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How a Black Woman Rose to the Top of a Male-Dominated Industry

The highest level of career achievement that a plumber can reach is a master plumber. When Adrienne Bennett first signed up to be a plumbing apprentice, being a plumber as a black woman was practically unheard of. She experienced discrimination because of her age, race, and gender, but she never gave up on making her dreams come true.

This Black History Month, learn the incredible true story of a true plumbing pioneer that became the first black woman to pass the test to become a master plumber.

The Start of Her Journey to Master Plumber

The journey from plumber’s assistant to a master plumber was filled with obstacles for Adrienne Bennett, but she hurdled through them all. She attributes her strong work ethic to her upbringing. As one of eight siblings, she was a high achiever during Adrienne Bennett’s school years. She had high goals for the future. She was set on becoming an engineer and started a program at the local university.

When a racially charged incident sent Adrienne home in tears, she vowed never to return to college. She was approached by a recruiter seeking out minority women to sign up for a scholarship program to learn a trade. After learning how much she could be potentially making, around $50,000 a year, she signed up for the scholarship.

From Apprentice To Successful Contractor

She spent five years training as an apprentice to become a master plumber, clocking in 4,000 hours to meet the requirements to take the test. During her training, her peers often made her feel uncomfortable by making sexist or racist remarks. She had to wear a tool belt around her waist to try to keep the men from groping her. At times, she was the only woman in a group of 100 men.

She stuck it out through the harassment, and when she passed the master plumbers test with flying colors, she became the first black master plumber who was also a woman. Her story is a piece of black history that is not told often enough. She has a truly incredible story. After completing her training, she went on to work the highest positions that a plumber can hold in Detroit, Illinois. She worked as a project manager, plumbing inspector, journeyman plumber, code enforcement office, and master plumber for the City of Detroit.

The Final Frontier for the Plumbing Pioneer

After her successful career with the City of Detroit had reached a pinnacle. With no further higher levels of achievement to reach, the only thing left for her to do was become an independent plumbing contractor and start her own business.

She now runs her plumbing and water conservation company along with her son. Her story inspires young black women everywhere to forge their paths to success in male-dominated industries.

About Cardinal Heating & Air Conditioning

Cardinal Heating & Air Conditioning is a trusted local home service provider in Sun Prairie, WI. They are proud to serve their community with affordable home services from experienced plumbing, HVAC, and electrical contractors. Give them a call today to schedule an appointment with a friendly and trustworthy home service professional for plumbing services!

You Can Hire a Plumber For More Than Emergencies

You can actually avoid most major plumbing emergencies by trusting a reputable plumber with all of your plumbing needs. Attempting installations, repairs, and maintenance by yourself may seem like a good idea, but when your attempts go wrong and you ultimately end up calling the plumber to replace ruined plumbing systems, you will wish that you called them in the first place.

Trying to do plumbing repairs yourself can even be dangerous. Installation and repairs can require special tools that should only be handled by professionals. You can also easily break a water line in your home trying to do plumbing repairs yourself, and this can have detrimental effects on your home. To avoid the risk of property damage, wasted time, and wasted money, trust a plumber for more than just emergencies, and call them for the small jobs too.

How to Fix a Leaking Faucet

Even the best quality kitchen, bathroom, and bar faucets can become leaky over time. Aging parts can malfunction and cause leaks to spring. However the leak is started, the most important thing is to repair it right away before the water can cause damage to your home.

The leak can equal up to hundreds or thousands of dollars wasted per year if it isn’t repaired, and eventually the entire faucet, sink, and cabinet may need to be replaced.

A professional plumber will pinpoint the leak with accuracy and replace or repair the parts appropriately to ensure the leak will not start back up again.

Shower-Head Replacements

Leaving shower-head replacements up to a plumbing professional is usually a good idea. Shower-heads need to be secured very tightly to the water source to prevent leaks and breaks. If the shower-head breaks from an improper DIY installation it can permanently damage the components as well as being dangerous.

Doing such a thing could be causing spraying water, burns from water and the shower-head itself could come flying off. A professional plumber will know the exact parts needed and how to install them properly for a safe and long-lasting shower-head installation or replacement.

Garbage Disposal Repair is Especially Dangerous

Garbage disposals usually work by having sharp blades on the inside which chop up garbage and food for flushing down the drain. If the garbage disposal isn’t working correctly or is clogged you may hear strange noises coming from it or it won’t perform as usual.

The safest way to repair a garbage disposal is to not attempt it yourself. A professional plumber will know how to cut off the power supply to the garbage disposal so that there is no chance of it being activating accidentally and injuring the person working on the repair.

Even if you think you have installed the garbage disposal correctly, if the unprofessional installation gives out, it can cause safety issues down the line as well as the risk of damaging your kitchen hardware.

Trust a Local Plumber

For over 35 years Cardinal Heating & Air Conditioning has provided expert quality home services to the Sun Prairie, WI area and surrounding communities. Cardinal Heating & Air Conditioning is a dependable team of highly trained and knowledgeable plumbers, electricians, and technicians offering quality services without breaking the bank.