A plumber's tools fall into two groups: the plumbing hand tools — pipe wrenches, adjustable wrenches, channel-lock pliers, tube cutters, a level, a tape measure — that fill the bag a plumber carries every day, and the power and specialty equipment — press and PEX tools among them — that usually does not live in that bag.
Who buys which group varies shop by shop, which makes it an interview question.
This list tells you what to ask.
What hand tools does every plumber own?
Hand tools are the core of any plumbing tools list: personal, carried on every call, and the layer a plumber assembles first.
They live in your bag, they do not get shared around the shop, and they are the first things to mark with your name.
The clearest picture of what that bag holds is a required list.
UA Local 469 in Arizona publishes one — every journeyman and apprentice it dispatches must arrive with these, and every item is a hand tool:
- 18-inch toolbox or canvas bag
- Two 14-inch pipe wrenches
- 12-inch and 8-inch adjustable wrenches
- #15 and #20 tube cutters
- Pencil reamer
- Side-cutting pliers
- 6-in-1 screwdriver
- Torpedo level
- 25-foot tape
- 20-oz hammer
- Striker
- 8-key Allen set
- Chalk box with plumb bob
- 440 and 420 Channellocks
- 3/8-inch ratchet with 9 sockets
- Tin snips
Strip the sizes out and the list reads as the basic plumbing tool categories: pipe wrenches in at least two sizes, adjustable wrenches, tongue-and-groove and side-cutting pliers, tube cutters and a reamer, screwdrivers, a level and a tape, a hammer, a striker, hex keys and tin snips.
UA Plumbers Local 78 in Los Angeles hands apprentice applicants a similar list — it adds a hacksaw, a torque wrench and a nail puller, and says plainly that applicants supply their own transportation and required tools.
If you are mapping the trade rather than the bag, our plumber career guide covers what the job involves day to day.
Power tools plumbers use
Power tools are the quiet line in this list: they are absent from it.
Neither union list above names one — UA Local 469's Exhibit 2 and Local 78's applicant list are hand tools throughout — which puts power equipment outside the "what every plumber owns" answer and straight into the who-furnishes question.
That question is the employer section below, and it applies to this layer with full force: whether the shop or the worker carries the power equipment is part of what varies by employer.
Ask at the interview — which machines does the shop own, which does it expect on the truck, and what happens when one fails mid-job?
Specialty tools: press, PEX, threading and cameras
Specialty tools attach to one material or one code chapter, and each is a "who owns this?" question before it is a purchase.
Two families are documented in code:
- Press tools. A press tool joins copper by pressing a profiled fitting onto the tube — no flame, no solder. The 2024 International Plumbing Code (605.13.5) treats the tool as part of the joint: a copper press-connect joint must conform to a listed standard, be installed per the manufacturer's instructions (tube reamed, cleaned, fully inserted), and be pressed with a tool certified by the manufacturer.
- PEX tools. PEX water piping is joined with fittings made to listed standards: IPC 2024 Table 605.5 lists twelve fitting standards for PEX, and the tubing must be factory-marked with the fitting standards its maker specifies. Two families matter for tooling — ASTM F1807 and F2159 cover insert fittings closed with a copper crimp ring or stainless clamp, while F1960 and F2080 cover cold-expansion fittings — so a crimp setup and an expansion setup are different kits. Check the standards marked on the tubing before you buy.
Threading equipment and inspection cameras are the rest of the specialty layer, and our research did not surface sourced detail on either — the code rules above are where the documentation ends.
Treat both as shop questions: what the shop owns, what it expects you to carry, and who replaces what.
The same goes for the trade's titled specialties: O*NET lists Drain Technician and Fire Sprinkler Service Technician among the sample titles under the combined plumber/pipefitter/steamfitter code, and each specialty carries its own equipment questions.
Which tools does the employer provide?
The honest answer: the only written who-furnishes rules we can cite are union agreements, and they run in both directions.
For non-union shops we found no published norm — it varies shop by shop, which is why what your shop supplies is an interview question, not a given.
The Plumbers Local 130 agreement covering the Chicago area (2024-2028, with the Plumbing Contractors Association) says journeymen furnish only small pliers and a rule — all other tools are furnished by the employer.
UA Local 469 in Arizona (2024-2027) runs the other way: journeymen and apprentices arrive with the Exhibit 2 hand-tool list above, while the employer furnishes a secure lock-up and replaces tools lost to fire, flood or forced-entry theft.
Apprentice-side, UA Plumbers Local 78 in Los Angeles tells applicants up front that they must supply their own transportation and required tools.
- Which tools does the shop furnish, and which do I bring?
- Is there a tool allowance or reimbursement, and how does it work?
- What happens if a tool is stolen from the truck or the shop?
- Do apprentices buy everything at once, or stage it?
The federal rule that protects your paycheck
Tool bags and organization
The container is on the list too — Local 469's Exhibit 2 starts with an 18-inch toolbox or canvas bag.
Whatever you carry, the working pattern is the same: the tools you reach for hourly sit in the top or side pockets; wrenches stack by size so the right one comes out without a search; cutters, the reamer and the striker get their own pouches so edges do not chew the bag or your hands.
Organization is a safety habit as much as a speed one.
BLS lists cuts from sharp tools among the common injuries for plumbers and pipefitters, which is the case for keeping blades closed and cutting edges sheathed in the bag.
Where tools live between shifts is a real question too — Local 469's agreement makes the employer provide a secure lock-up and replace tools lost to fire, flood or forced-entry theft, and the interview checklist above covers asking your own shop what its policy is.
What tools to buy first vs later
Buy in the order the trade hands you work.
First: the day-one hand tools.
The items both union lists share are the starter set — pipe wrenches, adjustable or crescent wrenches, channel locks, tube cutters and a pencil reamer, screwdrivers, a hammer, a level, a tape measure, a striker and tin snips.
Then add what your own local's list names beyond that — Local 78's adds a hacksaw, a torque wrench and a nail puller; Local 469's adds side-cutting pliers, hex keys and a chalk box — plus the bag or box to carry it all in.
Later: specialty tools, when the work specializes.
Press and PEX tools earn their place when those joints become routine on your jobs.
For everything else — threading equipment, cameras, the machines a specialty runs — let the work in front of you set the order, not the catalog.
Before any large purchase: ask who furnishes it.
The employer-provides answer changes the math more than any list can, and no reliable source establishes tool price ranges — prices move, and shops differ on what they supply.
Ask at the interview, then buy.
Career information, not legal advice: for the wage rule, confirm with the U.S. Department of Labor; for your own shop's expectations, your employer — and your union contract, if you have one — are the authorities.