Plumbing Books
Whether you are interested in simply doing your own home plumbing or learning the plumbing trade you wont get very far without the humble book. I hate to admit it but plumbing books are better than websites when it comes to learning, even these new kindle devices don’t float my boat and I am a big gadget lover. Nothing will ever compare to picking up a hunk of paper and flicking to the page you need.
Books For Plumbing Apprentices and Tradesmen
Plumbing is one of those careers that requires a lot of hands on practice, you will also need to read and remember study materials. A lot of the time you will may be learning from college books, if you really want to give yourself the bast chance of success it is recommended that you invest in your own reading materials. There are a lot of books out there, and i will be honest… a lot of them are crap. I have decided to compile a list of all the best plumbing books in one place, this is based on books i have read myself, books other plumbers and teachers have recommended and books with the best online reviews.
Guide to Home Plumbing Books
If you are attempting home plumbing you would also do well to have a handy guide to home plumbing in the form of a book or two. Again there are a lot of outdated books floating around so I have picked out the best.
Where to Get these Essential Plumbing Books
I have made the plumbing book store at Amazon UK because Amazon are cheap, reliable and are great with returns. I personally buy 99% of my books from them and have never had 1 problem. When you go to my Amazon store you will be sent to my page on the Amazon UK site, all payments and shipping is handled by them. Feel free to contact me to recommend any books and I may add them to the list.
I have to admit that I am not particularly passionate about pipes or blockages. What appeals to me is the plumbing lifestyle. I love being self employed, I like a technical challenge and I don’t like being in one place for too long. I like working with people but I also like to be able to choose not to work with unpleasant people. Plumbing offers a certain amount of freedom; to work in other parts of the UK or even abroad, part time or full time. Its freedom that is the biggest appeal, relative to other jobs, plumbing (and some other trades) offer you as much freedom from wage slavery as you are going to realistically get, unless you want to live in the wild.
Plumber Wages Summary
If you are going into plumbing for the money then you need to check there is demand in your area, no demand equals low wages. You will also want to go into the highest paying area which is probably gas and heating engineers but this requires the most time and work. If there is no demand in where you live you may consider relocating or commuting. Working for one of the big boys like British gas may be an option. That being said, plumbing probably won’t bless you with spectacular riches; the average plumber wage is about £26k per year. Being realistic; if you work outside of London and if you are not highly qualified or experienced you may not get close to this figure anytime soon. Starting salaries can be around £15-20k for the newly qualified. Some experienced plumbers acting in a supervisory capacity can earn over £35000. More on wages in a future post.
Demand for Plumbers
It is often said that there is a national shortage of plumbers; this is not strictly true. Demand varies a lot from place to place. Check the yellow pages, your local papers for ads; if there are loads then you may be out of luck. Try asking a friendly local plumber if he is keeping busy.
At the end of the day the answer to this question lies within that brain of yours; you have to figure it out for yourself!
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