Plumbing Jobs at HomeFlow Plumbing

Who we’re looking for

HomeFlow Plumbing is hiring in Southwest Florida. We’re looking for two kinds of people: plumbers who can run service work on their own, and apprentices or helpers who want to learn the trade the right way. We work across Lee, Charlotte and Collier Counties, out of an office on Dr Martin Luther King Jr Blvd in Fort Myers.

We’re not going to list pay, benefits or a schedule on this page. Those depend on the role and on what you bring, and we’d rather talk about them directly than post numbers that don’t fit your situation. What we can tell you here is what the work looks like, what we expect, and how the licensing path works in Florida if you’re early in your career.

Experienced service plumbers

You can walk into a house, figure out why the water bill doubled or why the back bathroom drain backs up every few weeks, explain it to the homeowner in plain words, and fix it. You know how to read a water meter for a leak test, pressure test a line, cut in a new valve on PEX or copper, and set a water heater to code. A journeyman card or a state or local contractor license is a plus, but real field experience matters most.

Apprentices and helpers

You don’t need a license to start. You need to show up on time, take direction, keep a jobsite clean, and want to learn. Helpers do a lot of the hard physical work: digging for a sewer repair, hauling material into an attic for a repipe, cleaning up after a slab tunnel. Every one of those jobs is also a chance to see how the work is planned and inspected.

What the work involves in Southwest Florida

Plumbing here isn’t the same as plumbing up north. Almost every house sits on a concrete slab, there are no basements, and most homes were built in waves: older block homes in Fort Myers and Cape Coral from the 1960s and 70s, then huge growth in the 1980s, 90s and 2000s. That history shapes the calls we get.

• Service and repair. Leaks, running toilets, failed shower valves, low water pressure, water heaters, garbage disposals and clogged drains. See our residential plumbing page for the full list.
• Repipes. Many homes from the late 1970s into the mid 1990s were plumbed with polybutylene, and insurers in Florida often flag it on a 4-point inspection. Older homes may still have galvanized steel. Repiping usually means running new PEX or copper through the attic and dropping lines down through the walls.
• Slab leaks. When a copper line under the slab fails, you have to locate it, then decide with the homeowner whether to break the floor, tunnel, or reroute the line overhead.
• Drain and sewer work. Cast iron drains under older slabs crack and scale over time. Camera inspections, hydro jetting and sewer line repairs are a regular part of the job.
• New construction. Underground rough before the slab is poured, top-out rough in the walls, and trim-out at the end, each with its own inspection.
• Commercial. Restaurants, offices, retail and multi-unit buildings, where grease interceptors, backflow preventers and larger fixtures come into play. More on our commercial plumbing page.

Heat is part of the job too. Attic work in summer is serious, and anyone on a repipe needs to know how to pace it, drink water and recognize heat illness in themselves and the person next to them.

Roles at a glance

This is a general picture, not a job description with fixed duties. Every job is a little different.

How plumbing licensing works in Florida

If you’re early in the trade, here’s the general picture. Rules change, so check with the state and your county before you count on any of this, but the basic structure has been the same for a long time.

State certification (CFC)

Florida’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation, through the Construction Industry Licensing Board, issues the state certified plumbing contractor license, which carries a CFC prefix. A certified plumbing contractor can contract plumbing work anywhere in the state. In general terms, applicants need to be at least 18, show about four years of plumbing experience with at least one year as a foreman or supervisor (some college credit can substitute for part of the experience), pass a plumbing trade knowledge exam and a separate business and finance exam, show financial responsibility, and carry liability insurance and workers’ compensation coverage or a valid exemption.

The trade exam is long and includes isometric drawing problems along with code questions. The business and finance exam covers contracts, lien law, payroll and record keeping. People who pass both usually say the business side surprised them more than the plumbing side.

Local journeyman licensing

A journeyman plumber in Florida is generally licensed at the local level, not by the state. In Lee County, Contractor Licensing issues a Journeyman Plumber certificate of competency. Lee County lists it as requiring four years of experience and a journeyman plumber exam, without the business and law exam that contractor categories need. A journeyman works under the supervision of, and employed by, a state certified plumbing contractor or a locally licensed master plumber. Collier and Charlotte Counties run their own contractor licensing offices, and their processes can differ, so ask the county where you plan to work.

Apprenticeship counts as experience

Time spent as an apprentice or helper working under a licensed plumber is the experience that both the journeyman and contractor paths ask for. The licensing boards want to see that experience documented, so keep records: who you worked for, when, and what kind of work you did. A letter or affidavit from a licensed plumber you worked under is the kind of proof applicants are commonly asked for. Formal registered apprenticeship programs exist in Florida too, but you don’t have to be in one to start building hours.

What we value

Three things, and we mean them literally.

• Clean work. Straight runs, supported pipe, labeled shutoffs, and a house that looks the same when you leave as when you came in, minus the problem. Drop cloths and shoe covers aren’t optional.
• Straight answers. If a water heater can be repaired, we say so. If a slab leak reroute makes more sense than breaking up a tile floor, we explain why. If you don’t know something on a job, say you don’t know and call it in. Guessing costs everybody.
• Permits done right. Repipes, water heater replacements, sewer repairs and new construction often need a permit and inspection from the city or county. In our area that can mean Lee County, the City of Cape Coral, the City of Fort Myers, Collier County or Charlotte County, depending on the address. We pull what’s required and we don’t cover up work before it’s inspected.

You can read more about how the company is set up on our about page and meet the partners, Sal DiBenedetto and Brian Sodre, on our leadership page.

Spanish-speaking applicants welcome

Plenty of the people we work for in Lehigh Acres, Immokalee, Golden Gate, Fort Myers and Cape Coral speak Spanish at home. Being able to explain a repair in Spanish is a real skill on a service call. If Spanish is your first language and you’re still working on English, apply anyway. Tell us in your email or when you call which language you’re most comfortable in.

Si habla español y tiene experiencia en plomería, o quiere aprender el oficio, puede aplicar. Envíe su nombre, teléfono y experiencia a help@homeflowfl.com o llame al (239) 518-4198.

What a typical service call looks like

For apprentices wondering what the day-to-day is like, here’s a common example: a homeowner in Cape Coral calls because the water meter keeps spinning with everything off.

• Confirm the leak at the meter with all fixtures off, and check the toilets for silent leaks first since they’re the easy answer.
• Shut the main and see if the meter stops. If it stops, the leak is on the house side.
• Check the water heater, the irrigation tie-in if there is one, and exposed lines in the garage and attic.
• If nothing shows, listen and test for a slab leak, often on a hot water line where the floor feels warm.
• Lay out the options for the homeowner: spot repair through the slab, or rerouting the line overhead, with the tradeoffs of each.
• Do the repair, pressure test, and leave the area clean.

That process, more than any single tool, is what we want people to learn. More detail on this kind of work is on our slab leak repair page.

How to apply

Keep it simple. Email help@homeflowfl.com with:

• Your name
• Your phone number
• Your plumbing experience, or the work you’ve done if you’re new to the trade
• Any license or certificate you hold, with the issuing state or county

A resume helps but isn’t required. A few honest lines about what you’ve done are fine. You can also call us at (239) 518-4198, Monday through Friday, 8am to 5pm. Our office is at 3903 Dr Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Suite A, Fort Myers, FL 33916. For anything that isn’t a job inquiry, use our contact page.

We read every message. If there’s a fit, we’ll call you to talk about the role, the area you’d be covering, and the details this page leaves out on purpose.