How to Learn Plumbing from Scratch

BasicSulfite

Hello!

I've been a property manager for about 20 years. Although I hire plumbers to do most plumbing jobs, I have supers do basic jobs like replacing a leaking valve. However, because they don't have actual work experience at a plumbing company, even for simple jobs, the results can turn out pretty bad. (What makes it worse is they can get pretty sensitive if you point out the incorrect method. I don't know much, but there are times when I know that something is not right.)

Since supers work all day and during the weekends, I can't send them to work with professional plumbers as apprentices. (That would also cost me too much when this is for only small, odd jobs.)

I am considering paying for plumbing classes at local community colleges for them. How effective are they to learn simple plumbing jobs like replacing a copper line with a pinhole leak?

Can you guys recommend better ways for supers to get basic training in plumbing?

There are tons of YouTube videos but I can't find any that are comprehensive. Are there specific online courses, videos, or textbooks that you guys can recommend? The main purpose is to make sure they do things the correct way. Furthermore, I don't want them to learn anything too complicated. Anything that's going to take more than an hour, that's still going to be left to actual licensed plumbers. Just basic, practical jobs.

*I posted this in the Plumbing forum, but this forum might be more appropriate.

STEVEusaPA

You'd probably be better off having them just shadow the plumbing professional. Consider it tuition.
Let the plumber know this is what you want to to. If the plumber agrees, the job will take a little longer, and the supers can watch and ask questions.

SlamDunk

Hire a super with experience, maybe someone with heavy plumbing experience and have him/her teach the others by watching. My dad was a super and he was the only person I know who could stop a leak long enough to be someone else's problem with two part epoxy sticks. May he rest in peace. I still find that $h!t everywhere! I have yet to have sucess with the stuff. I stopped trying. I taught my team and they learned from each other. They are excellent with basic++ plumbing skills.

GW

It’s pretty easy till it’s not. Sooner or later you’ll come up against something where you’ll try and cut the pipe and hope it works out the way you want. The more years you do it, the more scary stuff you can pull off. Knowing what to tackle and what to walk away from- takes time and a few “oh no”s along the way 

Erin Holohan Haskell

@BasicSulfite, I've combined your two posts here. Thanks!

EBEBRATT-Ed

I think the community college or tech school is the way to go as long as they have some hands on learning involved

SlamDunk

GW said:

It’s pretty easy till it’s not. Sooner or later you’ll come up against something where you’ll try and cut the pipe and hope it works out the way you want. The more years you do it, the more scary stuff you can pull off. Knowing what to tackle and what to walk away from- takes time and a few “oh no”s along the way 

It is a fact that neither an education nor the aquisition of experience is ever free. Someone, somewhere always pays for it.

Larry Weingarten

Hi, I can suggest a good book on it by old school plumber, Peter Hemp. Here's a link to his site: https://www.peterhemp.com/store.html

Yours, Larry

HomerJSmith

Everything that I know about plumbing and hydronics, I taught myself. You can take a college course on plumbing or hydronics, you still have to teach yourself (learn it) or it's to no avail.

As SlamDunk sez, nothing's free, you still have to pay with your time or sometimes your bucks, too. That's the law of the universe. Your bucks ARE your time! All you get in life is time, it's how you use it that counts.

BasicSulfite

Hey, Homer,

You mentioned you taught yourself. Actually, for my work, I had to learn a lot of it myself. It really sucks, doesn't it? It probably takes about 10x longer and many of the mistakes are costly. This is why I know that getting proper education is much more efficient.

HomerJSmith said:

Everything that I know about plumbing and hydronics, I taught myself. You can take a college course on plumbing or hydronics, you still have to teach yourself (learn it) or it's to no avail.

As SlamDunk sez, nothing's free, you still have to pay with your time or sometimes your bucks, too. That's the law of the universe. Your bucks ARE your time! All you get in life is time, it's how you use it that counts.

jumper

I still learn stuff on this site. I also continue to learn by thinking about stuff I did and figuring out how I can do it better next time. Building superintendents hopefully know what they cannot do or should not try to do.

Larry Weingarten

Hi @BasicSulfite , Another approach would be to make an agreement with a plumber you like to help your supers via facetime or something similar. That way the "on call" plumber could take a few minutes at a time to help guide the projects and prevent any big oversights.

Yours, Larry

MikeAmann

You don't want to create a situation where these supers know just enough to be dangerous. And all of the book reading and youtube videos is worthless unless actual hands-on follows. It's one thing to watch someone else perform a task - it's completely different when you are the one actually doing it.