jack spotz
golly alison, i would hope that at 11 yrs of age you’re smarter than sylvan and will UNDERSTAND that plumbers don’t really rip the lungs out of their customers. mr. sylvan is a little over protective of his hard earned liscense, which is a direct result of all the new trends in our industry. the really big guys like home depot are really making the professional plumber, who does actually play a major part in “preserving the health of this nation” by installing and maintaining sanitary water and sewer systems in all of our homes. we are the people who make sure that chemicals in your lawn, or even blue stuff in your toilet tank can not get into your drinking water. other nasty things we protect you from are raw sewage(also known as e- coli bacteria) getting into your drinking water. we understand and protect you from evil things such as lead, asbestos, mercury, carbon monoxide poisoning, and fire hazzards from propane and natural gas. the industry trend now is to do it yourself. honestly the home depot types sell to the general public, plumbing material at cheaper prices than plumbers pay for them. they have convinced the general public that they can do all of their plumbing repairs themselves as well as a plumber, and though relatively rare, dangerous situations do arise as a direct resut of lack of training. i personally have had customers either create very unsanitary living conditions in their home or blame me of being a crook after giving them a price on a fixture that for me to sell it with enough markup to stay in buisness, i will be 50% higher than home depot. this makes me look foolish in my customers eyes, but a professional plumber has always been paid more for what he knows, than what he installs. very unsanitary plumbing is installed every day by people not qualified to do the work, and the same people who are only trying to save a few bucks are honestly putting themselves at risk. plumbers are called every day to fix homeowners mistakes. though we do a professional, safe job, the homeowner hates us because they know what we have paid for our material and think we are ripping them off. we have sons and daughters just like you and must be paid a living wage to make sure they can still go to college, or are at least raised in a good home. another interesting industry trend is the fact that people your age are taught that they should work with their minds and not their hands. being a plumber is VERY uncool now days and it is very hard for us to find and hire quality young people to join our trade. plumbers perform as important a part in our country as farmers but neither of us get any respect. how many kids in your school actually WANT to be a plumber? i’d bet none. these are just some thoughts off the top of my head, if you have any specific questions on this subject, e-mail me at [email protected] i will gladly help any youngster with any interest in this trade, good luck on your report. jack
