Old pipefitter about lead and oakum

Do contemporary plumbers use lead-and-oakum much? The pipefitters went to no-hub or neoprene, various new technologies back in the '50s, largely for speed reasons, and I did a few joints when I was a pup, but I haven't seen a new one in a while. I understand lead-and-oakum is still code in New York City, but that's what you get for living in New York...

lead

About the only time I use it these days is to replace a cast iron toilet flange. Pipefitters never used lead/oakum or No-Hub. They do heating and process piping, not plumbing.

Actually, pipefitters did use lead-and-oakum, but then the lines between pipefitters and plumbers got blurred sometimes. Pipefitters used to do all the piping in factories, for example. It's certainly true now that plumbers would be the only ones using lead and oakum, if they still are. Any 'fitter who started pouring lead joints would never find work, 'cause his labor hours for the job would put him completely out of the market. Nowadays, you'd probably have trouble with the EPA over lead vapor.

lead

A long time ago I did a service call to a house. The customer had been a pipe fitter many years before and his is the only house I ever saw that was totally plumbed with Duram fittings and galvanized pipe all the way up to 4" pipe.

still have it

.........................................

still have it

I carry lead and oakum in my truck, with the ladel and
the caluking tools.....and some 6 inch deep cast iron flanges

its all in there somewhere, though I havent used it in at
least 2 years....

and occasionally we have had to pour a joint for a shower pan

the Oakum starts to break down after a few years of laying
dormant in the truck.......

and if I took it all out , I would need it the very next day.......

Of course, it is becomming a lost art...

all the dumb ass apprentices dont want to learn anything
hard like this anymore either.