# why did you do it



## larry568 (Feb 19, 2009)

*just thought i would start something here. Why and how did you get into the plumbing field Here i go in 1998 i was driveing a truck over the road my dad and grand father was already in the plumbing field at this time and the last part of that year i told my wife at the time i was going to stop driving and start my own business in the plumbing field so i placed a small ad in the local paper and things started from there. god bless america i never went back to driveing after that day Lets hear your story this could get good:laughing::laughing::laughing:*


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## Tommy plumber (Feb 19, 2010)

Just lucky I rekon.


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## Lifer (Nov 23, 2010)

i was to dumb to be a doctor and too lazy to be a pro athlete ..

My Dad said to me at a young age , get a trade once you have that ticket they can't take it away from you ( now i have 2 ) ...

Did a lot of different jobs in my life and this is truly the one for me .


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## Will (Jun 6, 2010)

I got tired of working 12 hour shifts on a assembly line stacking 5 galleon buckets on a crate. I was making $6.90 an hour, so when I got the chance to shovel $h!T for $7.5 an hour I jumped all over it. Been doing ever since.


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## techplumber (Dec 16, 2010)

30 years ago, my Grandpa started a residential/commercial water and sewer company, that my Dad now owns. I've been around Water and Sewer work my whole life, and I also knew it's what I wanted to do...work for the family business that my Grandpa started from nothing, and that my dad kept running still today!

I attended a University for 2 years, knowing that I was just getting a degree to get one, a degree that was totally unrelated to the field I was born/WANTED to be in. 

I decided I would do something that could benefit not only myself, but the company, and transferred to trade school. 

I still work there currently, but I'm graduating in May with an AAS degree in Plumbing. This will benefit the company as we only do outside excavation, currently. 

WHEN I attain my license, we'll be able to bounce work off of each other and I can also pull his permits (Does anyone actually know the reason an inside plumber has to pull permits for the outdoor guys. They really don't know what each other actually do :blink, also we'll be able to offer "package" deals for new construction. 

I absolutely couldn't be happier in my decision.


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## plumbpro (Mar 10, 2010)

Lifer said:


> i was to dumb to be a doctor and too lazy to be a pro athlete ..
> 
> My Dad said to me at a young age , get a trade once you have that ticket they can't take it away from you ( now i have 2 ) ...
> 
> Did a lot of different jobs in my life and this is truly the one for me .


They can and have here, taken away someones license


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## plumbpro (Mar 10, 2010)

Tommy plumber said:


> Just lucky I rekon.


:laughing:

Me too. I was an assistant manager at a lumber yard making about 35k a year, had 1 baby and another on the way. I saw my limit with the company I was with and decided I wanted to get into construction, or maybe custom furniture, learn the trade and one day open my own business. I met a plumber a week later and asked if he was hiring, he said no. Then a week later he called me and offered me a job on a trial period. I started at $7.50/hr which was a major pay cut, but the hours were better and there was almost no stress. 2 weeks later when it was payday, I had already gotten a raise to $8.50 that was pro rated to my start date. Been a plumber since and probrably will be one for the rest of my life.:thumbsup:


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## SlickRick (Sep 3, 2009)

I was just looking for a lot of money and prestige.


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## plumbpro (Mar 10, 2010)

I wanted to be rich......






but then I figured I should just be a plumber


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## RW Plumbing (Aug 16, 2010)

slickrick said:


> I was just looking for a lot of money and prestige.


:laughing::laughing:Fame and fortune me too.:laughing::laughing:


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## sheeptown44 (Oct 31, 2010)

I did it for fame and fortune. I like many of you was working a dead end job , after getting out of the army. I some how stumbled into plumbing and I instantly felt comfortable. I 'm good at it and I enjoy it most of the time. As for the fame I am usually famous only for a minute to some one I have helped with a plumbing problem, the fortune comes a little at a time. It is good to have a trade , without plumbing I would'nt get paid and I would be usin the out house . My wife however is really the famous one around town,thats her rig, I'm a little jealous,just a little. Peace


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## SewerRatz (Apr 25, 2009)

When I was young my dad used to take me to work with him. One time we did a job at a school, and while he was rodding a drain some grade school kids came around to see what we where doing. My dad stopped and said "see kids make sure you finish school or you end up doing this for a living" One of the kids started to cry and I asked him whats wrong he said "My dad is a plumber" My father alway said he would never recommend this work to his worse enemy.

