Plumbing courses for beginners

[mo]

I am a keen DIYer but I know my limits, one of these is Plumbing, I am too afraid to c*ck it up incase I make a mistake and water leaks everywhere.

I quite fancy going on a course and came across this:

I am looking at the 4 day course which lasts 2 weekends and goes over the basis. It costs £350.

1) Anyone been on this course or similar ones

2) Will I come out capable of doing the basics or you really need a lot longer than 4 days to be able to pick things up?

One of the things I wnat to be able to do is move my basthroom basin, which would require disconnecting the current pipes, extending them and then reconnecting them in a new position.

For those that are DIYers but know a fair bit how did you learn?

I might also consider some of the other courses, a lot of money to be saved on future tradesmen if I learn enough I guess.

[David in Normandy]

£350!!! A lot of dosh, but maybe cheaper than a plumber.

I put off doing any plumbing for years due to the same fears - water everywhere. However, I finally took the plunge :-) a couple of years ago and it wasn't as hard as I'd feared. My advice is to buy yourself some good books with clear instructions and pictures of the various jobs. The other tip - if you plan to use copper pipe and solder is to make sure the joints are spotlessly clean, no burs etc, polish with wire wool and use a suitable amount of flux. I just plunged in with plain copper fittings - not Yorkshire fittings and fitted an entire new bathroom at first attempt at plumbing. And not a single leak!!!

The cost of educating myself was around £30 in decent plumbing books.

Anything you don't know or understand ask on the forum - there are plenty of plumbing experts here!

[Jim K]

Agreed.

for the jobs the OP describes I would have thought a general DIY book would have enough info to make a very good start

Jiim K

[Tim Watts]

It is a noble cause and the price is average for that that sort of thing.

You'll get more out of it if you practice in some spare parts first, on the kitchen table[1]. Then you can raise problems with the instructor even if it's something not normally covered by the course. Also, make sure the course covers what you want to do - eg if you want to plumb copper, no point if the course is all push-fit plastic.

Waste is usually plastic these days (olden days it could be lead, iron, or copper). Water is plastic (JG Speedfit or Polyplumb are two major and incompatible system) and copper, with either solder, compression or pushfit (plastic eg Speedfit or copper eg Cuprofit). It's worth deciding what you want to go with.

Copper done nicely will last a very long time. But plastic is pretty good and incredibly simple and conducive to easy and quick work and the flexibility allows you to get away with more compared to copper.

If you can, get a few bits and bobs like bath u trap, tap connectors or flexi tails, bits of pipe, as you think you might use on the real job and have ago dry fitting them to get familiarity with the basic components.

If you really are a novice, borrow a Reader's Digest DIY book from the library - loads of piccies of the main operations and stuff.

HTH

Tim

[Tim Watts]

I meant to mention that there are two waste systems: solvent weld which is fairly easy and bomb proof if done right, and push fit and they aren't compatible (pipe is a slightly different size).

And there is another subsystem based on compression plastic fittings that work with either pipe and even if you don't use that primarily, you will meet it on things like u traps.

[Harry Bloomfield]

mo brought next idea :

Buy some pipe, some fittings and the tools - then simply have a go, just make sure pipe and fittings are clean before you start.

[Dave Liquorice]

Just dived in... However I had watched my Dad do plumbing and had been building electronics since the age of 10 or so, so knew the theory and practice of soldering, it just needed to be scaled up.

Soldering is a skill and with all skills it needs practice, but it's not difficult. =A3350 buys a lot of fittings and tube to practice with, practice that you will need wether you go on the course or not.

Google for the many How To's that are out there, read a few, that will give you the basic procedures. Then practice, so you get a feel for how long you need to play the blowlamp on the fitting and pipe before it will be hot enough, how much solder you need to feed in, how long the joint needs to be kept still whilst it cools etc.

[The Medway Handyman]

I have a cunning plan to open a DIY school one day & run very basic, but hands on courses in basic plumbing, carpentry, fixing stuff to walls etc.

Books & the interweb are great, but practical hands on is much better at suppling that vital part - confidence.

[Cicero]

==============================================================================

Plenty of good advice already, especially about buying books. Some books are free and although they're not by any means textbooks they're very useful sources of basic information - trade catalogues. Toolstation's catalogue has pretty good illustrations of most tools and fittings and Screwfix online has much the same thing. You can also browse freely in Wickes, B&Q, etc. and handle most items to get an idea of how they're used.

As far as the course is concerned I think that the money would be far better spent on buying appropriate tools (tube bender, special spanners etc.) which can be quite expensive; you'll need to buy them anyway so you might as well buy them and practise in the comfort of your own home.

