Overview of the NC Plumbing Code

If you are studying for the exam to qualify for your NC State Plumbing License, being comfortable with the Code Books is crucial. The exam is open book, but it is also timed, so knowing where to find information you are not sure of makes a huge difference. All of the relevant books and materials are provided. You can not bring your own code books with index tabs, highlights, and notes, but those are good practices for study and to have out on the job for quick reference.

The NC Plumbing Code is divided into 13 chapters. Each chapter covers specific information on one aspect of the plumbing system. Chapter one, which has mostly been superseded by a separate book, covers Scope and Administration. A copy of North Carolina Administration and Procedures should be included in your sturdy.

Chapter 2 covers Definitions used throughout the code. Some of the definitions given are trade specific terms and others are common terms used with specific meaning within the code. It is very important to understand all of the terms before continuing.

Chapter 3 covers General Regulations concerning the installation of the plumbing system, requirements for materials, and protection of the piping system. More specific requirements are given in the detailed sections, but the general requirements are assumed throughout.

Chapter 4 covers Fixtures, Faucets, and Fittings. This is where you will find the minimum material requirements for appurtenances used in the plumbing system, and proper use and placement.

Chapter 5 – Water Heaters. This chapter is much like the previous chapter as it pertains to water heaters. Water heaters are an important part of any plumbing system and presents dangers other fixtures do not, which is why water heaters rate a separate chapter.

Chapter 6 takes us into actual design and piping with Water Distribution Systems. There are numerous charts in this section that you will want to reference during the test.

Chapter 7 – Sanitary Drainage. This is perhaps what most people think of as plumbing – the waste pipe. Along with Chapter 9 – Vents, this is the real meat of the code. Waste and vent piping is what the plumbing inspector is going to spend the majority of his time inspecting. The most basic principle of plumbing is to provide the sanitary removal of waste. Problems with waste and vent systems not only cause potential inconvenience, they can cause sickness and spread of disease.

Chapter 8 covers Indirect and Special Wastes and supplements the general requirements of Chapters 7 and 9.

Chapter 9 – Vents. A plumbing system will not function properly without its vents. Improperly vented waste systems will not drain efficiently and can cause toxic gases to be released inside a building.

Chapter 10 covers special components of the drainage system such as traps and interceptors.

Chapter 11 covers Storm Drainage when it is not connected to the sanitary system.

Chapter 12 – Special Piping and Storage Systems covers anything not covered in other sections.

Chapter 13 presents all of the Referenced Standards used in the code. All materials must conform to one or more of these standards.

There are several helpful appendixes given. These are not part of the official code, unless they are specifically referenced within the code, and are given to clarify points in the code. They should be studied for the information they provide and some have charts that will be helpful while taking the exam, so be familiar with where you can find the info you need quickly.

The Plumbing Code exists as a single standard and one section can inform and alter another, so you will need to have a good overall knowledge of the code as a whole. It is also good to know where you can find information quickly during the exam, especially the many charts throughout the code.

I plan to go through each section of the code here on this blog over the next few months. I will tag posts by their Chapter to make searching for specific information easier. As I said earlier - using tabs, highlights, and notes will be helpful as you study and in the field as you work, but you are not allowed to take anything into the exam area. You need to be familiar with where to quickly look something up in a pinch.

Sometimes knowing where to find the answer is as good as knowing the answer.

NC Plumbing Code - Administration

Chapter 1: Scope and Administration

Much of this chapter has moved to another book – North Carolina Administrative Code andPolicies – which should be studied in addition to the Plumbing Code. What is left is general requirements for existing structures, temporary facilities, repair, and remodeling. There is also a section on inspection and jurisdiction.

It often comes into question, “What requires a permit, and what should be inspected?” Those requirements are addressed in this section.

All new construction and additions to existing plumbing systems require a permit and inspections. Some minor repairs and replacements can be completed without a permit, but they are very limited. You can, for example, change out an existing fixture, such as a faucet or toilet, without permit or inspection. You can even replace a water heater if it is the same size and fuel source, but not if the piping needs to be rerouted – so if you are moving the heater to the other side of the laundry room or closet you need a permit.

The basic rule is – you can replace piping and appurtenances exactly as they exist, but if the system must be altered then a permit and inspection is required.

