Tag: plumber

Who Is Master Plumber Adrienne Bennett?

The First Black Female Master Plumber Has A Story Worth Retelling

February is Black History Month, and many stories are worth discussing. In the plumbing industry, black history is being written right now through the work of Adrienne Bennet, a master plumber and business owner in Detroit, MI. In the mid-1970s, Bennett started a journey to make her the first African American female master plumber in North America.

Beginnings: The Recruitment of Adrienne Bennett

Adrienne Bennett was raised in 1960s Detroit and studied metallurgy and engineering when she was recruited for an apprenticeship program trying to give minority women opportunities in trades. She decided to join up. She dealt with many challenges in those early years, including:

  • Being left alone to plumb a bathroom on the second floor of a building with no instruction. The others were amazed to find her there when they returned. 
  • Falling 30 ft due to the neglect of another apprentice and suffering a back injury that put her in a brace for a year.
  • Constant harassment, both physical and verbal from her male colleagues, attempting to scare her off the job. She began wearing a heavy tool belt to keep coworkers' hands off her.

Adrienne Bennett is tougher than an iron pipe and stuck it out to complete the program. She worked to make herself physically stronger so she could do the job as well, if not better, than her male counterparts.

Climbing the Ladder: From Journeyman Plumber to Master Plumber

contractorAfter completing her apprenticeship program, Bennett worked several jobs within her home city of Detroit. She logged her 4,000 hours and passed the exam to become a licensed master plumber. Some of the projects and jobs she seems most proud of include the ones in the list below:

  • City of Detroit: Bennett worked as a project manager, a plumbing inspector, and a code enforcement officer with the city for a decade.
  • Henry Ford Health System: She was working as a plumbing inspector for the system when the hospital needed a master plumber to manage the building and expansion project. Bennett became that master plumber and senior project manager. It was an $80M, three-year project.
  • Independent Plumbing Contractor: Since 2008. Adrienne Bennett has run her own business with her son.

The Final Plateau: Business Ownership

contractorShe has called owning her own business the final frontier for her. She had reached as high as she could climb working for others and now chooses to pursue her projects with the help of her son, A. K. She focuses much of her work on water conservation and commercial plumbing. She has helped at least one Detroit high-rise cut its water bill by half and is working steadily to help residential customers replace outdated pipes and fixtures.

About Affordable Plumbing, Heating & Air

Serving Fairhope, AL and the surrounding areas 24/7, Affordable Plumbing, Heating & Air are the ones to call for fast turnarounds. Call today for upfront pricing on plumbing service!

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Top 3 Previously Unknown Quality Traits of a Good Plumber

Pointers for Finding the Right Plumber to Hire

With the strict regulation on plumbing systems and its importance to your daily routine, it’s crucial that you hire a licensed plumber for your home. Having the right plumber at your home means the repair work gets done correctly, while also limiting the risk of major emergencies. For instance, an unlicensed or poorly trained plumber may show up and start carrying out repairs incorrectly, making your home susceptible to contaminated water or leaking pipes.

So how do you find the right licensed plumber? This article will be covering some of the important characteristics of a quality plumbing contractor and service company.

Always Opt for Licensed Experts

licensed plumberEvery plumber that you look for must have a license. Also, their compliance record must be clean. Carry out due diligence by checking for complaints against them. Alongside the licensing requirement, check that the plumber you may hire has several years of experience. Otherwise, they may not know the specifics of your home’s plumbing system.

Proper licensing assures you that the prospective plumber has all or most of the certifications needed. In some cases, like with backflow testing, without a certification, your plumber will not be able to properly register your device with the city. Additionally, if they are not licensed or compliant, you cannot lodge complaints about shoddy work. This can put your home at further risk of damage with no way of regaining losses.

Punctuality and Promptness Helps Limit Damage

When you specify the time to a plumbing contractor, you would want them to show up as agreed. Having set your expectations, you must not accept any excuse for lateness. Plumbing companies that value time should factor-in such eventualities by arriving at least 10 or 20 minutes earlier.

punctuality

Time is of the essence in emergencies, such as a pipe burst. As you’re waiting for a plumber to arrive, your home can suffer from extensive damage or worse, flood. Punctuality is not only about convenience, but also safety. Check reviews and always opt for plumbers that offer appointment windows - this always helps you schedule your day and ensure you get help when you need it most.

A Good Plumber is Prepared

prepared plumberA prepared plumber not only arrives on time but also comes with the right plumbing tools. It would be embarrassing for the team to show up with tools for fitting a kitchen sink when you told them it was the bathroom drainage pipe.

Unpreparedness means that the plumber will not fix the problem on time. They must now call their office and ask for the correct parts or tools. Once again, if you’re dealing with an emergency plumbing situation, a missing part can be the difference between a few hundred dollars in repair costs and a few thousand.

Choosing a plumbing contractor is always a challenge. If you keep the factors above in mind, you can do a better job of hiring the right contractor to ensure a long-term fix to your problems.

Call a Local Expert

Affordable Plumbing, Heating & Air commenced its operations in Fairhope in 1996. The company offers prompt service and skilled personnel. It also has a 24-hour response for emergencies with a courtesy call half an hour before arrival at your house.

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