Electrician VS Plumber

Well, I will say plumbers and electricians have more in common than you might think.

Both of them are respected tradespeople.

Both plumber and electrical will always provide an essential service that will always be in demand.

Both of them are well paid and if they want, can go into business for themselves.

Stay with me and you will read and 6 key points to consider when making your decision.

Let’s dive deeper in.

Electrical vs Plumber Career

What is the difference between a plumber versus an electrician and what career options will you have depending on which path choose?

If you want you can start out doing this kind of work and can definitely stick with it.

There are many other career paths to choose from with additional experience or training,

Plumber Career Options

Commerical
Industrial
Residential
Pipelayers
Pipefitters/steamfitters
Specialize in the fire suppression sprinkler system
Sales specialists
Medical gas installation (for hospitals and clinics)

Electrician Career Options

Commercial
Residential
Industrial
Network cabling / CATV specialist
Power line worker
Security and fire alarm system installation

Depending on which career path you will choose that will do on daily basis will vary a bit.

How Long Does Training Take

To become a plumber or electrician I take the same amount of time.

Both of them plumber and electrician are regulated by the Ontario College of Trades and required a fixed number of in-class training hours, and on-the-job instruction(apprenticeship).

Around 9,000 hours or 5 years of education to become a journeyman in either trade.

While you work as an apprentice much of that is paid training.

Who Makes More Money

The plumbers and electricians make pretty much the same amount in Ontario, the Government of Canada data on salaries show that.

Median Electrical salary: $30/hour about $62,000 per year
Median Plumber salary: $28/hour about $58,000 per year

It will come down to something more than just money if you’re between these two trades.

What Natural Skill Do You Need

Okay, let’s start with math. Brushing your math skills from high school knows what becoming an electrician means.

Electrician students need to dive deeper into arithmetic, algebra, and geometry but the plumbers never use math.

Important tasks for an electrician is:

Routine measurements writing lengths, room dimensions, conversions from watts to kilowatts, etc
Current, calculating voltage, and resistance
Calculating angles for example for bending pipe and conduit around obstacles

On the opposite, the plumbing students have technical materials to learn too.

If you choose this trade you’ll be studying:

Venting
Friction, Gravity, and kinetic energy
Fluid dynamics
Calculating water pressure

Both of them plumbers and electricians involve theoretical concepts, mathematical equations, and a certain amount of memorization.

Well, I don’t wanna say that one is more “difficult” than the other.

Depending on your natural interests and skills in these areas.

To succeed at you work plumbers and electrician need similar “soft” skills, this includes:

Grace under pressure
Respect for safety procedures and regulations
Independent problem-solving skills
Good customer service skills
Excellent attention to details
Excellent communication skills
Strong interpersonal/teamwork skills
Blueprint reading
Reliability/punctuality

How “Dirty” Will You Get

Often thinking “dirty” when you think about the plumber.

On the opposite, the electrical considered a “clean” trade.

Well, the truth is that neither assumption is totally accurate.

That plumbers have a lot more career options than unclogging toilets and drains.

That explains you can specialize in medical gas for example which involves installing gas lines for clients and hospitals with no grains and toilets involved.

On the side of the electrical there more dirt than most people realize.

Crawling around old basements and up into attics electricians see their fair share of grime and gross stuff.