Students....you're doing it wrong! Become a plumber!!!

Housey

Housey

Housey

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21 Feb 2006
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I need some plumbing work doing. I need showers/toilets/pipework fixing, I think around a week's work. Can I get a plumber to do any of this? Nope, it's like pulling teeth trying to find quality reliable tradespeople who will arrive when they say and carry out quality work.

I am told a good plumber doing a good job with regular work can earn well into 6 figures (can they?) so it has me thinking. Most of the students going through their courses week on week probably won't earn 6 figures in the next 20 years. Some will and then some, but most won't and though I am not one seeking to step on anyone's vision or passion for their future, I do find myself asking myself, are many people missing a trick? I think the same when I read people on minimum wages or who have done the same thing for pretty much the same money for many years, are you missing a trick?

So, become a plumber please, the nation needs you!!!

Discuss (read learn me).
 
The local plumber i use i had to wait 3 months for the 2-3 days work needed to replace my boiler. He's always booked up for jobs but puts a week a side a month for servicing.
 
Same round here in France. Can't get a plumber or electrician out when you need one, they charge a fortune and the good ones are like hens teeth! We totally missed a trick pushing everyone to uni and not encouraging more trades.
 
Same experience here. I have an honest plumber and gas fitter who knows what he's doing but he's always booked up and stressed - other jobs overrun which impact on mine. I've told him so many times that he should charge more and do less work but he won't have it.

I also think it's a rewarding profession compared to being a cog in a corporate machine.

I think the reason kids don't want to go into the trades is that they don't have the social status they (arguably) deserve.
 
Housey said:
I need some plumbing work doing. I need showers/toilets/pipework fixing, I think around a week's work. Can I get a plumber to do any of this? Nope, it's like pulling teeth trying to find quality reliable tradespeople who will arrive when they say and carry out quality work.

I am told a good plumber doing a good job with regular work can earn well into 6 figures (can they?) so it has me thinking. Most of the students going through their courses week on week probably won't earn 6 figures in the next 20 years. Some will and then some, but most won't and though I am not one seeking to step on anyone's vision or passion for their future, I do find myself asking myself, are many people missing a trick? I think the same when I read people on minimum wages or who have done the same thing for pretty much the same money for many years, are you missing a trick?

So, become a plumber please, the nation needs you!!!

Discuss (read learn me).
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I can only echo what you have said, it is a struggle to find a good plumber, or even someone to actually turn up.

As someone that has trained as a pharmacist I have been told by relatives and family friends that I should have trained as a plumber or electrician, as a plumber can easily charge £50 an hour.

The thing is that it's extremely labour intensive and once they reach their 40's and 50's their bones and joints are pretty much worn out. At least with a "professional" job (don't like using the term) I won't get those issues.
 
Like most professions I suppose there are a lot of tradesmen who are complete liabilities and do a very poor or rushed job. The good ones have waiting lists that are out of control, so people often resort to using whoever they can get out on short notice and then tar them all with the same brush when it's a naff job.

A lad in my year at school was an absolute write off academically but he could talk the talk and you could see he had the knack for it in design technology lessons. Absolutely minted now and has a couple of buy to lets as he can do the majority of the work himself.
 
flibbage0 said:
The thing is that it's extremely labour intensive and once they reach their 40's and 50's their bones and joints are pretty much worn out. At least with a "professional" job (don't like using the term) I won't get those issues.
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Good point, but have a transition plan to hand over the business and take a wage as you get older. Start as a 1 person business, get a couple of juniors over time and in time let them get their own juniors. Pay them a wage, grow to a few vans built on the foundations of your own quality and work ethic and pay them enough so they stay and are content.

Easier said than done, but a HUGE demand for good people who can turn their hands to stuff like plumbing, painting, building etc.

I have a plumber (a 35-year friend) coming around today with one of his plumbers to quote me. I have window people replacing windows and a tree specialist coming in tomorrow to remove a fallen tree and trim back some others. Remove the windows bit and there is still probably 3k of work there, plus parts.
 
not sure about "well into 6 figures" - there was a program a few years ago about Pimlico Plumbers - I guess the boss was on 7 figures, the gist of the program was everyone in the company revealing their salary and people taking a pay cut in order to give others a pay rise etc...

Of course the plumbers were mostly self employed contractors and told them to jog on... IIRC the plumbers themselves were on circa 80-90k... it was the "drains men" who got into six figures, albeit only just...

so yeah it certainly is possible, especially if you go on to run a business employing others or you pick the jobs involving drains that are rather unpleasant...

I certainly agree with your overall sentiment, there are plenty of people perhaps needlessly getting into debt pursuing courses of dubious value when they could be getting into well paid trades that have plenty of demand.

In fact even when it comes to some professions such as accountancy etc.. there are more options now to pursue a degree while working (degree apprenticeships etc..) and thus avoid accumulating debt. Not to mention there are routes to qualify without requiring a degree anyway and those have always been there - IIRC one of the firms/partnerships ranking just below the big 4 is (or was recently) headed by a managing partner without a degree.
 
