I could never be a plumber

[GH85Carrera]

We noticed the shower drain was really slow, and when the washer pumped out, the bathtub in the guest bathroom filled up.

I called Mr. Rooter as I was not gonna tackle that. He climbed on the roof and ran a rooter line through the house and did not find the issue. Then he used a camera through the clean-out in the back yard. Rats, the sewer line from our house that meets up to the neighborhood main line sewer 20 feet below ground had moved off the connection.

Maybe when we had the series of earthquakes from the salt water disposal wells a few years back. The state said no more salt water disposal in those area, and no more earthquakes.

Anyway, the break was right under my storage shed. I really did not want to empty it, and move it for the repair. So the brought in a really cute tiny backhoe. He dug a new trench beside the storage building, and a HUGE hole in my back yard.


That is him way down there. Fill in the hole, and we have a fixed sewer, happy wife, and happy husband as well. Whip out the checkbook.

[NY65912]

Being in the plumbing business for 47 years I can tell you that it has been lucrative.

We started out as a jobbing shop but moved into commercial, industrial and municipal work.

Our union A Plumbers make $75 an hour plus another $75 per hour paid into the union for benefits. This is for a 35 hr week.

So I try to encourage young guys that aren't sure of a career to look into the plumbing or steamfitter union.

The saying goes, "the crap in your bowl puts the food on my table" 😀

[javadog]

FWIW, if you're needing plumbing fixtures and you don't need some designer high-end stuff, I'd recommend Delta. Lifetime warranty. Working on a house remodel for my sister at the moment, it was custom built for her 35 years ago and had all Delta faucets and what not. Have no original receipts but I've replaced a bunch of stuff for free. She's out zero dollars for all the plumbing repairs I've done.

[billybek]

When something smells really bad, plumbers say "that's the smell of money"!
I don't mind doing some plumbing but bigger projects I will job out.

[rwest]

At work, we hired a plumber to work on some of our remodel projects and he would bring an apprentice with to work the drain end, so I would always refer to him as a supply side plumber!

[Evans, Marv]

Actually I like plumging. As a young guy I worked as the plumber for a girls' camp for two summers during Jr. college. I also did general construction there. They hired a very good plumber, but he was an alcoholic. The camp owner told me to work with him and learn as much as I could because he'd go on a binge at some point, & they'd have to fire him. So I stayed with him on plumbing jobs, did every dirty job he gave me, and learned a lot. One day he went into his room and didn't come out for three days. From then on, I was the camp plumber. My witching skills came in handy, since they had a lot of underground cast pipe to be replaced and didn't have a map for the septic tanks & fields fields.