The code also touches on historical structures and new innovation. Since historical structures must remain as they were constructed for historic purposes, the code allows for replacement and repair by historic methods that may now be prohibited by code. It also allows for special engineered designs that may allow new innovations of materials and methods. In all of these special cases a great deal of latitude is given to the local code official to use discretion.

This brings up a point that runs throughout the code – local rulings and the authority of the local inspector. The local inspector is expected to interpret and arbitrate the written code along with possible local ordinances or accepted practices. There may be requirements imposed by the local health department, for example, or minimum standards for a specific type of building. Much is left to the inspectors discretion when performing inspections.

It is always a good idea to check with the local official on anything that doesn't seem clear in the code. It never hurts to ask a question.

If you are working toward your journeyman or technician license there will be less emphasis on administration and more on piping systems on the test. But it is still important to understand the laws and regulations that must be followed. If you are working toward a state contractors or “Masters” license you will need a copy of North Carolina Administrative Code and Policies. In either case there will be questions on administration.

Definitions - First Step to Understanding the Code

Ask any licensed plumber and they will tell you that the first step in learning the code and studying for your exam is LEARNING THE DEFINITIONS.

That may sound really basic, and it is, but the Plumbing Code is a legal document and therefore very precise in scope and meaning. Even the simple words like SHALL or May have important meaning in the code. The section on definitions lists the definitions that pertain to the Plumbing industry, but definitions given in other codes (mechanical, fuel gas, building, etc.) are considered to be included by reference.

When in doubt – LOOK IT UP.

It is important to understand the meanings of technical and trade terms to understand the code. Many trade specific terms are not included in the definitions, but are assumed by experience. If you are not sure of a term look it up or ask your plumber or supervisor.

Some definitions are included below, but study your code book, and look at the definition chapters in other code books. You can view all of the NC State Code Books free online at: http://codes.iccsafe.org/North%20Carolina.html

BATTERY OF FIXTURES Any group of two or more similar adjacent fixtures which

discharge into a common horizontal waste or soil branch.

INDIVIDUAL VENT Vent piping from a single fixture to a branch vent or main vent.

BRANCH VENT Vent piping from a group of fixtures to the main vent pipe.

BUILDING DRAIN That part of the lowest piping of a drainage system that receives the discharge from soil, waste and other drainage pipes and extends 10 feet beyond the exterior walls of the building and conveys the drainage to the building sewer.

DEVELOPED LENGTH Length of piping measured along its center including fittings.

COMBINED BUILDING DRAIN A building drain that conveys both sewage and storm water or other drainage.

SANITARY BUILDING DRAIN A building drain that conveys sewage only.

BUILDING STORM DRAIN A building drain that conveys storm water or other drainage, but not sewage.

DRAINAGE SYSTEM Piping within a public or private premise that conveys sewage, rainwater or other liquid wastes to a point of disposal. A drainage system does not include the mains of a public sewer system or a private or public sewage treatment or disposal plant.

TRAP WEIR The highest point of water in a trap where it begins to flow down the horizontal drain piping.

GRAVITY DRAIN A drainage system that drains by gravity into the building sewer.

INDIRECT WASTE RECEPTOR A plumbing fixture designed specifically to collect

and dispose of liquid waste from other plumbing fixtures, plumbing equipment or

appliances which are required to discharge to the drainage system through an air gap such as floor sinks, mop receptors, service sinks, and standpipe or hub drains with integral air gaps.

LABELED Equipment, devices, fixtures or materials bearing the label of an approved agency.

PIPE SIZES For code purpose this is the nominal pipe sizes available commercially. When in the code, it is instructed to "increase by one pipe size." We should presume the pipe sizes that are available. 1/2, 3/4, 1, 1 1/4. 1 1/2 , 2, 2 1/2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

SCUPPER An opening in a wall or parapet that allows water to drain from a roof.

TOILET ROOM A room containing a water closet, and frequently, a lavatory, but not a bathtub, shower, spa or similar bathing fixture.

WATER SERVICE PIPE The piping from the water meter to the water distribution system of the building served. Water service pipe terminates 5 feet outside the foundation wall.

