Top 12 Plumber Skills to Put on Your Resume

In a crowded plumbing market, the resume that actually gets a call back speaks plainly about capability. Show a rounded toolkit. Make it easy for hiring managers to see you can diagnose, build, repair, and coordinate without drama—on residential jobs, commercial sites, or in the mud somewhere between.

Plumber Skills

1. PEX Systems
2. Welding
3. Blueprint Reading
4. Hydro Jetting
5. Video Inspection
6. Trenchless Technology
7. Backflow Testing
8. Solar Water Heating
9. CAD Software
10. Pipe Threading
11. Leak Detection
12. Soldering

1. PEX Systems

PEX systems use cross-linked polyethylene tubing—flexible, resilient, and quick to run—for hot and cold water distribution in homes and commercial buildings.

Why It's Important

PEX is light, fast to install, quiet in operation, and resistant to scale and corrosion. Fewer fittings, fewer leaks. It bends where copper needs elbows, and it shrugs at minor freeze events better than rigid pipe.

How to Improve PEX Systems Skills

1. Match system to method: Stick to one connection standard on a job (expansion F1960, crimp F1807/F2159, or press F2080). Don’t mix styles or tooling.
2. Respect handling limits: Follow minimum bend radii, use sleeves through studs, add nail plates at strike zones, and keep PEX out of UV light.
3. Use the right tubing: Oxygen-barrier PEX for hydronic heat. Non-barrier for domestic water. Color code runs and label manifolds.
4. Control water quality: Aim for pH around 6.5–8.5, filter grit, and keep chlorine within local limits. Sediment and chemistry shorten lifespan.
5. Insulate and support: Insulate cold zones to prevent freezing and sweating. Follow support spacing guidelines so lines don’t sag or chatter.
6. Pressure test properly: Test to code with air or water before closing walls. Document results and address any pressure drop immediately.
7. Plan for expansion: Allow for thermal movement at long straight runs with slack, offsets, or expansion fittings.

How to Display PEX Systems Skills on Your Resume

2. Welding

Welding joins metal by melting base materials and adding filler to create strong, sealed connections—common on steel piping, hangers, structural embeds, and specialty assemblies.

Why It's Important

It delivers permanent, leak-tight, pressure-capable joints where threads and flanges aren’t practical. Critical for gas, fire protection components, and heavy-duty industrial work.

How to Improve Welding Skills

1. Choose the right process: SMAW for field toughness, GMAW for shop speed, GTAW for thin or stainless, and brazing where capillary flow beats fusion.
2. Prep like it matters: Clean to bright metal, bevel when required, fit tight, and maintain proper root gap. Purge stainless to protect the backside.
3. Control heat: Preheat thick sections, watch travel speed, and manage interpass temperatures to prevent warping and brittle joints.
4. Match filler and base: Use compatible consumables and follow any applicable procedure specs for pressure work.
5. Work safely: Ventilation, PPE, fire watch, hot work permits, and a tidy, non-flammable work zone. No shortcuts.
6. Practice with purpose: Run coupons, test destructively, log parameters, and pursue recognized certifications where required.

How to Display Welding Skills on Your Resume

3. Blueprint Reading

Blueprint reading means deciphering plans, isometrics, and schematics to understand pipe routing, fixture locations, elevations, and materials before you cut a single length.

Why It's Important

Misread drawings, and everything downstream suffers—ordering, scheduling, rough-in heights, code clearances, penetrations, even inspection timing.

How to Improve Blueprint Reading Skills

1. Master symbols and scales: Plumbing legends, line types, valve tags, slope marks, and scale conversions should feel routine.
2. Work in 3D in your head: Read plans, sections, and details together. Visualize vertical stacks, offsets, and transitions.
3. Know the codes: Interpret intent against local plumbing and mechanical codes—chases, venting, trap arms, and clearances.
4. Coordinate trades: Compare against structural and electrical drawings. Spot conflicts early and request clarifications fast.
5. Practice takeoffs: Count fittings and measure runs from real sets. Build a bill of materials and verify against site conditions.

How to Display Blueprint Reading Skills on Your Resume

4. Hydro Jetting

Hydro jetting blasts water at high pressure through specialized nozzles to cut grease, roots, scale, and sludge from inside pipes.

