What it Takes to be a Tradesman

Student: Why do I need to learn algebra, geometry and trigonometry? I’ll never use them in real life.

Teacher: You won’t, but the smart kids will.

I recently had the opportunity to watch a couple of “REELS” on Facebook. That little joke was in one. The overall context of the reels was not important, but the subtext; what a trade career is really all about, was. For all of the negative stereotypes construction careers get from academia, trade people have a much greater need for and command of mathematics than just about any other career path, save engineers, architects, scientists and a few others. 

Harking back to a sad incident that I personally witnessed some years ago. Standing in line at a local McDonald’s I watched as young girl behind the counter tried to make change after a computer failure in the store. She was unable to make change for the order when the customer handed her a $20 bill. She grew so frustrated and embarrassed that she simply broke down in tears. So much for never using math in “real life.”

“What it takes to have a career in the trades” is an open-ended question with many multifaceted answers. I thought we could look at just one in this column, mathematics, and how we in the trades excel at something most people can barely grasp.

Math Takes Center Stage

Speaking directly about the pipe trades, using mathematics is so much a part of what we do that we barely even notice that we are using it. Starting from the ground up, math is critical to every aspect of what we do. You can’t install sanitary sewer piping without knowing what percentage of slope (1/8” (1.04%), ¼”/Ft (2.08%), etc.) to dig the trench so the waste will flow downhill. As well, you can’t calculate slope without knowing your finished floor elevation and sewer connection depth.

Even before that, calculation is required to lay out where the plumbing or piping needs to go inside of a building of, maybe, two acres in size that is nothing but a couple of stringed “batter boards” for corners and the finished floor elevation (FF) noted on them. It requires geometry and trigonometry to locate where the bathrooms and future fixtures need to be installed. That’s just the start of a job! Heck, even calculating a 45° trench off the main trunk line (to save either depth or pipe) requires math. 

Euclid: Volumes, Radii, Diameters, Circumferences

A function of mathematics we in the trades use frequently is Euclidean Geometry. We have the need to know and understand volumes of containers, how to calculate the area of a circle, pipe diameters, fluid dynamics, temperature variations and so much more. Dealing with pressures of gases, fluids and sometimes solids is an everyday occurrence for the average tradesman.

Even in residential construction the requirement to know and understand math is extant. In areas of the country where hydronic heating is used, sizing boilers, circulating pumps, zone valving and the footage of baseboard heating, calculating temperature and pressure gradients as well as cubic feet of space heated or cooled is a common mathematical skill used by just about every craftsman.

Easy Peasy

The use of basic math and advanced mathematics is so ubiquitous to the trades in general that we hardly even think about how much we use it. All the while, the average young person today is stumped by having to make change for a $20 bill, or so it seems. Yet we in the construction industry are considered uneducated, or more accurately, under-educated because we didn’t go to college. 

The funny thing about that is, the people with the useless four-year degrees in such important subjects as “Lesbian Dance Theory,” consider themselves superior in intellect to the lowly guys who build things with their hands. It would be laughable if it were not so misguided and sad.

At any rate, back to the “reels” I saw. The subject matter was pipe-fitting and welding, and even though they were comically exaggerating what life in the trades was like, I couldn’t help but admire the people who put in the time and effort to make the things we all require in this 21st century.

There were several “reels” where a foreman was asking young apprentices, that were ready to become journeymen, what they were going to do and how much their new jobs were paying. Without going into great detail, every one of those young men was looking at a great career. There would be challenges, of course, but the rewards were there to see. Like the welder lying on the cold ground, in the mud, to weld a joint on an outside pipeline. He did it because it was his job, plain and simple. No cell phone distractions, no break room computer games, just getting down in the mud to weld that pipe joint and make a six-figure salary with no college loans to pay off.

The toll the trades take, physically (as it is shown in the reels) came across as comic relief, but it is as real as it gets. We use ourselves up, physically, doing our jobs. I don’t think I know a single craftsman who has been at his trade for a considerable length of time who does not have some physical disability caused by working in the trades. 

The gist of this column, more than anything else, is to let everyone know what it takes to be in the construction industry, and that we in the trades deserve the thanks of our fellow citizens and the acknowledgment that we, not the white collar guys, will be the ones standing long after AI has come for every information worker. So far, anyway, they don’t have robots that can do what we do. They’re probably too smart to get into the trades anyway.