There are, of course, many more terms to learn. Read your code book. Google terms you are not sure of. Check the gas pipe and mechanical codes. The more comfortable you are with the common terms the easier it will be to understand the rest of the code. And if the inspector tells you that he is turning down your bathroom group because the developed length to the trap is too long and the branch tee is below the trap weir on your lavatory arm – you'll know what he's talking about.  

HB2 - Simple Solutions

The battle for bathrooms rages on. It has drawn national attention and cost a sitting Governor his re-election. And even as North Carolina is ranked in the top five states economically the media bewails the “millions of dollars” HB2 has cost the state economy – from basketball tournaments to rock concerts. But let's have a more serious look.

The Charlotte ordinance which prompted HB2 required businesses to allow transgender individuals access to facilities based on the gender they “identify” with. The law applied to public and private facilities, including schools. We are not only talking about individual toilet rooms or changing rooms at Target with latching doors. The rule applied to open “gang” showers and locker rooms.

In modern western culture we have developed the idea of personal modesty and privacy. That is the reason large public bathrooms have stalls and doors. If a man or woman exposes themselves to a member of the opposite sex it is considered a crime. There are cultures where such puritan ethics are unheard of and public bathing is not an issue, but not in western culture. There are also cultures where rape is not considered taboo.

That is the problem with Charlotte's ordinance and the reaction of the State in HB2. Supporters of HB2 have failed to present that basic, and simple, argument. They have allowed outside forces and liberal politicians to frame the case as “homophobia” and bigotry against a growing LGBTQ community. But the truth is more complicated. The Charlotte ordinance was bigoted against those who desire a degree of privacy and modesty.

If you asked the question “Are you okay with having a male in the shower with your daughter?” the answer would be almost unanimously NO. The person's “gender identity” is not really relevant when everyone is naked. What is relevant is young men and women being presented with the genitalia of the opposite sex in places like locker rooms and gang showers where they are required to disrobe. What is at issue is privacy and modesty.

This is an easy problem to fix that doesn't require either side to give up their rights. We do not need to force members of one biological sex to be in close proximity with the opposite biological sex while both are exposed. Remember, we put stalls with doors in bathrooms so we don't even have to expose ourselves to members of our own sex while we take care of business.

I remember when I was a kid many public restrooms had long trough urinals where men would crowd in, shoulder to shoulder. They were deemed unsanitary, and men wanted a little more privacy, so today we have individual urinals with partitions between them. Many facilities have done the same with showers, though many schools still have large, open, gang showers. But we have never had unisex gang bathrooms or public bath houses where men and women share facilities.

The simple fix is more privacy, not less. Just like the case where the state code requires division between urinals, a move to individual facilities would solve the problem without injuring the sensibilities or rights of either side. It is a design problem, not a political one. Trans people do not want to use the facilities of the gender they do not identify with and many non-trans people do not want to expose themselves with those of a different biological sex. Individual facilities do not require gender distinction.

This is where my whole rant relates to the plumbing industry, which is the point of this blog. We can design facilities that are more private and thereby more inclusive without stepping on anyone's toes. The cost may be slightly more, but not unreasonable if facilities are properly designed. I'm sure there was some complaint from business when trough urinals were phased out. But the payback in customer satisfaction, and saving expensive remodeling later with the whim of politics, is worth a little redesign.

It is up to us as plumbing professionals and designers to solve this issue. We should lead the way and make the battle over bathroom bills a non-issue. Some simple measures could be having partitions extend floor to ceiling with lockable doors, partitions in locker rooms, and individual shower rooms with adjoining changing areas. All of these exist in some facilities, it's just a matter of standards.

If our designs look at the places people demand privacy, and provide that privacy, we can make facilities that are more open and more private at the same time. A large unisex facility could have individual toilets and showers with individual changing rooms yet a large common area of lavatories and lockers. No one's privacy would be intruded, but there would be more inclusion and possibly a savings in construction and maintenance costs.

When we look to solve problems, not posture on ideology, we can find efficient, progressive answers. The “Bathroom Bill” debate is more about posturing than solving problems. As the nations designers and builders we can fix this. As America's plumbers, this is our arena – our area of expertise. Leave bathrooms to the State Board and to plumbers, not legislators and pundits. North Carolina can lead the way. Plumbers can once again “protect the health of the nation.”

