Jill Stagg

When people heard that I was training to be a plumber, some would say “you deal with poop all day?”. It seems that when people think of plumbing, they think of backed up toilets. However, dealing with waste and waste water is only one type of work that a plumber can do.

At Modern Niagara, I worked as an institutional/commercial/industrial plumbing apprentice. This is known in the industry by its abbreviation ICI. I worked in the special projects division. I worked with waste water, potable (drinkable) water and venting systems. A lot of what we do is based on chemistry, physics and math. We use the Pythagorean Theorem to calculate angles and pipe lengths. From soldering pipes to dealing with chemicals and solving problems, you have to understand the science that is behind it.

Although plumbing and steamfitting have things in common, they are very different. This is certainly true in regards to their daily job and work environments. As a steamfitter, I still deal with pipes carrying water and air. I also work with pipes meant to handle the highest of pressure and handle more dangerous materials. For example, these pipes might carry such things as steam, chemicals, gases or fuel. These pipes tend to be larger and heavier in size. As a result, handling these materials involves a lot of hoisting and rigging. We also use crane lifts for the really large pipes. You also have to feel very comfortable working at heights.

Steamfitters work closely with welders and many steamfitters also obtain their welding certification! There is a lot of science in steamfitting. We need to know how heating, ventilation, refrigeration, and air-conditioning systems work. Because the pipes steamfitters handle are so large, it requires very precise measurements. This means that mathematics applications (such as trigonometry) are used often. The saying “measure twice cut once” is of very important to us. There is a lot of teamwork involved.

Understanding pressure is very important in steamfitting. For example, we need to know how much pressure (psi) is acceptable in different pipes. We also have to know how pressure acts on liquids in closed systems. We also have to understand the effects of gravity on fluids in pipes. The best example of how far plumbing/steamfitting gets from working on toilets, is hydronics. This is using water or steam in heating and cooling systems. Commercial buildings can have a hydronic system that has both a heated and chilled water loop. These can be very complicated series of pipes and loops. If you have seen a hot water radiator in a house, you have seen a hydronic system.

Most people realize that plumbing is important to make sure there is drinkable water in a building and a way to get rid of wastes. But the type of work we do goes beyond this. For example, on the site I am currently on, they are installing CRAC units (computer room air conditioning units) in a computer centre. This centre has huge banks of computers that store information from all across the country. This is what people mean when they say information is “stored in the cloud”. The cloud exists on computers somewhere. These computers create a lot of heat. If the computers are not cooled they will crash. If they crash, this information can be lost, or at least not available to the people who need it at that time. Things like this help me realize how important my work is!