Plumbing can be an extremely profitable business, especially when you consider that plumbing is essential to being able to cook, clean, and practice good hygiene. It can be just the field for someone who has a basic understanding of mechanics and who likes to work with their hands. Becoming a plumber in the state of Florida is not difficult, but plumbers do need to meet specific requirements.
Steven Nagel, owner of the Tampa branch of American Leak Detection, has nearly 10 years experience assisting plumbing and pool leak customers. He says that anyone interested in plumbing first has to decide whether or not they want to become a registered contractor or a certified contractor. A registered contractor has passed a local competency examination on plumbing. Registered contractors can work throughout the locale in which the test is given. A good way to prepare to be a registered contractor is to apprentice with someone who already is certified or licensed; this will give you the experience to be able to pass the competency test. You also can take courses on plumbing to learn what is needed. Once you have become a registered contractor, you can go on to become a certified contractor. Certified contractors need to pass a competency test like registered contractors, but they are able to do jobs throughout the entire state of Florida once they pass the exam.
Once you have your registration or certification, you will be required to continue your education in the plumbing field. You have to complete a minimum of 14 hours in order to renew your contractor’s license. Within those hours, you have to have 1 hour each of classes that deal with safety, worker’s compensation, business practices, laws and regulations, and Florida building codes. If you hold both a registration and a certification, you don’t need to take the courses more than once; you can double count the courses for both certifications. Since renewals happen every two years, you’ll need to take the 14 hours of education within two years so that they can be applied at the next renewal.
Nagel says that you’ll need to have a little money in the bank to become licensed, since renewals and continuing courses have fees attached. However, most courses at universities aren’t more than a few hundred dollars per credit hour, and the renewal fee is only $209. This means that staying in business is relatively inexpensive in the plumbing industry compared to other fields that require far more continuing education credits. In some instances, just a few jobs can more than cover the cost of education and renewal.
Those who are interested in plumbing should know what they’ll get out of the registration, certification, continuing education, and license renewal fees before they start out. Plumbing contractors are allowed to do plumbing installation, design, alteration, repairs, and maintenance. They can work on a variety of systems, including sanitation pipes, venting systems, public or private water systems, septic tanks, supply wells, swimming pools, and irrigations.
Nagel says that specialties are an option in the plumbing field. For instance, you may decide that you want to work only on pools and spas, or you may want to concentrate just on working with a certain type of plumbing technology. If this is the case, then you can take courses and exams necessary to get certified or licensed in your specialty area. Specializing doesn’t mean that you can no longer do plumbing work outside of your specialty—your original plumbing registration or certification still will apply as long as it is kept current with continuing education and biennial license renewal. Specializing just means that you won’t get the same variety in your plumbing jobs as other contractors.
Nagel recommends that those who might want to get into the plumbing industry first do some job shadowing in order to find out if the job is the right fit. In job shadowing, you follow a person (in this case a plumbing contractor) around and watch him perform his daily work tasks while he’s on the job. He may allow you to assist in some cases, but most of the time job shadowing is strictly just observation of the job. That way you’ll know right away whether you want to go through the steps to becoming and staying a plumbing contractor. Contact a plumbing company like American Leak Detection to find out if you can shadow someone.
