TECHNICAL
35
Things are different now and you get copper and you get pex pipe , which has made things a lot more efficient but has also brought in a lot of “ plumbas ” who are fitters who have no idea what they ’ re doing and why they ’ re doing it . From a communication point of view things have gotten much easier with cellphones allowing you to talk directly to customers . In those days it was all pagers and fax machines and needing to make a telephone call to see if they have received your invoice and so on . These days you have email and whatsapp so from a technological point of view things have changed massively . Obviously tools and spanners and certain items will never change , certain tools have effectively become redundant but you can ’ t get rid of them just in case you need them – now and then out comes the basin spanner or the huge monkey wrench or even the rigid pipe vice . I ’ ve got quite a bit of tooling I ’ ve collected over the years and recently I ’ ve invested in more modern equipment , a PICOTE milling machine , drain cameras , utility tracking equipment etc . In fact , I do most of the drainage related work for my business , such as blockages and rehabilitation work as well as creating the knock-on effect , which is excavating collapsed sections of drains in addition to supervising installations of new sections of drains .
David : Any advice for plumbing apprentices out there ?
Dale : Number one – look after your knees . After thirty years of being in the trade I ’ ve had two knee operations and I ’ m fifty years old , by sixty I ’ ll have a double knee replacement as your knees really take a hammering . Try to look after your body in general when performing physically demanding activities like carrying heavy things or digging ; use protective clothing where possible ; don ’ t forget to wear a mask when cutting with an angle grinder ; wear safety boots and always have a hard-hat when you ’ re on a construction site . Those things are there for a reason , use them . If you can , insure your knees so that in thirty years ’ time you could potentially claim on them . If you are starting your own business then the first thing you want to do is get a computer as well as a decent accounting package so you can keep track of your records of what was done and when , so that when a client calls you up and says you did this or that and now the system has burst , you can say ‘ no , we didn ’ t ’ instead of writing things on scraps of paper .
Organisational skills are key , it doesn ’ t matter if you became a plumber because you don ’ t like admin , admin is the backbone of any business so get into a decent headspace and ensure you have a good admin system in place and that you are as consistent as possible in everything you do . In doing that , you ’ ll create good referrals and you ’ ll go far . Otherwise , as far as the current apprentice training system goes I think it ’ s phenomenal and I like the way they vet the new appies , they ’ re a lot more educated and prepared mentally for what they are doing . I don ’ t know if I believe in a lot of the soft skills they teach in the first three months , I feel there could be a little more focus on hand-skills and the basics , from that point of view I think when I came out of my first three months I was a lot more of a plumber than some of these apprentices are . Then again , there are those soft skills like conflict negotiation which I have actually seen come into play with my appy and it was quite interesting to watch . PA
November 2022 Volume 28 I Number 9 www . plumbingafrica . co . za