Vents and Venting 101

When I talk to people in the industry – plumbers, designers, and engineers – I find a lot of confusion surrounding proper venting techniques. Venting in a piping system is based on one simple principle. If you place a drinking straw in a glass of water, then place your finger over the end of the straw and remove it, the straw stays filled with water. The water in the straw cannot flow out until air is allowed in. The straw is air-locked.

In a piping system, as fluid flows through the pipe, air is pushed ahead of the fluid and air must enter the system behind the fluid. This creates pressure changes in the system with pressure ahead of the flow increasing and pressure behind the flow decreasing. In a closed system the flow would stop, as it does in the straw. In an improperly vented plumbing system the flow is restricted, pressure on downstream traps can cause sewer gasses to push through, and negative pressure on upstream traps can siphon them dry. The restricted flow can also cause stoppages.

The principles behind proper venting allow these pressure changes to be eliminated. The most basic and effective vent system would be to individually vent every fixture in the system, and some engineers use this configuration for its simplicity. But this is lazy design and adds unnecessary piping which in turn adds cost to the customer. It is not necessary to individually vent every fixture in order to create a fully functional vent system. With a little thought, vents and their related cost can be eliminated without changing the effectiveness of the system.

Two of the chief confusions I find comes from terminology used and proper application of principles. I will focus on three main concepts that represent the same basic principle and seems to create the most confusion – Wet Vents, Circuit Vents, and Loop Vents. Keep in mind our guiding principle – fluid flowing in a pipe creates pressure fluctuations. We want to limit those fluctuations and allow air to freely enter and exit the system to keep the fluids flowing.

Circuit Vents and Loop Vents are in essence the same thing. In both cases a vent is extended up from the horizontal piping between the last two fixtures on a branch in order to vent a group of fixtures. The only difference is where the vent terminates. In a Loop Vent the vent loops back to the Stack Vent. This is only possible on a stack with one branch interval or the topmost interval of a multi-interval stack. Circuit Vents terminate individually or tie into a vent stack or vent header.

Loop Venting has advantages over Circuit Venting as it creates a relief vented loop with a vent before the first fixture on the branch (the Stack Vent) and a vent before the last fixture on the branch which are then tied together providing circular air flow within the branch. We will discuss relief venting later. In the Circuit vent we are limited to a single vent to provide air to our system. Yet often that is all we need.

In a Circuit Vent, as in a Loop Vent, the horizontal branch line is vented, providing a common vent for all fixtures connected to the branch. This eliminates the need for individual vents. We are limited to eight total fixtures on the branch, and only four can be water closets unless we add another vent before the first fixture – a Relief Vent. With the relief vent, or with a Loop Vent (which provides its own relief vent) we can vent up to eight water closets. That eliminates up to seven individual vents!

We can also connect multiple circuit vented branches in series, so in essence we only need one vertical vent for every eight fixtures on the horizontal branch (Remember: only four can be water closets unless we relief vent). In applications such as gang toilets or gang showers the cost savings for the customer really add up. And we are still providing ample air flow to our system. The principle behind this technique is based on the physics of fluid flowing in the pipes. In a properly sized and graded horizontal drain line (the grade on a circuit or loop vented drain should be no more than 1:12) the fluid stays in the lower half of the pipe, leaving air in the top half. This allows the drain itself to partially act as a vent.

That brings us to the Wet Vent. A wet vent is simply a vent that is also used as a waste for another fixture – generally a lavatory or sink drain. In a bathroom group, or two adjacent bathroom groups, all of the fixtures can be vented through the lavatories as a wet vent. This configuration is very much like the Circuit or Loop Vent – the fixtures on the horizontal branch are commonly vented through the waste riser serving the lavatories – but the wet vent can be the last fixture on the branch. It is also permissible in Circuit Vents and Loop Vents to utilize a Wet Vent for any or all of the required vents or relief vents mentioned previously.

A Wet Vent can also be used to vent another fixture as a Common Vent, such as venting a floor drain with a lavatory drain. Also, one fixture above another on a stack, such as a sink connected above a washing machine or a lavatory above a water cooler, can act as a wet vent for the lower fixture. We can even stack fixtures floor-to-floor, such as hand sinks or mop basins on multiple floors connected to a single vented waste stack. There are of course restrictions to what fixture drains can serve as wet vents, and pipe sizes required, but often one vent can serve multiple fixtures and thereby lower costs and complexity of the plumbing system.

