How to Hire Plumbers for a Residential Service Shop
Short answer: The licensed service plumbers you want almost always have jobs already. Hire them the same way you'd win a big repipe. Know exactly which seat you're filling. Find working plumbers through licenses, supply houses and referrals from good plumbers. Reach them directly, sell them on what your shop offers that theirs doesn't, and check their skills on real calls before you hand them a truck.
Why plumbers are hard to hire
A licensed plumber takes years to make. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says most plumbers learn through a 4- or 5-year apprenticeship with about 2,000 hours of paid on-the-job training a year. It also says most states and some localities require plumbers to be licensed, usually after 2 to 5 years of experience and an exam (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook).
You can't get a licensed plumber any faster by posting a better ad. The supply is fixed for years at a time.
Demand keeps going up. BLS projects about 42,000 openings a year for plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters from 2025 to 2035. It says most of them come from replacing workers who retire or leave the field (same source). About 65% of these workers are employed by plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors, so your competition for plumbers is the shop across town. See the full data page for every trade.
Step 1: Pick the plumbing seat you're actually filling
"Plumber" covers very different jobs. Before you recruit, decide which one you need:
- Residential service plumber: drains, water heaters, leaks, fixtures and diagnostics in occupied homes. Needs to work clean and talk well with homeowners.
- Drain and sewer tech: jetting, camera inspections, locating. These calls often turn into larger sewer-line or liner jobs.
- Repipe or install plumber: bigger projects with less customer contact.
- New-construction plumber: rough-in and trim on a builder's schedule. It's a different skill set and a different personality from service.
- Selling plumber: runs the call and presents options. See selling techs vs. service techs.
A great new-construction plumber can struggle in a homeowner's kitchen. A great service plumber may not want to rough-in a subdivision. Hire for the seat.
Write down the must-haves: the license level your state requires for the work (BLS points to CareerOneStop's license finder), a driver's license, your on-call rotation, territory and the pay range.
Step 2: Find plumbers who aren't looking
The plumber who'd be great for you isn't reading job boards. Go find him:
- License lookups. Many state boards publish searchable lists of licensed plumbers. That's a list of every qualified plumber in your market.
- Supply houses. The counter staff know who's good, who's unhappy and who just got passed over for lead.
- Apprenticeship programs and instructors. They know which of their apprentices turned into real plumbers. Apprenticeship.gov lists programs.
- Your own plumbers. This is the biggest source, and most shops never ask.
The peer-reference loophole
When you interview a strong plumber, ask for two or three peer references: plumbers at or above his skill level who'd vouch for him. You confirm he's as good as he says, and you get three more qualified plumbers to call. Ask your best plumber, "Who's the best plumber you've ever worked with?" and write down every name.
On a War Room role play, Joe Crisara shows a version of this. Playing the tech, he shuts down a homeowner's "my buddy can do it cheaper" and leaves the door open to recruit the buddy:
"If you want your buddy to apply for a job with us, then tell him to apply for a job, I'd be happy to hire him."
— Joe Crisara, role play on The War Room (17:12)
The lesson: every conversation is a chance to recruit.
Step 3: Pre-fill your bench before someone quits
The worst time to look for a plumber is the week your best one gives notice. Keep a bench list of three to five plumbers you'd hire tomorrow. Stay in touch every month or so, and keep it low-key: a text, a coffee, a "how's the new baby?" When a seat opens or you win a new contract, you already know who to call.
Step 4: Sell the job like a big ticket
Recruiting is a sales process. An employed plumber is making a big decision, just like a homeowner deciding on a whole-house repipe. He needs to trust you, see what's in it for him and feel safe making the move.
Ask questions first:
- What does he hate about his current week? On-call load, the dispatch board, being sent across the county, no help on big jobs?
- What does he want next? Lead plumber, the sales side, a set territory, more time at home?
BLS notes that plumbers often work nights and weekends and are on call for emergencies. A fair, predictable on-call rotation can be a stronger selling point than an extra dollar an hour.
Then present your shop as the answer to his specific problem, handle his objections calmly and ask for a decision. If you skip the questions, you're just reading a job post out loud.
Step 5: Test on real calls, not just in the interview
Pay for a ride-along or working interview with your lead plumber. Watch for:
- Diagnostics: water heater troubleshooting, drain and sewer diagnosis, finding leaks.
- Code and safety habits: permits, gas work, backflow, whatever applies in your area.
- Customer handling: does he explain the problem in plain words and offer options? Does he protect the floors?
- Paperwork: photos, notes and estimates in your field software.
Then call the peer references.
Why customer handling matters so much in plumbing: on The War Room, Andy Hobaica said a plumbing call that stops at an inspection usually stays small, and the bigger tickets come from liners, repipes, re-drains and new sewer lines. A plumber who can show a homeowner the problem on camera, without talking down to them, is worth recruiting hard.
Step 6: Hire better, fire faster
Set expectations for the first 90 days and write them down: callbacks, calls run solo, reviews, truck and paperwork. Meet weekly. If a new hire isn't getting there, coach it once, clearly, with a deadline. If it still isn't working, end it and go back to your bench. Keeping the wrong plumber costs you callbacks, reviews and the good plumbers who have to clean up after him.
What an empty plumbing truck really costs
You won't find the "empty truck" line on your P&L. It's real anyway. Pull your own numbers:
- Calls you turned away or pushed out this week × booking rate × average ticket.
- Plus emergency calls you couldn't take (often your highest-margin work).
- Plus your own hours under sinks instead of running the business.
That's the invisible P&L. Once you see it, the cost of recruiting the right plumber looks different.
How Thirty Madison Ventures recruits plumbers
We recruit licensed, truck-ready plumbing techs for home service owners, both service plumbers and selling plumbers. We go after plumbers who already have jobs: we map your market, reach them directly by text and sell them on your shop. If your local market is tapped out, we recruit from other markets and help with relocation.
From our homepage, word for word: "We deliver your first qualified candidates within 14 days of our kickoff call." And: "Every placement comes with a 60-day replacement guarantee."
Tell us the seat and the city. Book a call →
Watch: what a strong plumbing call is worth
Watch on YouTube: The War Room with Andy Hobaica (plumbing chapter at 37:31)