I retired as a carpenter, but have worked around many pro plumbers over the years. Ive learned a good amount about plumbing over the years.                                                  Around my area, very few guys actually sweat copper pipes these days. With the invention of shark bite connectors, and pex pipe, the old skills are not used much anymore.                       Years ago, a plumber carried some packing, a small heater to heat lead, which was poured in to the joints on cast iron pipes. This took a lot of skill. All copper pipes were sweated in with a torch, and flux and solder.  Gas pipes were cut, and threaded on site.                               If you had a copper line freeze up and break in the winter, a plumber would have to let this pipe drain before he could sweat the copper joint and repair it. Now, he'll cut the pipe, cut a piece of pex, grab two shark bite connectors, and snap it together in a few minutes. Like most all trade work, it's all about speed. Plumbers in  my area make very good money. Not easy or glamorous work. Scale pay around KC was around 35.00 per hr last I knew, and good benefits with the job also.               Are there any plumbers here on BR?  What " type of plumbing do you do? Residential, commercial, or underground work?

I am not a certified standalone plumber. I have flipped two houses in the last two years by myself, minus a couple of sub contractors for roofing and quartz. 

 

Residential DIY plumbing is extremely easy in my opinion. The newer technologies now make it a breeze. You mentioned PEX and SharkBite fittings. Every "real" plumber I know, do not use SharkBite fittings as the norm. They are too expensive and prone to leaking over time. Most will use the pex crimp ring system with the brass fittings. 

 

They now have flexible drain lines to go to a P-trap, so essentially you may not even need to measure for those things anymore. Just connect and inspect for leaks. 

 

Plumbers who are doing initial build rough in, inspections and final plumbing can make fantastic money. I hope more of our youth get in to these types of trades. 

I have to work on the plumbing side every once in a while. I hate it. Wallowing around in excrement under a trailer house will make a person wish they went to college. 

3 hours ago, Skunkmaster-k said:

I have to work on the plumbing side every once in a while. I hate it. Wallowing around in excrement under a trailer house will make a person wish they went to college. 

I went to college and still have to do that, while looking for a snake 

 

I do have the right to fire a customer at any time though haha

I did a plumbing apprenticeship almost 20 years ago and loved it! This was just as the pex started to take off. I loved sweating copper. There were obviously nasty jobs we did but most weren’t bad at all.

 

I’d probably be a master plumber now but the owner of the company I worked for was a journeyman plumber and he had and ego bigger than Texas so he was always questioning the master plumber and ended up firing him. Back to the HVAC side I went and I eventually quit because he wouldn’t hire a new master and the HVAC was too monotonous for me.  

8 hours ago, Skunkmaster-k said:

I have to work on the plumbing side every once in a while. I hate it. Wallowing around in excrement under a trailer house will make a person wish they went to college. 

Been there done that. We had a main sewer run broke under a trailer once, told the people not to use the plumbing so things could dry out under there but they didn’t.

 

Those people ate a lot of corn! ?

My Grandfather(my Mom's Dad) was a plumbing contractor.  He started out doing residential work but before he retired (in 1976) he was doing big commercial jobs, as well as water and sewer systems for towns and cities.   

 

My other Grandfather and my Dad were building contractors.   Mostly residential stuff.  My Grandfather retired in 1974.  My Dad retired in 1998.   My Grandfather built everything.  My Dad mostly built houses for Doctor's,  Lawyer's and other.....well paid professionals.  At one time he had people waiting as much as 5 years for him to build their house.  His business cards said "Worth the Wait".  

 

The picture was cropped from a fish picture.  The house was one of the first houses on Moss Lake (NC).  It was the second house my Dad built after my Grandfather retired.   There's a fairly big rock wall below the house.  I carried every single one of those rocks from the road behind the house down the hill to where the wall is in a wheel barrow.   I was 11 then.