Plumbers specialize in the installation and repair of water systems. They’re required to obtain a license from the state in which they work in and have a background in various aspects of industrial, domestic, and communal pipe work, water heating, drainage, sewer networking, dynamics of water flow, water storage, temperature adjustment, and dangers of water hazards.
Obtaining a plumbing license requires five years of apprenticeship before you are eligible to take the state test. Typically the apprenticeship includes hands on training under another state licensed plumber as well as in class curriculum. After a state license is obtained annual continuing education classes must be taken to meet state requirements.
Having a plumbing license is only one of many licenses needed to be effective in the trade. Other licensing include: backflow certification, carbon monoxide and combustion analysis and certain O.S.H.A certifications. The amount of education and training involved in becoming a master plumber is astonishing and can surpass those in the medical and legal professions.
Plumbers get their name from the Latin Plumbum, for “lead,” since the ancient Romans used pipes made from lead. The term therefore refers to the metallic element out of which their main building material were made of.
The contamination of drinking water by human feces was at one time the single greatest cause of human disease and death. It remains so, along with starvation and malaria, for the Third World. Typhoid fever, cholera and dysentery were the chief threats to survival in the early years of the nineteenth century. Because of the foundation laid by plumbers and sanitary engineers these diseases began to disappear.
Plumbers are unsung heroes who protect the health of our nation. These tradesmen and women work hard at very demanding jobs and have crucial knowledge and understanding regarding that basic necessity which every civilization and human being needs to thrive and survive: water! These plumbers make sure that every single person has healthy water to drink every single day and clean water for bathing. They are humanity’s lifesavers!