Proper venting is not that complicated when we keep the basic principle of pressure changes in mind and follow the simple sizing and maximum fixture loads spelled out (with charts!) in the NC Plumbing Code. And when in doubt, an extra vent here or there will not hurt anything. You cannot over vent, but you can waste the customer's money by adding unneeded vents. The balance we seek is adequate air flow with minimum vent piping for the most efficient design and installation.

A few points to keep in mind:

• Eight fixtures on a single branch (no more than four water closets) can be vented with a single vent located between the last two fixtures on the branch – Circuit Vent
• More than four water closets on a branch requires a relief vent before the first fixture on the branch – Circuit Vent or Loop Vent
• A Loop Vent is, in essence, a Circuit Vent tied back into the branch's relief vent (Stack Vent)
• A Wet Vent is a vent that receives discharge from another fixture
• A Wet Vent can be used to vent two complete bathroom groups
• A Wet Vent can be used as the vent and/or the relief vent on a Circuit or Loop Vented branch
• Multiple fixtures can drain into a single, properly vented stack

A few “Gotchas” in Mecklenburg County:

• Urinals on a Circuit or Loop Vented line should tie-in to the branch on the horizontal and cannot be used as a Wet Vent
• Fixtures downstream of a water closet must be individually vented (some inspectors allow floor drains on a Circuit Vent with water closets – but better to individual/common vent and be safe)
• Pumped lines, such as a washing machine drain, cannot be used as a wet vent. Some inspectors consider a dishwasher to be a pump discharge – or a pump from an icemaker or condensate line.

In closing; I would suggest a quick reading of the NC Plumbing Code, Chapter 9 – Vents. It is very clear on when and where vents should be placed. I will also suggest a quick Google Image Search of Circuit Vent. As I said at the beginning, much of the confusion seems to stem from the terminology. There is very little difference between Circuit, Loop, and Wet Vents. They are all based on the same principles.

Taking the North Carolina State Plumbing License Exam

I'm old school. I started plumbing when I was ten, working summers with my father carrying appliances and tools to projects his men were working on and cleaning up around the shop. At twelve I was helping my brother. He was sixteen and already roughing houses alone. When I was sixteen my father closed his company and went to work for a large international construction company.

I hired on as my brothers helper at a commercial plumbing company when I was seventeen. We told them I was eighteen. My brother was a lead plumber at twenty-one. He'd gotten his journeyman license at eighteen and his State Master License at twenty. It took me until I was twenty to have the four years documented experience to take my journeyman test.

Back then you went to the inspection department and sat at one of the inspector's desk to take the journeyman test. The inspectors were hanging out, looking over your shoulder, making sounds in their throats that said “good job” or “you're screwing up.” Sometimes it was hard to know which. They all knew who I was. I was Jim Moore's kid, Mike Moore's little brother. I was there with three other guys. I knew two of them.

It was much the same when I took my state test a few years later, just bigger. The test was held once a year in an auditorium at the state fairgrounds. The entire State Board of Examiners were there, sitting at a long table at the front. I was there with a couple of hundred hopefuls from all over the state taking the test. The board members would wander around among us, grunting and shaking their heads.

When I took my test back in the eighties we were allowed to bring our code book, a #2 pencil, a slide rule, and a calculator. It was an eight hour test. Besides questions on everything from plumbing code to payroll taxes we also had to design and draw the plumbing for several structures including a house, an apartment building, and piping for a boiler.

When my father took his test, before I was born, it was a two day test. The first day was manual work. He had to actually rough the piping for a bathroom group, pour and wipe lead joints, cut and thread pipe, and solder copper pipe. If you failed day one you weren't allowed to take the written test on day two.

Things have changed over the years in the industry. Plumbers today are only required to have eighteen months experience before they take the journeyman test, now called the “technician” license. The State Contractor license, what was once called the Master License, only requires two years experience. The tests are administered daily, state wide, on computer in testing centers.

Over the years, working as a foreman, superintendent, project manager, I didn't really need my contractors license. I was in business for myself awhile, but after years of working for a company which held a state license I let mine expire. Recently I decided to reinstate my license. That required taking the state test again since it had been over three years since I renewed it.

