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Newbie Wanting To Get Into Underwater Welding

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19K views 96 replies 17 participants last post by  Falcon319  
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#1 ·
Title says all.

Newbie here. Just started welding. Absolutely love it, and know that its something I want to do for a very long time.

Just like many guys that try to reach for the stars, I want to get into underwater welding. I'm trying to be realistic about it, though. I know it's long hours, laborious work, not always top-notch pay, and it takes years and years of work to become an expert.

With that being said, what are your thoughts on the best path to becoming an underwater welder for a complete newbie?

Specifically, what are your thoughts on welding schools? I was looking at a couple, but they have almost no reviews. Was looking at Divers Academy International. Expensive, and short courses. I fear that it might be a scam, and was wondering if you guys had info on these welding schools?

Five months that program is. I mean, is that even enough time to even rid yourself of the novice label? Even if it's 8 hours/day, just not sure if that's even close to enough time under the hood to get me employment. I'm just looking for the best way to become an underwater welder.
 
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#2 ·
Training to become an underwater welder involves a lot more diving related training than welding related training. Just know that going in.

The money can be great, when you're working. But it's a very specialized field that does not enjoy high demand all the time, everywhere. You might make bank when you're on the job, but you might only be on the job for a few months collectively throughout the year.

Diving also wrecks your body. Underwater welding is a young man's game. Don't count on being able to do it for a long time. The smart ones will do it for 5-10 years and then get out of it while their body is still mostly okay.

If you're hell bent on going the underwater route, you'll probably be better off to learn the welding and diving separately, and then get in contact with potential employers to see if there's any other specialized training you need.
 
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#3 ·
That's what I was thinking. Learn them separately. But how would I go about learning to weld underwater? I feel like it's MUCH different. I understand wet welding isn't even half the job (not even a quarter), but I'd still like to learn ALL aspects of it.

Not sure how to fit or rig. Not even sure what those are, honestly. I just love the idea of doing what is so incredibly fun to me (welding) in an environment that I truly love (underwater), so I'm willing to learn every other aspect that would make up the majority of what I'd do.
 
T
#5 ·
I have known a few guys that did underwater welding. None made a living at it. Sometimes they worked at it a few months a year. Some times it was a couple years between jobs. They were millwrights in the carpenters union and did regular millwright work and welding to fill in the rest of the time. I worked for a hydro turbine company that used them but could not keep them busy with underwater work. They also only got the premium money for actual hrs under water. They also had to provide their own dive gear. I am sure there are a hand full of guys that truly make a living at it but I bet they can be counted on 2 hands. Time and chance has as much to do with it as training and prep.
 
D
#7 ·
You don't go to school to weld underwater. You go to school to become a commercial diver. Very little is actually welded underwater due to costs. Most is welded topside, then bolted together underwater. You do occasionally do a fair amount of underwater cutting as most things underwater are frozen with rust and it's easier to cut it off than try and F around trying to unbolt it. Your classes will be in rigging, tending lines and hoses, diving, chamber procedures, inspections, ROV work and so on. Welding is just a tiny part of what you may do. When I worked for a commercial dive company I can only think of one job small where we welded underwater. All the rest of the stuff was bolted.


If you have seen the movie Men of Honor, the dive test that he takes is very much like what the average job is like, only he has wonderful visibility to work in. The one job we did fairly regularly, the water was so dark, HID head lights we used disappeared in about 6" of water. No glow, you'd think he turned off the light. Everything is typically done by feel. If you are even slightly claustrophobic, this job isn't for you.

As mentioned it's a young mans game. Diving is hard on your body. Conditions are dangerous frequently. Don't expect to come right out of school and make big money. Chances are you'll end up tending lines and doing a lot of other "grunt" work for quite a while before you get a chance to dive.

As far as schools, I have a bit of knowledge of Divers Academy in Camden. I know a number of commercial divers who went there. Every thing I've heard was good. Like most paid schools they are going to hype things up some to try and get you to take their classes. I will admit most of that info is from before 2006 when I was still working in the dive industry. One of the dive shops I used to work in PT used to get a lot of their students in to buy stuff since we sold both commercial and recreational dive gear.


As far as dive work in general, there's a lot more out there than many realize. A lot of what we did was inspections on bridges and piers as well a municipal water supplies and sewage plants. ( yes you dive in $hit). Most of that involved dragging a camera around and looking where the inspector on the surface wanted you to look so he could see what he wanted. We also did a number of boat/water craft or vehicle recoveries in the summer after the idiots sank their boats on the river, as well as oil abatement and clean up. I know a number of guys who have gone on to do pool repairs or underwater work on boats in marinas. A lot of these jobs are often in inland waterways like rivers and lakes vs the ocean like many think. We had one job as safety divers when they worked on the bridges over the Delaware. My buddy spent all day sitting on a tug in the river 90% suited up in the summer heat waiting to see if anyone fell off the bridge while they were working. Honestly he wasn't there to "save" anyone, it was really going to be a body recovery if they missed the net. Sitting around getting paid sounds fun, but it's very boring.

Around here most police and fire departments have their own dive units, but in other areas they use commercial dive companies for a lot of the stuff they need done. That includes body recoveries, something not everyone is emotionally equipped to do.
 
