the floor plan of my house!

No I work for someone it's a very expensive sector to break into. You'd need to be a very astute businessman to survive and make it as a business and I salute any one that does.

There are more cons then pros I'd say depending how you look at it. You'll travel more, supplies aren't as easily come by, everywhere is 5 point ppe, some older plant rooms are hotter then the earths core and you'll be there for 2 days servicing in the middle of summer. Having said that I don't think I would choose to go back to domestic.

I started as an apprentice on industrial and commercial servicing, was then moved to help a pipe fitter and after 6 months of that i left to work on houses. 14 years on I'd had enough of joe public and its desire to get everything for nothing and found a job with an m and e company. It's chaos it's in organised some deadlines are unrealistic but I'm happier in the last 8 months then I had been for years. I would certainly recommend it

 

[Paul Vickovic]

That is incredible with a bathroom that size I wouldn't know how to fill the space up; a huge bath, shower, basin, toilet that is all I can think of other than luxuries like Jacuzzi etc. The person asking for that much have spent big $$$ to get it converted, must have been an Arab family with 10 sons and 10 daughters living there.

Even though you say the job has more cons then pros the job must be quite satisfying when a big job is completed and I'm guessing that is the case for you with the work being satisfying if you are happier doing it than working for joe public and domestic work not sure about the power plant being hotter than the earth core though with all the PPE on as well I started to sweat just reading that.

So have you only recently moved over to this sector of work?

Do these sort of companies look for the same qualifications as domestics so your basic NVQs and then they probably put people through to do commercial work through their company? And I'm guessing being gas safe you would only have to do commercial also. Never really covered commercial gas on my level 3 tech so not sure what appliances gas safe covers.

 

[gasmanrob]

Plumbing is plumbing so qualifications is pretty much the same its not until you start with validation and commissioning it really changes and there separate qualifications anyway to the basic nvq. Once you're in you'll find out what you need and what's with having depending on where you want to work.

 

[Paul Vickovic]

Awesome. Well thanks for all the help gasmanrob I'll make sure I contact them other companies and see if anything comes up and see what happens in the next couple of weeks or so. I'll keep my eye out on here also always some good advice to read on here. Probably try and get some placement to achieve an NVQ also somewhere fingers crossed.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and thanks again!