How To Become A Plumbing Inspector: What It Is and Career Path

What is a plumbing inspector and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a plumbing inspector. For example, did you know that they make an average of $23.64 an hour? That's $49,162 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -4% and produce -5,700 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScorePlumbing InspectorUS Average

Salary

3.8

Avg. Salary $49,162

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.4

Growth rate -4%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

2.9

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.90%

Asian 3.42%

Black or African American 8.38%

Hispanic or Latino 13.11%

Unknown 5.75%

White 68.44%

Gender

female 4.88%

male 95.12%

Age - 52

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 52

Stress level

7.4

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

7.4

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.4

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a plumbing inspector

Explore plumbing inspector education requirements

Most common plumbing inspector degrees

High School Diploma

31.4 %

Bachelor's

27.5 %

Associate

17.6 %

Start to develop specific plumbing inspector skills

Skills	Percentages
Plumbing	49.94%
Building Codes	11.36%
Code Violations	6.74%
Code Compliance	5.47%
Public Health	4.48%

Complete relevant plumbing inspector training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New plumbing inspectors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a plumbing inspector based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real plumbing inspector resumes.

Obtain the necessary licensing

Becoming a licensed plumbing inspector usually doesn't require a college degree. However, you need to pass an exam to become a licensed plumbing inspector in most of states. 12 states require plumbing inspectors to have license for their work. You can see the list of states below.

State	Education	Exam	License url
Colorado	-	State exam required	Asbestos Building Inspector
Florida	Specific course required	Third-party exam required	Building Code Administrator
Kentucky	Degree required	State exam required	Building Inspector, Level I
Maine	Specific course required	State exam required	Code Enforcement Officer
Michigan	-	-	Inspector, Building

Research plumbing inspector duties and responsibilities

Manage and inspect fiber optic cable placement, fiber drop installations and associate construction activities for an assign OSP project.
Inspect plumbing installations for conformance to the provisions of pertinent codes/or construction specifications.
Perform on-site inspections of FEMA temporary housing units for placement and occupation of residents displace by hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Conduct dimensional and visual inspections procedures on CMM machines to ensure geometrical characteristics of the product are in specification.

Prepare your plumbing inspector resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your plumbing inspector resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a plumbing inspector resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable plumbing inspector resume templates

Build a professional plumbing inspector resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your plumbing inspector resume.