I ended up working for him back when I got out of the Army and all the electronic jobs where paying me a buck more than minimum wage, which I did not mind till I got my wife pregnant. I told the Electronics shop where I worked at they need to pay me what they promised me originally but they refused, so I ended up working for the old man.


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## luv2plumb (Apr 30, 2010)

Tried everything else and nothing felt right. My grandfather always told me I needed to learn a trade so he got me a job with one of his hunting buddies.....and the rest is history


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## DUNBAR PLUMBING (Sep 11, 2008)

Health problem 

It turned the direction I really needed to go, and it has happened twice. I conform well.


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## DUNBAR PLUMBING (Sep 11, 2008)

Damn sheeptown, 


That looks like it's good for 24 ton of #2's


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## pauliplumber (Feb 9, 2009)

I did it for the HO's. I alwasy wanted to work for HO's. I knew being a plumber would attract alot of HO's.







I like HO's.


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## RW Plumbing (Aug 16, 2010)

Really I got into it because of my dad. He's a master and when I was younger, I helped him work. I saw the living it provided our family. I decided it would provide me a good living. Little did I know 8 years later I would be running my own company, through the worse recession since the great depression.


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## plumberinlaw (Jan 13, 2010)

It's nice to be the hero. (and to get paid for it to boot)


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## mongo (Jun 26, 2010)

Simply by accident. I got laid off at my former job (30 years ago), went fishing on the river the next day (Iwas going to fish for a living). Along comes aboat around the bend. The man in the boat asked if I needed a job. I said yes, he told me to be at his house Monday morning at 5:00 am. 

Been doing it ever since. Of course, I eventually went in business for myself.


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## Plumbdog (Jan 27, 2009)

I was at lifes crossroads between being a young man and a man and it was either sales or plumbing and I picked sales :no:. Well it took me six years to finally admit that I made the wrong decision and told my wife that we're going to take a hit in the wallet in the short term... and never looked back.

Just glad that I came to my senses.


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## easttexasplumb (Oct 13, 2010)

I needed a job and my buddys dad owned a plumbing company. They needed an apprentice, and I needed a job. Worked their till I got my journeymans and then worked for a couple other outfits. I, like others have said feel that this is just what I am supposed to do. I would not trade my profession for any other.


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## 422 plumber (Jul 31, 2008)

I was working a dead end job and a fitter who always was at the plant welding on the tanks and pipelines told me the local was taking apprentices. I took the test and was ranked at #17. They took 15 apprentices that year. One dropped out and they took #16. One other guy quit, but the school part had already started, and it was too late for me. I was pretty discouraged. Then 8 months later I got a call to go to work. It turns out the local anted to save money, so they didn't give out the test, they just took the next 10 guys. I was lucky, because I might have been #17 year after year.
It's been 15 years now, and I am just to dumb to quit.


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## chuckscott (Oct 20, 2010)

I had been bouncing around from job to job. Did a little construction, painting working in factories. We were expecting our third child and I decided to take a friend up on an offer to work with his dad and uncles plumbing company. I started at 7.50hr, got to play with a shovel and worked up to journeyman with my own truck and a little better pay. I can honestly say that I love my job. I like the challenge and most of the customers. :laughing:


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## Master Mark (Aug 14, 2009)

*born into it*

I got born into it...back in 1965 I was already helping
install sayco tub faucets and nailing down lead flashings on 
the roofs in production homes we were doing....
also keeping a lead pot filled with chunks of lead .....

Over the past years it seemed like a crummey job.
especially when others were flying high .


but I have seen a lot of people going from job to job with 
no roots or any foundation to fall back on ....especially in this economy....
. and I am grateful for what I have learned.
even though I am burned out on it.......

I will probably take my son into work next summer just because it will give him some basic education about life
and he will see how everyone lives from direct experience
from house to house...


plumbing..... its not just a job, its an adventure :laughing::laughing:


..


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## gladerunner (Jan 24, 2009)

My father was a plumber so I was raised around the trade, but It was only after I dropped out of medical school that my father suggested that I work in the trade for a year untill I decided what I wanted to do. That was 35 years ago. I still haven't figured out what I want to do. Maybe golf pro if I didn't suck so bad at it.


