The plumbing apprenticeship books this page covers divide into four shelves: core curriculum textbooks, code books, pipefitting references, and math and blueprint-reading texts.
It fills each shelf the only way our research supports — by naming who publishes each title and, where documented, which named program uses it, not by ranking bestsellers: NCCER's four-level Plumbing curriculum, Plumbers Local 1's UA textbook list, the Pipe Fitters Blue Book and ICC's 2024 International Plumbing Code.
Core textbooks: the curriculum and your program's list
For apprentices in programs built on NCCER's curriculum, the core shelf is the curriculum itself.
NCCER's Plumbing curriculum is four levels in its 5th edition, revised 2022, with Plumbing Level 4 now available — completing the new four-part edition, per NCCER's craft catalog.
NCCER states the curriculum complies with the U.S. Department of Labor's standards for apprenticeship programs.
One more thing the level numbers tell you: four levels is the shape the documented NCCER curricula share — Plumbing, Pipefitting and Sheet Metal alike.
Its Sheet Metal curriculum is four levels too, published as a 4th edition updated 2019.
So an NCCER level book's number is its position in that curriculum's Level 1–4 sequence.
The other documented core shelf is a local's grade-by-grade list.
Plumbers Local 1 (NYC) apprentices use UA-published texts by grade, and the local's textbook list — revised 11/2025 — names them grade by grade.
It is one local's list; our research has no data on what other programs adopt, so your program's list is the one that counts.
- UA 1350 Use and Care of Tools
- UA 1235 Pipes, Fittings, Supports & Valves
- UA 1110 Fuel Gas Systems
- UA 1330 Soldering and Brazing
- UA 1080 Drainage Systems
- UA 1380 Water Supply
- The NYC Plumbing and Fuel Gas Codes, plus NFPA 99 — the code shelf, covered below
Which core shelf is yours is your program's to tell you: the two documented examples differ — NCCER publishes its curriculum level by level, and Plumbers Local 1 publishes its grade-by-grade list.
If you are still choosing between the classroom route and an apprenticeship seat, our plumbing school guide covers what a school teaches and whether you need one.
And if you are new to the trade entirely, the plumbing apprentice guide covers the role, the pay and the routes in.
Code books: which code and edition you study
The code shelf is the one where the first question is not "which book do I like?" but "which code applies where I work?".
What our research confirms directly: the 2024 International Plumbing Code (IPC) is published on the International Code Council's codes.iccsafe.org site.
Which plumbing code your jurisdiction enforces, and which edition of it, is a separate question our research did not confirm state by state here.
The people who can answer it in one message: your program, the journeymen you work under, or the authority that issues your permits.
Codes appear on the one apprentice book list our research documents: Plumbers Local 1's 11/2025 list pairs its UA texts with the NYC Plumbing and Fuel Gas Codes and NFPA 99 — on that list, the code titles are part of an apprentice's books.
Whether your state uses the UPC or the IPC is its own comparison, and our UPC vs IPC guide walks it.
One exam-specific question we cover elsewhere: whether you can tab your code book for a plumbing licensing exam.
Our code book tabs guide covers the tabbing rules and where they come from.
Confirm the edition with the body that enforces it
Pipefitting references: NCCER pipefitter books and the Blue Book
If your apprenticeship covers fitting work, two names come up.
The first is the curriculum: NCCER's Pipefitting books are organized in four levels, Level 1 through Level 4 — the same structure as its Plumbing curriculum.
What NCCER certification and its testing actually involve is a separate question, and our NCCER pipefitter test guide owns it.
The second is the pocket reference.
The Pipe Fitters Blue Book is published by Graves Publishing Company, and its author, W.V.
"Duffy" Graves, retired after 25 years from Shell Chemical as a pipe fitter foreman and then taught pipe fitting at Lee College in Baytown, Texas — a bio the publisher's own site carries.
If you have heard this shelf called "the black book", the title our research documents is the Pipe Fitters Blue Book — our sources do not identify any separate black-book title, so we make no claim linking the two.
What we could verify about the Blue Book, and how it relates to NCCER testing, are the subject of our Pipefitter Blue Book article.
We describe no contents list for it here, because our research captured none.
Math and blueprint reading books
Math and plan reading are named subjects on the documented list, not extras.
Plumbers Local 1's list carries UA 1300 Related Mathematics and UA 1090 Drawing Interpretation and Plan Reading among its grade texts, and the local names its first-grade subjects as "MATH, PIPE SHOP I, HERITAGE" — on that list, math starts in a Local 1 apprentice's first grade.
Where a price exists, it is on the list itself: the 11/2025 revision lists UA 1300 Related Mathematics [2023] at $50.
The UA materials on that list are sold through the UA ITP bookstore.
What your own program requires, and what it supplies versus what you buy, is a question for your program — none of the documented sources settle who pays.
For what the math in those texts is actually for, worked through, our plumbing math guide covers the formulas plumbers use.
For the drawing half of the shelf, our guide to how plumbers read blueprints walks isometrics and plan reading.
Career information, not legal advice. Which code edition applies where you work is a question for the jurisdiction that enforces it, and which texts your program requires is a question for your program, employer or local — confirm both with the body that makes the call.