Site/commercial work

[gornsgorns]

Newbie here, been browsing for a while decided it was about time i posted!

Anyway, just come to the end of my apprenticeship for a small domestic company. Problem is the work is a bit slack at the moment and as much as i like the job, i think it may be time to move on. My mate works for a bigger company doing more commercial work, schools & offices e.t.c. I'd be able to get a job with this firm, but having been used to domestic work for 4 years i'm a bit unsure whether to go for it. Has anyone any experience of the commercial side of plumbing? How different is it to domestic? It would also mean i wouldn't be able to do much gas, which is a shame as ideally i wanted to really get into boiler fault finding now i've got my ACS. Any advice would be great!

Also, how much of a killer is the half 7 starts on site?!

 

[GQuigley67]

I'm from commercial side of things and to be honest when we had domestic guys through agencies they got fouund out pretty quickly, its completely different from domestic alot of pipe fitting everything needs to be done to spec and done to a high standard, working from drawings aswell, don't get me wrong the work isn't really that hard but with my company anyway the domestic guys didnt last long if they had no previous experience through an agency, or if they tried to get a start direct they didnt get one


I wanted to get off the sites as I want to do more heating work than plumbing, maybe in the future I'll do my commercial tickets and try get into commercial heating, but commercial is pretty repetitive and is hard to keep yourself motivated when your doing the same stuff day in day out, also winters are really bad lol.

 

[gornsgorns]

Yeah i've heard it gets rather cold on site in winter!

So you rekon it's hard to adapt to commercial then? The way my mate's been explaining it all it seems pretty easy. The only difference being is that your working from a set of plans and everything needs to be to spec. I guess it isn't as easy as he rekons then! I'd like to think i'm pretty good for my age and could get into the commercial side if i put my mind into it. Not so sure now you've said that though.

It's just so depressing working in domestic at the moment. I'm sick of customers thinking they know how to do your job, asking you a million and one questions about what your doing and standing over you whilst your working. Then you've got people undercutting you who are prepared to work for peanuts. My boss got a phone call last week about servicing a boiler. Told the customer 45 plus vat, then they said it's ok we know someone who'll do it for 20 quid. Whats that all about!

It would be good to not have that hassle on site and just get on with working.

 

[GQuigley67]

it is easy work once you adapt to it, but the guys dont have time to teach you they would be wanting to take on a guy who has experience so they can let him get on with it and make them money

 

[tamz]

There is nothing hard about doing commercial plumbing. If you can read a drawing and do a decent effort at fitting pipe neatly you will be fine. Some different jointing methods but none of them are hard to pick up. The money is decent and no one is ever in much of a hurry so you don't get stressed the way you do on domestic stuff.
Half 7 is a pretty much std start time anywhere. Just get to bed earlier or learn to live with less sleep :lol:

 

[gaspastemania]

Need to get used to bracket set up and air con a,sparks tray being in the way everytime ,,,,,grrrrr