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Keefy

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REDSAW's 'Plumbing Experience Poll' just had me reminiscing about my first ever plumbing experiences.

My first ever plumbing job was running a new cold main through the cellar of my sister's new house. I'd never even thought about how plumbing even worked until that time really (was a lorry/van driver and did some occasional labouring with my brother and dad) but this first experience made me go in search of a plumbing apprenticeship.

Anyway, me and my brother were fitting my sister's new kitchen and needed to take the cold main from the cellar at the front of the house to the back. As the cellar only went half way through the house I had to literally drag myself along on my stomach through the other half which was built up of rubble and debris leaving about a foot of space beneath the floorboards. With stopcock fitted and about 25ft of copper pipe isolated under the sink it was time to turn it back on in the street.

*SCREAMS* My brother's shouting "Turn it off, turn it off!" so I run back out to turn it off. For whatever reason it was leaking from where the alkathene joined the stopcock and for the next 10 minutes it was "Turn it on" - "TURN IT OFF!" - "Turn it on" - "TURN IT OFF!" and I just lost where I was up to with it so when he asked me if it was off again, I just thought 'well he must know where we're up to' so I just said 'yeah'.

He untightened the nut and it just went off like a fireman's hose and he's struggling to hold the alkathene in the stopcock in a desperate attempt to stop the flood and I started laughing my head off because it was the funniest thing I'd ever seen. Looked something like this:
corby_plumbing_emergency-plumbers.jpg


Came to my senses and ran outside, while I'm out in the street lying face down with my hand on the stopcock a girl runs over and starts trying to pick me up. She can hear muffled shouting coming from the cellar window and presumes... well I don't know what she presumed but she told me later that when she came round the corner she thought I only had one arm and had fell over on my face.

After that experience I just knew I wanted to be a plumber - and he stuck to being a joiner.
 
My first plumbing job without supervision was a disaster. I flooded a basement with 2 ft of water I was draining a cylinder and the gate valve was seized up etc so I tied the ball valve up in the tank stuck my hose on the cold feed and started emptying in to a bucket. I filled the first bucket went and emptied it then went to undo the drain valve again at which point the whole male iron ripped out the side of the rotting cylinder followed by the cylinders contents the cwsc contents and then some as I hadn't quite tied the knot tight enough on the ball valve.

Ive been using bungs ever since.
Strangest of all was my boss wasn't angry in the slightest just said I'd learn from it gave me the bungs from his van told me I was as green as grass but no longer wet behind the ears.
 
I swaped 10 rads for my first job, leaks everywhere, no one ever told me to ptfe the tail threads haha
 
REDSAW's 'Plumbing Experience Poll' just had me reminiscing about my first ever plumbing experiences.

My first ever plumbing job was running a new cold main through the cellar of my sister's new house. I'd never even thought about how plumbing even worked until that time really (was a lorry/van driver and did some occasional labouring with my brother and dad) but this first experience made me go in search of a plumbing apprenticeship.

Anyway, me and my brother were fitting my sister's new kitchen and needed to take the cold main from the cellar at the front of the house to the back. As the cellar only went half way through the house I had to literally drag myself along on my stomach through the other half which was built up of rubble and debris leaving about a foot of space beneath the floorboards. With stopcock fitted and about 25ft of copper pipe isolated under the sink it was time to turn it back on in the street.

*SCREAMS* My brother's shouting "Turn it off, turn it off!" so I run back out to turn it off. For whatever reason it was leaking from where the alkathene joined the stopcock and for the next 10 minutes it was "Turn it on" - "TURN IT OFF!" - "Turn it on" - "TURN IT OFF!" and I just lost where I was up to with it so when he asked me if it was off again, I just thought 'well he must know where we're up to' so I just said 'yeah'.

He untightened the nut and it just went off like a fireman's hose and he's struggling to hold the alkathene in the stopcock in a desperate attempt to stop the flood and I started laughing my head off because it was the funniest thing I'd ever seen. Looked something like this:

Came to my senses and ran outside, while I'm out in the street lying face down with my hand on the stopcock a girl runs over and starts trying to pick me up. She can hear muffled shouting coming from the cellar window and presumes... well I don't know what she presumed but she told me later that when she came round the corner she thought I only had one arm and had fell over on my face.

After that experience I just knew I wanted to be a plumber - and he stuck to being a joiner.

Excellent . When you said pick me up I thought your luck had changed :blush5:
 
Excellent . When you said pick me up I thought your luck had changed :blush5:
Ha, I was actually trying to fight her off with my other arm.
 
Not the first but first largish job, set all the pipe work up solder 6ish joints all at the same time, turn water on, no problems, waited no problems, turned all taps on, no problems, turned it all off, no problems, went to the bakers to get a pastie got back and was paddling around the ground floor, turned water off sat down added to the water by crying then swore A LOT, sat in the van ate my pastie drank my coffee, tidied up.
 
When I 1st started, me and my 1st mentor went to a sani flow not working. Anyways he decided to strip it down but disconnected it at the wrong side of the nrv......... Us and the bathroom was covered in ****, how that never put me off plumbing for life ill never know lol
 
When I 1st started, me and my 1st mentor went to a sani flow not working. Anyways he decided to strip it down but disconnected it at the wrong side of the nrv......... Us and the bathroom was covered in ****, how that never put me off plumbing for life ill never know lol

That's similar to the first ever job I did with my mentor. He was down a drain while I was passing the rods down to him and once the blockage was loosened (multi-storey old people's retirement accommodation - incontinence pads etc) the force of the backed up foul water was so powerful he couldn't hold it back. The rods came shooting out, he got completely covered from head to toe and I got what tasted like vinegar in my mouth.
 
