Ahhh rough plumbing need help!!!!

Sorry for the dramatic title But really i need help big time Ive finally landed an Apprenticeship job with a good guy. I like service work and usally only did (minor ) service work. Now im working for a guy who only does rough plumbing Im awful at roughs/ remodels. I have terrible Spatial awareness and my lay out and design skills are miserable. I dont know much and I start tommorrow. Please anyone With advice post it. I dont care what it is POST IT! Ex: "You need to use long radius bends on a DWV system when going horizontal to horizontal" anything helps even if you think its obvious i Could use it. EX: a toilet is 12"off the wall and its cold water supply is 6" off the centerline of the toilet.


Ugh i have so many questions i bet this is going to be a long thread!! Post anything that comes into your head BTW im from mass so if anyone knows mass code hook it up.

It could be about Wet venting, stack venting, relief venting, battery venting, how to vent a bathroom, Where you run your main drain/vent stack, how you like to vent and drain toilets, lavs etc... Any tips at all would be great

Thanks guys!

YA

Get you a sturdy 5 gallon plastic pail and place it upside down under the second floor bathroom. Now sit there and look up at the floor joists and framing. Picture where the toilet is going to be because that's where you are going to start your rough. Everything depends on the highest toilet in the house. Sit there for a good hour and plan, maybe even two hours. Then go upstairs and start marking it out. Of course, the big issue here is that you are just an apprentice and have no business doing anything other than drilling holes where your master tells you too. This is all stuff you learn from your master. You are not expected to lay out or plan anything except for maybe where to get my coffee from.

YOU are an "apprentice". You are NOT supposed to know how to lay out a DWV system, which is why you are supposed to be working with someone who does know how. IF he is sending you on jobs like that "on your own", then HE is not doing HIS job, which is to teach you the things you do not learn in school, and possibly violating the laws regarding apprenticeships. Technically, you probably should not even have been doing the service work on your own. I hope you are not expecting me to give you my entire 5 year apprenticeship training in one e-mail.

I don't know which "the CAPE" you are working at. If it is Massachusetts, do you actually have an apprentice card? Have you taken ANY class work, where you learn things about codes and designs? We will answer any specific question you may have. I don't know if anyone is inclined to start a "plumbing 1-2-3" classroom on the forum!!

ahhhh sry guys yeah my master was with me the whole time, i was just nervous im good at stuff you can "think" through i love plumbing/heating/cooling refrig theory and all the cool mechanisms and how the work im good at that (because i have no life and i just google plumbing stuff all night long). But Roughing is tough. It is hard because desinging and laying out an entire system is alot of work and there is a ton of information crammed into it. I struggle with it because i can't read about it i can't experiance it from a book like i can servicing a water heater or fixing a well pump. Rough plumbing is something you have to do! theres no one size fits all road map like changing the hot and cold seats on a symmons valve. AND it changes job to job contractor to contractor framing style to framing style. I just want to kick ass and take names but i realize i need experiance in it first... but asking you guys SPECIFIC questions would have some real value i think.

I just want an avenue to pick your brains so i can become better. Like Tom thanks that was helpful. Why does everything depend on the highest toilet? are you talking about convience of running your main soil stack/ undiminshed 3 drain right by your toilet?

and HJ yes i want your whole apprentice ship seriously if you could deliver that to me in a nice email pdf format that would be great No i don't want that but i do want to utilize you as a tool on my way to becoming a liscensed plumber.

Yes jimbo on all of those im a Mass Kid, yes i take classes just started really and ill ask specific questions Sorry.

Every job is designed differently so you will probably NOT always base the design on the highest toilet. When I was an apprentice, I was in charge of the journeymen, (including my future wife's uncles and brother and my father), and I designed the more complex systems, so my "apprenticeship" was attypical.