In my time the state code contained a set of four books; Building, Plumbing, Mechanical, and Electrical. All a plumber needed to concern himself with was the State Plumbing Code. For the Master license you needed to have some knowledge of business and taxes, but it was up to the individual to figure all that out.

Today you need four books to take the test; the Administrative Code, the Plumbing Code, the Fuel Gas Code, the Laws and Rules book, and the book Business and Project Management for Contractors. All that information was on the test when I took it the first time, we just didn't have all those books. The addition of Business and Project Management for Contractors is especially helpful. I had to research all that information, and we didn't have the internet back in the eighties.

I won't say the test is easier now. It's different. I think the experience requirement is too short. A person would need to work and study very hard to pass the test with only two years in the trade. I've been in the industry thirty-five years and I didn't just breeze through the test. The questions were hard, sometimes obscure, sometimes misleading if I didn't read them carefully.

I do like that all the required information is available in five books you can order from the state. There are some questions that are from “practical knowledge” and not in the books, but working in the trade for awhile gives you that knowledge naturally. Those questions just assure you do have some working experience in the field. I advise any apprentice to order the books now and start studying.

I've known, and trained, a lot of apprentices over the years. Most worked four years (the old requirement) then bought a code book and started trying to cram for the test. That's not a good strategy. It is more advantageous to gain the book knowledge along side the practical knowledge. When you get home at night get out your books and find out why your plumber told you to run a pipe a certain way. What is the code behind it?

The test is open book. You can't take your own books, with all the notes and dog-eared pages. Books are provided at the test site. But you don't have time to look up every answer. You'll use the books for the charts you're not expected to memorize or to check an obscure question you're not sure about. The important thing is to know the books and where you can find an answer quickly. For the majority of questions you should know the answer without looking it up.

The computer test allows you to go back through your answers and even flag questions to return to easily with the “goto” command. So the old advice of answering all the questions you know first, then going back to tackle the harder ones, works well. I paged through answering the easy ones, skipping the hard ones, then started back at the beginning and went through again answering everything and double checking the ones I'd already answered.

That strategy worked well for me. You can also page through just the unanswered questions, but I found a couple of the easy questions where I had clicked the wrong answer and was able to correct them. You need to time it right. Another strategy might be to answer the easy ones, page through the unanswered ones, then recheck everything from the beginning. Just make sure you answer every question even if you have to make a wild guess before your time runs out.

The test is multiple choice – four possible answers. An unanswered question is obviously a wrong answer. If you make a guess, you at least have a one-in-four chance of getting it right. And many of the choices are blatantly wrong answers, so that increases your odds to one-in-three or even fifty-fifty. You can even tag the ones you guess at and come back to them if you have time and look them up in the books. Just don't spend so much time researching an answer that you run out of time with other, possibly easy questions unanswered.

Some people know all the answers, but they freeze up taking tests. You just have to stay chill and push through. At least you don't have your father's golf buddy messing with you while you're trying to concentrate. You'll be in a quiet room, in your own cubicle, sitting at a computer with a stack of books to reference. No one is looking over your shoulder or rushing you. Be systematic, determined, and relaxed. Good luck.

Information on the North Carolina Contractors License testing procedure:

 http://www.nclicensing.org/examInfo.asp

Training the Next Generation of Plumbers

The construction industry has changed a lot over the years. I've been in the industry for thirty-five years and I've watched it evolve over that time in many ways. One of the most alarming trends is the aging of the workforce. When I was in my twenties, it seemed everyone was in their twenties. Sure we had the “old guys”. They were the foremen, the bosses, but most of the workforce was young.

Over the decades that changed as we all aged. Almost a decade ago when the insurance crisis first began, with skyrocketing premiums and ballooning heath-care costs, the company I worked for had an average age of forty-eight. The insurance companies blamed that for the rising premium costs. As the job market collapsed, forcing more young people out, that average age only increased. From boss to helper, we were all “old guys”.

The tight economy hasn't helped, and you can see the aging trend in every industry. Go to McDonald's and you may see forty and fifty year old cooks and cashiers. The jobs that were traditionally filled by high school and college students are now filled by middle aged workers trying to get by and pay their mortgage. But what does that mean for the future of the construction industry?