Most of the skill of plumbing is probably related to using your tools properly but the specialised skill of soldering is best learned by practice with some basic instruction readily obtained by Googling or asking here.

Cic.

[ARWadsworth]

I'm waiting to see what you are not allowed to do on the kitchen table eg [1]

[Dave Plowman (News)]

It's one of those skills that require many. Like accurate measuring when cutting or bending pipes, etc. Soldering. Having a 'feel' for screwing things together. Knowing how to fix to walls. General carpentry. And so on.

If you already have all those, the specifics could be gleaned from a decent book. Of course designing your own heating system would take more research. ;-)

I'm very glad I was keen on Meccano as a kid.

[newshound]

I've been using blowlamps for soldering since I was a kid (when they used paraffin with meths for starting). But one modern tool which isn't too expensive and might save you some grief if you have much soldering to do in tight spaces is the electric clamp-on type heater. Never used one myself, what do others think?

As others say, cleaning and preparation is the key for soldering, plus practice. And plastic is pretty easy provided no-one has to see it, as long as you remember the inserts and make sure you have full engagement. For copper, the other tool which saves time and money, and makes for a much neater job when it is done well, is a pipe bender. It helps if you have good "feel" and are good at visualising 3d problems. Oh, and get yourself a BES catalogue. There are all sorts of neat "crossover" fittings that let you tuck your pipes away neatly. Much wider stock than you will find in sheds and even some plumbing merchants, good prices and delivery. Always order a few more bits than you think you will need.

One other thing. Start by fitting the pipes to the taps, then join in to an existing run some way away even though it means an extra coupling. There is nothing more frustrating than calculating, measuring, cutting, and assembling and then finding your tap fitting doesn't quite align with the tap. There are more ways than you might think to get it wrong (up to six, in fact)!

[Frank Erskine]

It all depends on what you expect to achieve. Practical skills such as bending pipes, fitting and soldering elbows are one thing, and easily acquired, as others suggest, by buying a handful of bits 'n' pieces and playing about with them, testing the integrity of your connections by connecting to a bit of hosepipe i(n the garden!). The other aspect is designing your plumbing system, i.e. the "engineering" side, where you may learn from a course or selective reading of suitable newsgroups such as this one.

[The Medway Handyman]

Or just use a flexible tap connector. About £1 from Toolstation.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Absolute waste of time, money and space. ;-)

[Bill]

When I first moved into my current home I thought about those. They even had a 10 year guarantee. I've been here 15 years now, glad I went for copper all the way to the taps, it hasn't leaked yet.

[The Medway Handyman]

I'd say that the biggest cause of leaks/drips is that the pipe & thread are not perfectly aligned, especially with the inlet to a ball valve on a cistern. Forcing pipes into alignment to get the threads engaged is almost guaranteed to drip.

On a comercial basis of course they save so much time as well.

[Tabby]

I wouldnt waste the money or time. Whatever you need to know is available free online, and to get some practice you just need a few tools and fittings, which cost a fraction of that. Plumbing sinks etc is fairly basic. The issue with plumbing imho is unexpected issues along the way, that add time and curses to sort out.

NT

[Adrian C]

FWIW I did an electrical course there last year, C&G 2377.

Able is a well set up establishment with loads of trades (or wannabe trades) people getting their training and certs; all different nationalities as well, particulary the eastern europeans workers getting proper UK qualifications for their trades. Friendly atmosphere.

My course was just 2 days and mostly paperwork, but the other courses I could see going on had a lot of practical content - ye had to certainly walk about the site with safety boots, but luckily I saw no ambulance... :-)

[Andy Dingley]

IMHO, there are two sorts of plumbing:

• New installations. The components are new, the right size, the same size and they go together without problems. They also arrive empty and dry, so you don't have to add water until the work is finished.

• Repairs. Some time in the late Victorian / Eocene, some cack-handed badger installed the wrong part, upside down, and soldered it to a piece of lead left over from the Romans. Then they built a wall in front of it to make access even worse. It's already leaking, so you _must_ fix it now. It would be easy to do so, except that the component you need is only available from a plumber's merchant 20 miles away, which in 5 minutes time will close to celebrate Kwanzaa for the next week. One piece of pipe is sized in cubits rather than mm, and plumbers all swear that such a component has never been made in such a size, or with the necessary connecting part - despite their shelves being full of them (the piece you already have, not the one you need). When you've finally installed the three new pieces you needed to get them to work together instead of just the one that was actually broken, you discover that your pushing and pulling on the pipe has then caused something else six feet away to start dribbling.

If you want a really good read on the theory and detail of plumbing (i.e. which bits to use and how to install them), Treloar's "Plumbing" is a great NVQ-level textbook. Obviously the hand skills will then need some actual hands-on time.