Level 1 Plumbing: What You Learn and How to Pass

Level 1 is where you find out whether you like the trade. It is mostly about doing things safely, measuring accurately and learning what every part of a domestic water system is called. None of it is wasted: we still use the habits you learn here on every call-out.

What a Level 1 course usually covers

• Health and safety on site: risk assessments, manual handling, working at height, using hand and power tools, PPE, and what to do if you find something like asbestos lagging.
• Hand tools and how to look after them: pipe cutters, bending springs and machines, adjustable spanners, grips, files, hacksaws, spirit levels.
• Copper pipework: cutting square, deburring, measuring, bending to angles, compression fittings and soldered capillary joints.
• Plastic pipework: push-fit fittings, pipe inserts, and why the pipe must be cut square and fully inserted.
• How water gets into a house: the water main, the communication pipe, the stop tap at the boundary, the supply pipe and the internal stopcock.
• Basic sanitation: what a trap does, how a toilet cistern fills and flushes, and the difference between waste and soil pipes.

Words to learn in the first month

Stopcock (the valve that shuts off the supply), isolating valve (a small valve to shut off one appliance), trap (the bend that holds water to keep drain smells out), fall (the slope a waste pipe needs), head (the height of water above an outlet, which gives pressure), compression joint (a nut and olive squeezed onto the pipe) and capillary joint (a soldered joint where solder is drawn into the fitting). Examiners like these terms, and so do customers when you explain what you have done.

How to do well in the practical

1. Read the drawing twice before you cut anything, and mark every measurement on the pipe.
2. Cut square. Most leaking joints in a workshop test come from a pipe cut at an angle or not deburred.
3. Keep it clean. Clean flux off soldered joints and wipe the bay down; tidiness is often part of the marking.
4. Test your work at the end and look for weeps before you call the assessor.

Getting ready for the next step

Ask your college about progression to Level 2 early, as places can fill up. Look for weekend or holiday work as a plumber’s mate. Even a few days a month on real jobs teaches you how a house is actually plumbed, which is never quite like the workshop bay. When you move up, our Level 2 plumbing revision guide covers the systems you will study next.

Practising safely at home

The best practice at this stage is on pipe offcuts on a bench, not on the house’s water supply. Learn where the stopcock is at home and check it turns, and read our guide to a dripping tap for a first real repair you can do with the water isolated.