Why It's Important

It clears what augers smear. Restores full diameter. Prevents repeat calls by washing the line clean instead of poking a hole through the clog.

How to Improve Hydro Jetting Skills

1. Pick the right nozzle: Penetrators to break blockages, spinners for descaling, root-cutters for intrusions, and rear-jet angles for optimum thrust.
2. Match pressure and flow: Use manufacturer specs and pipe condition to guide settings. Fragile lines get lower pressure and more water volume for safer cleaning.
3. Inspect first: Camera the line to find breaks, bellies, or collapsed sections before you hit it with pressure.
4. Stage the clean: Open a hole, then descale, then flush. Work from downstream cleanouts when possible and finish with an upstream pass.
5. Work safely: Wear eye and hand protection, control hose whip, secure access points, and manage wastewater responsibly.
6. Maintain the rig: Service pumps, hoses, and nozzles. Worn jets waste pressure and time.

How to Display Hydro Jetting Skills on Your Resume

5. Video Inspection

Video inspection uses a camera on a push rod or crawler to assess pipe interiors—locating breaks, offsets, roots, and debris without digging.

Why It's Important

It turns guesswork into evidence. Confirms line condition, pinpoints problems, and documents the result after cleaning or repair.

How to Improve Video Inspection Skills

1. Choose the right camera head: The smallest that still gives good light and image clarity. Self-leveling helps with orientation.
2. Record clean footage: Use adequate lighting, keep the lens clean, and include distance counters. Narrate clearly—location, pipe size, material, and findings.
3. Locate accurately: Use a transmitter/sonde and locator to mark defects on the surface for precise repairs.
4. Use consistent defect terms: Name cracks, intrusions, offsets, and bellies consistently so reports read clearly.
5. Care for equipment: Inspect cables, clean and disinfect after use, and keep batteries charged and firmware current.

How to Display Video Inspection Skills on Your Resume

6. Trenchless Technology

Trenchless methods repair or replace buried piping with minimal excavation—think pipe bursting, cured-in-place lining (CIPP), sliplining, and directional boring.

Why It's Important

Less digging means less disruption, faster schedules, and lower restoration costs. Safer around sensitive sites and utilities, too.

How to Improve Trenchless Technology Skills

1. Pick the right method: Match soil, depth, diameter, access, and pipe condition to bursting, lining, or boring.
2. Verify conditions: CCTV before and after. Map utilities, check soil reports, and confirm flow bypass plans where needed.
3. Control the cure and pull: For CIPP, track resin temperature and cure times. For bursting, maintain steady pull force and proper head sizing.
4. Mind the details: Reinstate laterals cleanly, seal terminations, test, and document.
5. Keep safety first: Shoring, confined space protocols, and traffic control. No compromises.

How to Display Trenchless Technology Skills on Your Resume

7. Backflow Testing

Backflow testing confirms that prevention assemblies stop contaminated water from reversing into potable systems.

Why It's Important

It protects public health and keeps systems compliant. A failed device can silently pull in pollutants during pressure changes.

How to Improve Backflow Testing Skills

1. Know the devices: RP, DCVA, PVB, SVB—each has a test sequence and criteria. Learn them cold.
2. Use calibrated gauges: Test equipment should be clean, leak-free, and calibrated as required by your jurisdiction.
3. Follow the sequence: Isolate properly, bleed air, verify checks and relief performance, and record opening/closing pressures accurately.
4. Service smart: Clean or replace checks and relief components with approved parts. Retest and tag the device.
5. Document and report: Keep clear records, submit reports on time, and maintain current tester certifications per local rules.

How to Display Backflow Testing Skills on Your Resume

8. Solar Water Heating

Solar water heating uses collectors to capture sunlight and transfer heat to a storage tank, supplying domestic or commercial hot water with far less grid energy.

Why It's Important

It slashes utility costs and carbon while delivering reliable hot water. When installed and maintained well, systems hum along for years.

How to Improve Solar Water Heating Skills

• Site and orient: In the Northern Hemisphere, face collectors true south; in the Southern Hemisphere, true north. Set tilt near local latitude and avoid shade.
• Size it right: Match collector area, storage capacity, and load profile. Oversize and you’ll stagnate; undersize and customers stay lukewarm.
• Protect against weather: Use glycol or drainback designs for freeze climates. Add high-limit protection for stagnation days.
• Integrate safely: Pipe to a backup heater, install a mixing valve for anti-scald protection, and insulate tanks and lines end-to-end.
• Maintain routinely: Check glycol concentration, flush heat exchangers, inspect anodes (where applicable), and clean collectors as needed.

