Plumbing systems are, at once, a modern marvel and historical wonder. Following early innovations in plumbing and urban sewage disposal, the quality of life enjoyed in the UK leapt by perhaps the largest margin in modern history. Today, the public tend to take their plumbing services, from the supply of clean water to the removal of wastewater and beyond, somewhat for granted – at least, until a plumbing professional is required.
Plumbers are a pillar of national infrastructure, from domestic work to large-scale infrastructure. The tools of the trade are vital to ensuring plumbers work efficiently, and maintain this important infrastructural marvel.
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Essential Plumbing Hand Tools
This may seem a patronising point to make, but is no less important or true for it: no plumber is capable of adequately performing a given task without having an essential set of plumbing hand tools to hand. There are many ways in which a job can be temporarily performed using household materials or improvised fixes, but there are no substitutions for the correct tools – which is why plumbers are never without a well-stocked toolbox of must-have equipment.
These essential hand tools generally take the form of the wrench. Various wrenches, spanners and socket sets are e
mployed in the maintenance and repair of plumbing, from pipe wrenches for leveraged removal of copper piping to pliers for more delicate material removal requirements. Cutting tools are also a necessity, from pipe cutters to modified secateurs.
Advanced Tools and Equipment
While hand tools are essential in day-to-day plumbing work – and all plumbers will need for most basic repair tasks, such as the removal and replacement of sink U-bends – they are not the only tools a plumber will employ. There are also more advanced pieces of kit, which are used for difficult and precise plumbing tasks.
One tool which straddles the line between essential hand tool and advanced device is the pipe threader, which is used to tap a thread into new copper piping to enable solid mechanical fitment. More complex tools take the form of optical drain snakes and other camera devices, which can be used to both unblock difficult-to-reach pipes and survey the extent of blockage or leakage in the same.
Technology and Efficient Repair
These tools and items of equipment have formed the bedrock for general trade plumbing work over the past few decades, but are not the pinnacle of the profession. New innovations and technologies are constantly being employed, to improve both the efficiency of job-by-job domestic plumbing repairs and the management of industrial or civil water and sewage systems.
For instance, regional water companies are increasingly using geophysical survey technology – more commonly associated with archaeological projects and, culturally speaking, cult TV series Time Team – to detect and monitor leakage in water supply and drainage systems beneath roads. These technologies are continually improved upon, with future innovations expected to reduce the size and time constraints of subterranean survey technology considerably.
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