Electrician vs Plumbing - careers ?

[John Cotton]

At 40 with basic knowledge of both plumbing and electrics which would you advise retraining for ? ie. Is either oversupplied now / any difference in the amount which can be made self employed ?

 

[Burnt Fingers]

What would you rather? Being Electrocuted or being covered in crap?

Plumbing's easy anyway. All you need is a bit of copper tube, some solder and a blowtorch. Don't need any woood drill bits as you lay all pipes on top of joist's as close too the floorboards as possible so you can charge ton's too repair the pipe when some unfortunate soul nicks it with the saw

Plus you can join pipes wherever you like - hidden or not, using anything from hoseclips to solder ring and it all complies.

 

[Gordie]

we were always told at college that a plumber is just a sparky with his brains bashed out. Just a joke of course I have a bit of respect for plumbers, joiners now well that is a different matter sepecially when they nail or screw a cable and for some reason they always pick the cooker or shower circuit

 

[telectrix]

if you can read, write, spell and add up something apart from your bill - then train as a sparks. if you want to make money just by working and not writing oodles of paper, become a plumber.

 

[telectrix]

additiom to last post. since when did a plumber have to measure and record the resistance to water flow of a few feet of copper pipe

 

[Burnt Fingers]

additiom to last post. since when did a plumber have to measure and record the resistance to water flow of a few feet of copper pipe

And one piece of test gear, £30 to buy and a bit of inky water now and then to calibrate

 

[millwall ken]

I wouldn't advise my worse enemy to be a sparkie. There is just too much crap that we're expected to deal with now... Part P being just one of them - surely once you're qualified, your qualified. Sparkies have to constantly update qualifications/knowledge (no complaint), and the critierior for full status is constantly being pushed further and further back. As far as I'm concerned its just not worth the time, effort or expense anymore.

 

[f1ngerz]

Bet if you asked this question on a plumbing forum you would get the same biased view you have here

 

[Gordie]

Well said. Now I just happen to work for a local authority and we have plumbers, painters and joiners with the lut I sawatter complaining about the fact I am paid more than them. They think we should be paid the same but when does a joiner have to check his work and sign a legal document to say all is safe.

 

[pmac10]

i work as an electrically biased maintenance engineer in a factory so know both points of view and whilst i agree with most of these posts,and appreciate they are from a domestic view, don't dumb down plumbers, fluid flow in pipework equations make your R1+R2 look like 1+2=3 which is exactly what it is, have a look at Bernouilli's equation for fluid flow in pipework for confirmation. for the op, spark all the way!

 

[Freshstart2]

According to Payscale they have similiar pay
Electrician -is £ 12 ,716 - £36 ,214
Plumber £12,144 - £31,670

I have also check other sites and it says they are both around 24 - 26 k a year.

 

[i=p/u]

id say it be good if you know someone in the trade and have job lined up, and as some say electrical is more demanding, where plumbers are let free, if you work for yourself.

try get few weeks work expierience on each trade before starts in september, i assume. then make that choice you want to feed you for your life. ive done bit of everything, bricklaying for a year, plasterboarding and dry lining for six months , jonery 2 years and plumbing odd days when wasnt working with mate it all gets boring after a while, but aint bored with electrics yet. it does seem superior to other trades. dont know why. but it does.

and remember electrical is hard to get a placement...