Construction is a difficult and physically demanding profession. It also takes years, even decades, to learn and master the skills involved to be highly productive. We have a highly skilled, highly productive workforce, but where will they be ten years down the road? Who will step into their boots and build the future? I learned much from those “old guys” when I was a young apprentice, but there are very few young people being trained today.

The current generation of young people were convinced that a college degree was their ticket to a high paying career and the American Dream, not the traditional blue-collar, middle-class dream my generation grew up with. Many struggle now to find work in their chosen fields and pay off their huge student loan debts. With the hard economy they are competing for even part-time work against people twice their age with long resumes of experience.

Over the years the construction industry has failed to entice young people into the trades. The economic decline and shrinking workforce didn't help. There wasn't a great need for new workers and seasoned workers struggled to keep the jobs they had. But as the economy rebounds the labor shortage will blossom into a major crisis. And that crisis will hit the construction and maintenance trades the hardest as companies look for young men and women to fill the boots of an aging workforce.

Over the next few weeks I will be talking to industry leaders and workers in the field about the future of the plumbing industry, and skilled trades in general, in North Carolina. We have an opportunity now to entice young people into the trades, but to do so we need strong job training programs and a commitment from the industry to hire and apprentice young people. The American Dream of my generation, and my father's generation, was built on hard work and craftsmanship. We owe it to the next generation to train them as we were trained.

I sat down last week with Shane Walden, head of maintenance at a large local facility. We discussed the aging workforce and the need to train a new generation. His people are all in their forties and fifties. One of his HVAC technicians started over in his fifties. I've known many others who were forced to do the same as the economy shrank. Our discussion focused in on what skills are needed in a changing workplace.

Shane told me that a broad skill-set and knowledge base are essential. That is sorely lacking in many training programs that teach generic fundamentals, but little or no real-world application of skills. With the ever changing industry many trade schools are behind the times or they choose the path of generic training they consider “evergreen skills”. But what new workers need is hands on experience with today's newest materials and techniques.

In times past, broad experience was gained over time on-the-job as an apprentice training under a seasoned craftsman. Years of experience on a wide range of projects offered an apprentice a diverse skill-set. But the industry today tends toward specialization. We'll talk more about that in a minute, but the unfortunate outcome of specialization is an apprentice who may be very good at one aspect of the craft yet have very limited knowledge of other aspects.

That is understandable from a business point-of-view in a highly competitive marketplace. If a company has an apprentice, or even a technician, who is highly productive running copper water pipe why would they have him doing anything else? Business is about profits and profits grow through increased productivity. Yet the craftsman gets pigeonholed into a limited skill-set. This is a place where trade schools can fill the gap with diverse training programs that offer a young apprentice hands-on experience with a wide range of skills and techniques he or she may not acquire on-the-job.

But some specialization is important for greater skill, better quality, and higher productivity. The old truism tells us that the Jack-of-all-trades is often the master of none. Shane told me that in his position as chief of maintenance he likes to cross train his plumbers in heating and air and also electrical skills. A broader skill-set is always desirable. But he still has plumbing technicians and heating and air technicians. It's good to know a little about a lot, but it's also important to know a lot about something.

Again, training programs need to follow that same diverse yet focused paradigm. Students need a broad skill-set with hands-on experience using the latest materials and techniques, but also specific knowledge in emerging areas that are in demand. I asked Shane what he sees as some of the specific skills needed in the industry today and what is likely to be needed tomorrow. Building automation and controls was his top pick. As we strive for better efficiency and conservation, greater control of systems in real-time is emerging as a highly skilled specialty.

LEED, or Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design has become a major part of building design and construction in recent decades and efficiently maintaining structures after construction can make a dramatic impact on continuing operational costs. A large part of that efficiency comes though precise system control and balancing. Though much of that work involves the HVAC and electrical trades, environmental concerns and energy efficiency is also an emerging part of the plumbing industry.

With the growth of building automation technology and energy efficient design comes the need for many skills not traditionally associated with the building trades. One of the emerging skills needed by both new and seasoned workers in the industry is basic skills and familiarity with technology. Often the older, most experienced craftsmen are the least comfortable with emerging technology – from basic use of computers to CAD (computer aided design) and BIM (building information modeling) practices.

Our industry is changing. In this new millennium plumbers will continue to learn the skills and knowledge dating back to the Roman Empire, and add to that emerging skills and knowledge which will take us into the decades ahead.