How to Display Solar Water Heating Skills on Your Resume

9. CAD Software

CAD software lets plumbers and designers draft precise 2D/3D layouts, size systems, and coordinate with other trades before anything gets cut or hung.

Why It's Important

Better drawings mean fewer change orders, cleaner installations, and faster inspections. Coordination pays for itself.

How to Improve CAD Software Skills

1. Learn the right tools: Get comfortable with MEP-focused features, from pipe routing and fittings to schedules and annotations.
2. Build standards: Create templates, layers, families/blocks, and naming conventions so drawings stay consistent across projects.
3. Coordinate in 3D: Use clash detection to spot conflicts with structure and ductwork before they hit the field.
4. Document clearly: Dimension properly, set sheets and views, control line weights, and keep revisions tidy.
5. Take it to the field: Use mobile viewers for quick checks and markups. Feed field changes back into the model promptly.
6. Practice on real work: Redraw past projects, time yourself, and refine shortcuts and workflows.

How to Display CAD Software Skills on Your Resume

10. Pipe Threading

Pipe threading cuts tapered grooves (NPT) on pipe ends so fittings can screw together and seal with compound or tape.

Why It's Important

It’s the backbone of many gas and water systems, yielding strong, serviceable joints that handle pressure and temperature swings.

How to Improve Pipe Threading Skills

1. Use the correct dies: Match dies to pipe material and size. Thread carbon steel and galvanized to standard NPT; be cautious with plastics—use rated threaded fittings rather than cutting threads into unsuitable pipe.
2. Prep and align: Cut square, deburr, and chamfer. Clamp firmly and keep dies square to the work.
3. Oil and cut clean: Apply cutting oil generously, advance steadily, and back off periodically to break chips.
4. Check your work: Verify thread form with gauges, clean thoroughly, and apply the right sealant—PTFE tape and/or pipe dope as specified.
5. Tighten with feel: Snug to spec without over-torquing. For stainless, use anti-galling compounds and slower speeds.
6. Maintain tools: Clean dies, protect from rust, and replace dull cutters before they ruin threads.

How to Display Pipe Threading Skills on Your Resume

11. Leak Detection

Leak detection finds and pinpoints water or gas escapes using acoustic listening, pressure tests, dyes, tracer gases, thermal imaging, and smart monitoring.

Why It's Important

Leaks wreck structures, waste money, and breed mold. Early detection saves all three.

How to Improve Leak Detection Skills

1. Start non-invasive: Check usage patterns, isolate zones, and listen acoustically before opening anything.
2. Use the right method: Thermal imaging for radiant loops, tracer gas for tough water leaks, dyes for fixtures, and pressure decay for concealed runs.
3. Work systematically: Valve off branches, test one section at a time, and keep meticulous notes with locations and readings.
4. Verify the fix: After repair, retest and monitor to confirm the system holds.
5. Educate the client: Recommend shutoff valves, pressure regulation, and smart monitoring where appropriate.

How to Display Leak Detection Skills on Your Resume

12. Soldering

Soldering in plumbing joins copper tube and fittings by heating the joint with a torch and drawing lead-free solder into the capillary gap with flux.

Why It's Important

Done right, it produces durable, watertight joints that pass pressure tests and inspection without a fuss.

How to Improve Soldering Skills

1. Prep perfectly: Cut clean, deburr inside and out, and polish mating surfaces to bright metal. Dry-fit before you heat.
2. Use the right materials: Lead-free solder rated for potable water and compatible flux. Keep flux thin—just enough to wet the surfaces.
3. Control heat: Heat the fitting more than the tube, feed solder opposite the flame, and let capillary action do the work. Don’t overheat and burn the flux.
4. Keep water out: Purge lines and use heat-resistant plugs if needed. Even a small trickle will kill a joint.
5. Finish clean: Wipe the joint while it’s still glossy, then cool naturally. Protect combustibles with heat shields.
6. Practice and protect: Run practice joints, pressure test, and wear proper PPE with good ventilation.

How to Display Soldering Skills on Your Resume