managing plumbers who can't solder copper without screwing up

been in the chicago area my whole career running a small plumbing outfit, and im just done with these apprentices who cant get a clean joint on 3/4 copper pipe without needing three tries. last week we had a job quoting a full re-pipe on a old bungalow, and my lead guy soldered the main line so sloppy it leaked before we even tested pressure, cost us two extra hours fixing it. saw a post on r/plumbing about using pex-a instead of copper to avoid this bs, but customers here love the 'traditional' look. anyone else dealing with guys who treat the torch like its their first time? in plumbers united group, folks are saying its all about better training, but im tired of babysitting on every water heater swap. ngl, might just switch to sharkbite fittings full time to cut the drama.

haha, sounds like my first year, i melted more fittings than i connected.

fuck these kids coming out of trade school thinking they know it all but cant handle a basic dfu calculation without a calculator. unions ruined em.

train em on pex first, less fire risk and faster installs. i use uponor propex expansion tools, way more forgiving than soldering.

we had a guy quit mid-job bc he 'hated copper', left us hanging on a $5k repipe quote.

same here man, my crew chief cant even thread pex-b without kinking it every time. feels like starting over every season.

ugh, i get it, been there with flaky helpers on drain installs. sucks.

proud of my team though, we hit 150 jobs this year without major fuckups, all thanks to weekly solder drills.

man, that chicago cold makes copper even trickier, joints crack if not perfect.

try the milwaukee m12 soldering kit, changed my life on tight jobs.

private equity is scooping up good plumbers, leaving us with the bottom of the barrel. its a conspiracy i swear.

my outfit runs smooth now, cross train em on both copper and pex from day one.

how do you quote extra time for their screwups without scaring off clients?

boss made me solder in 90 degree heat once, looked like abstract art when i was done.

frustrated as hell with the turnover, lost two guys last month to hvac for better pay.

scaled to three vans last year, key was paying em commission on upsells like softeners.

sharkbites behind walls? hell yeah, saves my ass daily. purists can cry.

watched a tommy mello vid on team motivation, tried his pizza friday thing, kinda works lol.

inspectors in your area probably hate sloppy work too, seen em fail whole jobs over bad joints.

homeowners calling at 3am bc a leak started, all bc junior plumber.

use roger wakefield's technique from his youtube, slow and steady on the flux.

same rage, these newbies treat ridgid presses like toys, boom goes the warranty.

insurance rates jacked up bc of their mistakes, were all paying for it.

document everything in jobber, covers your ass on disputes.

what's your go-to fix for a bad solder, re-do or patch?

damn, that hits close, lost a big commercial bid bc my guy botched the demo.