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## futz (Sep 17, 2009)

larry568 said:


> *Why and how did you get into the plumbing field*


Dunno. I musta got manure for my brains. :laughing:


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## 1703 (Jul 21, 2009)

I had just finished 2 yrs of discount knowledge from the local junior college.

My then girlfriend's dad was a plumbing contractor. He asked me what I was gonna do next. Not having a decent answer, he told me to be at his house tomorrow at 7 am. 

Started breaking concrete. Nothing else to do, so WTH.

Fast forward a bit- served my UA apprenticeship, girlfriend is now my wife and after FIL's unexpected death in '02, wife and I now own the business.

Not exactly the path I had mapped out as a kid, but its all good.


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## john_mccormack (Feb 27, 2010)

I got out of the Army after 10 years in 2000 and went to work for the airlines. I loved that job, but Sept 11th took care of all in the airline management/dispatch arena that didn't have tenure. My brother was a Journeyman plumber living on Nantucket and got me a job with the company he was working with.

I liked the work, moved back to the mainland, got more experience with other companies and got the coveted Journeyman's license in 2008. Uncle Sam has since called me back and I'm currently active duty National Guard until I retire in 2015. Until then, I plumb nights and weekends with a friend who owns a company. Business is very good.


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## Proud Plumber (Sep 15, 2008)

I dropped out of High School in 1987, and a close friend of family offered me a job. He said I lived much to close to him to be wasting air space. I went to work as a helper for 5.00 per hour. The guy that hired me pushed me to learn job. He did much more than teach me about plumbing. He pushed me to get my GED and later pushed me to back to college and get my degree. The guys that I started with were more than just bosses. They were experienced mentors and took pride in teaching and molding young men. They made work a ton of fun and I couldn't wait to get to work in the morning. They were tough in a caring way.

I am blessed to have worked and learned for people I worked for.


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## PlumberJake (Nov 15, 2010)

My great-grandfather taught my grandfather. My grandfather taught my dad, uncles, cousins, family friends, and myself the trade.

I started working with grandpa the summer I turned 13. I was playing outside and he asked if I wanted to go to work with him that day (he lived next door). I ran inside and told mom I was going with grandpa. It took me a while to realize how lucky I was to be learning a trade that most guys don't get a chance to learn until after high school. I had logged enough hours to take my journeyman's test at 19, passed it. Been at it ever since. Every day I work, I recognize that having an experienced teacher makes a world of difference. 

Jake


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## njoy plumbing (May 19, 2009)

Woke up in the bed of a Plumbing contracotors hot little daughter..........

I wish :laughing:

Family in the business and, I did not want to spend the rest of my life working in the mines or mills.:huh:


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## retired rooter (Dec 31, 2008)

I was working in my uncles service station (in my early 20s and in army reserve) doing the night shift ,the sewer backed up flooding the grease trap in the end bay.I was digging and trying to open line with a water hose when unk came to work ,he called his plumber ,I hung around and watched him and he offered me a job.Guess I have been in **** ever since!!!


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## Epox (Sep 19, 2010)

I started right out of high school in "76". I heard of an opening and didn't have any idea really. Made my journeyman tough guy laugh when he said load that 1/2" pipe, I said,,,, the little bitty one??? Man I was green. Done that for some years then long story short ended up with my dad in his commercial concrete business and stayed there 18 years till he retired and asked if me and brother wanted it we said nope so it disolved and I went back to plumbing and stayed for the "other guy" for 12 years till went on my own,,,, well that's the short story sorry it was so long winded.


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## 130 PLUMBER (Oct 22, 2009)

Well, i became a plumber so i can show off my butt crack!!!!!!


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## mssp (Dec 15, 2009)

Started out at the age of 17 as a grunt. I either did or didnt have enough sense to stay with it . But am glad I did, most of the time.


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## Richard Hilliard (Apr 10, 2010)

*Why did you do it.*

My father had a plumbing supply house and it was a great way for my parents to keep on eye on me and keep me out of trouble. I started to go to work with my Dad when I was 10 years old.

By the time I was 18 I could tell someone how to do things but could not do it. I started to work for a plumbing company and things progressed from there.


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