I can't tell you about my first plumbing job on the open forum, but might post something in the Arms later. My second was a lot of fun.

Back the 80's my brother in law and some of his hippy mates decided to go for the alternative lifestyle, and so they clubbed together an bought an old double decker bus. This had already been adapted as a mobile home, with solid fuel stove linked to rads and a cylinder, cold water storage on top deck, shower downstairs, kitchen sink, washbasin etc. Drainage was a pipe sticking out the bottom. God knows how it handled to drive - it must have cornered like a buffalo.

Trouble was, the bus had been sat in a field all winter, and just about everything that could freeze had frozen, so there were leaks everywhere.

By this time, I had been working in a plumbers merchant for about 6 months, (mostly shifting boxes round the warehouse) so I was clearly the expert that they needed.

I get up there, cut out a section of burst pipe, and try to solder another one one. Problem - fitting won't go on the pipe. Expert stumped.

Toddle of back to the branch - fortunately the guvnor (MickW - occasional forum member) is still in. Explain problem. He really is an expert - man and boy in the trade and his dad was one of the biggest plumbing contractors in town, so he kindly offers to help. He grabs a couple of monument drifts off the shelf and we go back to the bus. By this time, its pitch black, and we are working on a freezing cold double decker bus in a field.

Mick shows me how to form a socket out of the slightly oversized pipe, and we start fixing the leaks. All goes well for an hour or so, until he is on his back under the sink. Its a narrow space and he is pretty much wedged in.

Enter Vic and Billy. Vic is one of the consortium of hippy bus-buyers. Billy is his dog - a cross between a Staffy bull terrier and a carthorse on steriods. Only a year or so old at the time, he was a very large animal, with playful sense of fun, a set of jaws like bolt-croppers, and a dogs traditional fascination with male genitalia.

When he sees Mick wedged under the sink with only crotch and legs showing, Billy thinks its his birthday. Straight for the groin. :)

Its very hard to have appropriate respect for your boss's dignity under such circumstances. I'm still laughing about it now.
 
That's similar to the first ever job I did with my mentor. He was down a drain while I was passing the rods down to him and once the blockage was loosened (multi-storey old people's retirement accommodation - incontinence pads etc) the force of the backed up foul water was so powerful he couldn't hold it back. The rods came shooting out, he got completely covered from head to toe and I got what tasted like vinegar in my mouth.

I don't feel so unlucky now after reading that! The poor bloke haha
 
Mick shows me how to form a socket out of the slightly oversized pipe, and we start fixing the leaks. All goes well for an hour or so, until he is on his back under the sink. Its a narrow space and he is pretty much wedged in.

Enter Vic and Billy. Vic is one of the consortium of hippy bus-buyers. Billy is his dog - a cross between a Staffy bull terrier and a carthorse on steriods. Only a year or so old at the time, he was a very large animal, with playful sense of fun, a set of jaws like bolt-croppers, and a dogs traditional fascination with male genitalia.

When he sees Mick wedged under the sink with only crotch and legs showing, Billy thinks its his birthday. Straight for the groin. :)

Its very hard to have appropriate respect for your boss's dignity under such circumstances. I'm still laughing about it now.
Yep, I still have a little laugh about that manic canine monster snuffling and nipping around my nuts as well... :32:
 
Can't remember the first plumbing job I ever did....but I do remember fitting my first heating system solo.

We got the job when I was sat in the pub with my dad on a sunny afternoon. He was chatting to a mate who had just bought a little fishermans cottage in the middle of nowhere, and it needed a load of work.

I was dead keen as it sounded like a little adventure. Dad wasn't keen at all. Long story short, I ended up doing this place up with a mate of mine. Living in a massive american motor home in the garden.

To run the pipe work under the floor, I lifted about three boards, and beneath was a two foot void, so I squeezed myself under there, and did the entire round floor runs, on my back in the dirt. What a fool. I also re-wired the house. Which sounds nuts, but back then the regs just were not the same as now with part P. I had been doing a lot of wiring prior to that too. As my father did both, electrics and plumbing.

I had a little book with a drawing of two way lighting so I knew how to do the landing lights. The place never burnt down! Infact I clipped all the wiring, and did it all by the book. Much neater than many sparkies I seen on site.

I also did two bathrooms in the same house. Well bathroom and shower room. So I was up there for a long time. Customer wasn't in a rush as it was a holiday home, and he already owned the one next door.

I should add, I didn't fit the boiler, or the consumer unit. I was too green back then, and my father/brother came up and did those bits. Oil fired boiler, tank, and new soil runs. Checked everything I had done.

I really enjoyed the experience, and it was confidence growing for me. My mate, was just that, a mate who needed a bit of casual work. So I was in at the deep end. Local pub after work every night, and I got paid well for doing it. Bumped into the bloke recently, and he said he now has tenants living in the house, and they've had no problems.

If it wasn't so expensive to get qualified as part P sparky I would add it as a string to my bow. As it is satisfying, and well paid. Plus I pay my sparky more than any of my other subbies.
 
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