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TECHNICAL
Tell me why you became a plumbing contractor – Gideon Pieters
By
David Smith
This month we chatted to Gideon Pieters of Alligator Plumbers to find out more about his experience of being a plumbing contractor and the unique journey his career has taken .
David : Hi Gideon , please tell us more about your journey as a plumbing contractor and how it all started .
Gideon : Hi David . Well , from a young age I was exposed to civil engineering and the construction industry through my dad , who was the Chief Building Inspector for the Department of public works in the Free State ( I grew up in Bloemfontein ). During school holidays I would accompany my father as he did inspections , be it for a new school or hospital or whatever else has been recently built and I believe it is why I developed an interest in the various trades which comprise civil engineering . That was my introduction to it and then as I grew older I came across an old saying that said that a plumber has the potential to earn the same as a doctor , so naturally that was appealing to me . The main thing however is that when I was looking at the different trades and making a choice as to which one I would pursue , I realised that plumbing offers – in my opinion – the biggest variety of skills which overlap with other trades .
For example , you learn sheet-metal work , which is an entire trade on its own ; you learn soldering and brazing , which falls under the spectrum of boilermaking ; you learn to cut threads for things like galvanised mild steel pipes , and that falls under fitting and turning and then you learn to work with polymers like PVC pipes and the glues you have to use with them . You have to learn about pumps and valves ; hydraulic principles , bricklaying and tiling , and so on . Increasingly with new technologies being developed things are becoming more automated so you learn a lot about electronics as well . So for me , plumbing was the most beneficial option and it also felt natural , it felt like I was stepping into my dad ’ s shoes in many ways . That was the start of it .
Later on I then progressed from being a contractor to lecturing plumbing at the Flavius Mareka TVET College in Kroonstad . While I was there , one of the things I did before I left was converting the workshop into a trade test centre to be certified by CETA . While teaching plumbing in Kroonstad , my wife who was working for a mining company got transferred to Musina in Limpopo . I was offered an opportunity to become a training officer for them in the engineering department and then for about eight years I was out of plumbing , instead working directly with apprentices studying all the various trades . After that I became a senior training officer and started moving into the lifting equipment space , working with forklifts and mobile cranes and such . Then Covid-19 arrived and I started working on a rotational basis , five weeks at the mine for each one week at home with my wife , who by then had been transferred back to Joburg . One of the eeriest sights was seeing the normally busy roads being empty , with me as the only soul on the road . I eventually decided that enough was enough and I started to think about my options and I decided that I would start my own plumbing business and return to my old trade .
So that was exactly what I did , I started Alligator Plumbing in December 2021 and its been a full time occupation running my business since then . And that ’ s the story of how I ended up becoming a contractor not just once , but twice .
Supplied by Gideon Peters
Gideon Pieters of Alligator Plumbers .
David : [ Laughs ] That certainly is a new one , but something I have picked up on in previous interviews is that a lot of plumbers who end up in management or administrative positions end up longing to return to the tools where they started off and they still have the same passion for the trade after so many years . Would you say that applies to you ?
www . plumbingafrica . co . za @ plumbingonline @ plumbingonline @ PlumbingAfricaOnline March 2023 Volume 29 I Number 1