I reckon there is a massive variation in what skilled tradesmen earn and you only really hear about the ones doing well.

Uber drivers for example can earn £50k+. Just need to do 50 hour weeks.

Being self employed also isn't guaranteed income.
 
Long hours to make that sort of money, fiddly jobs in awkward places, working with the general public, in their homes (which means they're more likely to be super fussy, such as blaming your work for a different unrelated issue, ending up in disputes). No thanks.

Set up your own business, sure, but then you're relying on someone else to do all of the things I mentioned above yet you're the one taking on the risk.

Painters and decoraters are the ones who seem to have a good thing going in my opinion, their rates aren't shabby! Far less risky than plumbing.
 
Housey said:
Most of the students going through their courses week on week probably won't earn 6 figures in the next 20 years. Some will and then some, but most won't and though I am not one seeking to step on anyone's vision or passion for their future, I do find myself asking myself, are many people missing a trick? I think the same when I read people on minimum wages or who have done the same thing for pretty much the same money for many years, are you missing a trick?

So, become a plumber please, the nation needs you!!!
Click to expand...

A good friend of my retrained in plumbing and electrics about 5 years after graduating. Where he was based there really wasn't a lot of work and he was technically earning less than minimum wage a lot of the time (obviously this was supplemented by benefits, cash in hand, petrol money etc), part of this was down to the recession (much less big projects going on) but even so it certainly wasn't the goldmine you'd expect. He did once get taking on at a 'reasonable' salary for the area but then got cut pretty quick after a project wound up. To make any real money he would have to had setup his own firm but the lack of work meant there was a lot of competition from more established tradesmen with word of mouth relationships. He also said round his way everything was dirt cheap, changing a tap would be a £15 job a far cry from the £100 you often hear talked about in London etc. In the end he did plastering and taxi driving for a bit to make ends meet before ultimately retraining again as a nurse (you read that right, a plumber retraining as a nurse!).
 
Moses said:
The issue is it's not so easy to line up a week of work with you, then another week with someone else, then another week with someone else, etc, with it all dovetailing together.
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Yup, it is easy for someone to say "OMG they charged X for 2 hours work" it doesn't take into account the travelling times, the gaps where they don't have work etc..etc..

I guess the contractors working for pimlico in the documentary I saw perhaps have the advantage that they're part of a larger org that manages the bookings, advertising etc.. and probably charges a bit more than average too (given it is London).

The RIP joints etc. Take into account pensions, sick pay, etc.

That said, I've always been vaguely tempted with mixing property development with learning some skills to do some of the expensive work. If I did the plumbing and a business partner friend did the electrics, for example, that'd save loads. I'm sure it wouldn't be as easy as when shooting the breeze watching Homes Under the Hammer, though :p.
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You could train to be a Building Surveyor, or indeed a Quantity Surveyor - in the latter case I believe you could end up essentially being the project manager too (though I believe they are sometimes hired independently of the PM and the main contractors since their job is partly to keep tabs on them).

Either of those jobs would give you the contacts of and experience of working with various trades people that you could use to engage in various projects yourself & ideally not get ripped off by them either, since part of your day job is ensuring they don't rip off your clients. Plus the jobs themselves aren't badly paid either and could allow you to have both a mix of salary/relevant work experience and some speculative property related projects of your own.
 
Housey said:
I need some plumbing work doing. I need showers/toilets/pipework fixing, I think around a week's work. Can I get a plumber to do any of this? Nope, it's like pulling teeth trying to find quality reliable tradespeople who will arrive when they say and carry out quality work.
Click to expand...

Its why I ended up learning how to do it myself haha. Have British gas come to do anything with... well.. the gas, but other pipework its a doddle to be honest.
 
It was an observation I made in another thread - a good few that did OK or even not that great in my year at school but didn't go onto Uni, etc. are now in the trades and currently making good money - though it is a lot of hours and stress - a good few even own their own company - a lot of them are easily in the upper bracket of 5 figure salaries. While many of the brightest in the year who went on to Uni immediately, etc. are in like 25-28K office jobs, etc. though 1-2 have gone on to do well in the legal profession, etc. and making silly money.

EDIT: I think some of the salaries are headline figures though one of my friends gets a few contracts that are paying like £50+h that might take up a few weeks or months here and there which if he was always doing that would push him well over 100K a year - but over the course of the year it is more mixed pickings and last time we talked it was more in the region of 40-50K a year.
 
I think with most plumbers the issue is they are good at their jobs but not at running a business. The ones that are can make a lot of money as they understand contingency and planning. Get that bit right and find a good location and you’re off and running.
 
as with all things it's a mix of risk and reward, the uni/professional employee path is at least a safe one, or at least as safe as life ever gets.

when it comes to the likes of trades and especially the ones who end up as businessmen the success stories never seem to be matched up against the failure stories
 
I've recently had a some plumbing issues in the house. The only quality plumber I know is charging over £500 For a days work. You know what? Fair enough- I know he's reliable and actually honest.

How did I find him? He lives next to my in-laws in a 900k house. Plumbing is all he does.....
 
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