Bourne Comment

BE A PLUMBER YOUNG MAN, YOUR COUNTRY NEEDS YOU

Sound advice to any youngster who wants to earn a good living with a prosperous and secure future is to give university a miss and train as a plumber because there are rich pickings out there for anyone who knows what a ballcock is or can find their way around a branch drain or closet bend while the ability to mend a failed boiler or dripping tap would in itself keep them in clover for the rest of their lives. Such a pursuit does mean some manual labour in that you need to get your hands dirty although the consolation is that there is always somewhere convenient nearby to wash them.

The mysteries of the supply and distribution of the domestic water supply are lost on most of us and when things go wrong as they often do we reach for the telephone to call for professional help but despite the mass of advertising offering their services for anything from a blocked drain to a cold radiator most appear to have gone to ground at the moment they are needed most.

Plumbing is the system of pipes, drains, fittings, valves, and fixtures installed for the distribution of clean water for drinking, heating, washing and waterborne waste removal but also refers to the skilled trade which installs and maintains it, the industry being a basic and substantial part of every developed economy.

The word derives from the Latin plumbum for lead because the first effective pipes used in Roman times were made from this metal although plumbing has an even greater claim to antiquity, having originated during ancient civilizations such as the Greek, Roman, Persian, Indian, and Chinese cities where they developed public baths and needed to provide water for larger numbers of people.

The industry that we have today is based on these early experiences although it is now highly technical and regulated by government agencies due to the direct impact on the public's health, safety, and welfare and so plumbing installation and repair work on houses and other buildings must be carried out according to specific codes to protect the inhabitants and to ensure safe, quality construction to future buyers. If permits are required for work, plumbing contractors typically secure them from the authorities on behalf of home or building owners.

There are cowboys around ready to turn a quick buck in return for shoddy workmanship but it is reasonably safe to employ a registered plumber although the problem is in finding one and the social media is full of tales of woe from besieged home owners who have leaking pipes or failed boilers and are unable to find one to carry out the necessary repair work which, by its very nature, is always an emergency.

Like our doctors, many appear to work office hours from 9 am to 5 pm on five days a week and experience indicates that they are most unwilling to turn out in the evenings and at weekends and certainly not on Bank Holidays. Unfortunately, because work is so readily available, plumbers are able to pick and choose when drawing up their weekly work schedule with little effort with the result that emergencies appear to take a back seat.

Contacting a plumber urgently, even in a small town like Bourne, is also a difficult process because modern technology has provided them with an elaborate telecommunications system to protect them from actually speaking to the public who call in seeking help after paddling around in a flooded kitchen or finding that the lavatory has overflowed. The automated voice asks them to leave a message or directs them to a mobile which passes them on to voicemail, a merry-go-round which earns the phone companies a fortune but gives little comfort to the distressed householder anxious to get immediate help.

Complaints on Facebook and other Internet social media platforms tell a similar tale, one man trying to find a qualified plumber to repair a dripping tap losing two gallons of water a day yet every single plumber in the locality was so busy that after three days of inquiry he had not spoken to anyone and although he left messages with six of them not a single one called back.

These and other incidents are common, despite the wide-sweeping promises in our glossy trade magazines that these professional tradesmen will undertake all aspects of plumbing work at all times and even offering a 24-hour emergency service while the social media web site Street Life continues to carry pleas from worried home owners: “Where can I find a plumber?”

That is the problem as Britain faces its worst skills shortage for thirty years, a gap caused by the decline in apprenticeship places with the result that, according to the Mail Online (11th February 2015), a plumber aged just 19 who has completed a two-year training scheme can earn Ł100,000 a year if he is prepared to work while fellow teenagers run up hefty student debts attending university.

A shortage of skilled workers such as plumbers spells disaster for home owners for although rich pickings are available it is inevitable that those who are established in the trade will take the best jobs that come along and leave the menial ones at the wayside yet it is those small tasks on which the profession was built and on which society depends.

The result is that worried home owners switch to national organisations such as British Gas which do provide an efficient and immediate service in return for an annual payment but in doing so that local business has gone from the community simply due to the apparent lack of regard some plumbers seem to have for their customers.

The situation is not entirely bleak however because Bourne and district has several first class plumbers with regular customers who cherish their relationship and are prepared to go that extra mile to give satisfaction. Overall nationally though, the picture is not a good one and the Internet has several web sites devoted entirely to complaints from disgruntled customers which reflects a most unsatisfactory trend.

The labour market is therefore badly in need of more and young people busy eyeing the professions and wondering which path to pursue who are looking eagerly at the attractions of the media, fashion and show business industries hoping that they might make their mark there one day, could well find that a practical approach with spanner and pipe wrench would prove to be far more profitable and satisfying as well as being able to make a valuable contribution to the community in which they live.

Note: This article was published by the Bourne web site on 5th June 2015