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T
#8 ·
The Carpenters union has a spec wage for dive work and under water welding. I am in the midwest . I am sure that a coastal union local would use them more. In the midwest most of the work was dams and power plants. There are a few non union outfits that travel the country and do nothing but dive work. I do not know any names but I have seen their trucks at the nuke plants I have worked at. I do know they were based out of the Gulf coastal states. I believe they did a lot of work for the oil companies.
 
#11 ·
As DSW said, you will not spend much time in class learning to weld underwater. I was an Army diver for 20 years and attended the Navy school in Panama City, FL. If I remember right we only spent a week learning to weld and another week learning to burn using Broco exothermic rods. Most commercial schools are the set up the same way. The only welding you will do underwater is using stick and you will not learn much in a week or even two. You need to learn that on your own. If you want to learn stick welding in a short time, go to the Lincoln Weld School. They have some really good programs and the instructors are good people.

As far as the course length, the Association of Diving Contractors (ADC) sets a minimum number of hours students must attend in order to become a certified diver. That is why the courses are so long. A few schools are not ADC certified so make sure they are before you attend.

Several guys i used to work with got out of the Army and are diving in the commercial sector scattered from California, to the MidWest to the Gulf of Mexico and on to New York City. The guy in NYC has spent the last couple of years wrapping piles on the Tappanzee, GW and VZ bridges. He is still on that right now. One guy that used to work in the Gulf now works at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab for NASA, another was into saturation diving until his wife died and he had to give up diving to take care of his 4 year old daughter as a single father
 
C
#12 ·
I worked for the largest marine construction company on the west coast. My company would do anything to keep divers out of the water! But sometimes there is just no way around it. I also worked out of the same union hall as the divers. Not a one of them worked much as a diver. Majority of the divers sold all their gear within 10-years of getting out of dive school.
 
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#13 ·
Sounds like I should definitely learn them separately. I got the welding covered. Any way to start becoming a certified diver without dropping 30k? Don't think that investment would be worth it for only 5 months max.

By learning them separately, there seems to be a few advantages:

-Not dropping 30k (duh)
-Learning multiple welding processes that can help me learn topside stuff
-Exploring another viable career (diving)
 
M
#14 ·
If you want to weld go to welding school.

If you want to dive, get scuba certified and do it as a hobby.

Why you ask? As others said commercial dive work is very limited. And it will only get more limited in the future.

My brother is an ROV Tech/Operator. Technology is growing in leaps and bounds. Under water in dangerous conditions machines are making divers less usefull every day.

Dive school just isnt worth the investment. Its job that is almost extinct.
 
Z
#15 ·
Well if you are a RN maybe you should re think this. They make pretty good money now (more than you will make in the trades), maybe welding is what you "want" to do but doing what you want and making a good living don't always mean the same thing. You don't say how old you are but if you have been through nursing school you're not a teenager anymore. Welding can be very enjoyable etc. learn to weld, make some hobby projects and see if you still like it. Maybe you can work part time for a local shop, or find a product you could make "on the side" more for enjoyment than a living. Trust me when I say being a fleet mechanic was not my chosen career path 45 years ago but it pays better than anything else I can do on my high school education here in Central CA. When I get frustrated with the boss or the latest corporate brainstorm for maintenance I take a breath and think about the paycheck on Friday and the paid insurance and it's not so bad. I'm not trying to be a jerk and rain on your parade but I've had really lousy jobs that didn't pay anything although I liked the work. Having a job that pays well is truly a wonderful thing.
Dirk
 
M
#16 ·
@ Falcon319 - recommend you explore the offshore industry by becoming an ROV Technician/Pilot. Electronics, Electro-Optics, Hydraulics, Materials, and Welding. The 70s-90s was the era of manned intervention via diving. ROVs and AUVs have ruled the seas since the turn of the century.

The technologies and opportunities you would be exposed to in the ROV industry, worldwide, are limitless. :cool:
 
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C
#17 ·
When we built the replacement LVM floating bridge in Lake Washington. I was the rigging foreman setting the anchors. The state DOT gave our surveyors the wrong coordinates. I forget how many anchors we put in the wrong place. Company hired American Divers out of southern California. A few of those divers worked in the north sea. They had some great stories about working there.
On the deep dives over 200-feet, the divers were making over $800.00 a day. Seems like they spent 8-hours in the decompression chamber when they got back to the surface.
 

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#19 ·
While I think ROV would probably be fun, I like nothing more than welding with my own two hands with a stick.

My other option was getting into the local plumbing/pipefitting union, while also taking welding classes at night. Maybe during the weekends, as a long-tem project, I could get my recreational and then commercial divers licenses. Not sure if you can do it outside of expensive schools, though.
 
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#20 ·
Recreational diving and commercial diving are completely different. On rare occasions you may find someone who crossed over without going to commercial dive school, but if so they usually know someone in the industry who hired them and then trains then on the job. Usually those that have gone this route are limited in what they do.

If your interest is welding, become a welder, not a diver. You'll do more welding that way.
 
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#21 ·
The thing I fear about just straight up welding is that the down times could prevent me from paying the bills. I absolutely refuse to use unemployment. I am trying to get into a plumbing and pipe fitting union, but even then, I'm not sure how I would deal with the constant layoffs. How is it that guys make so much money welding when they are constantly let go?
 
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#23 ·
Falcon319 said:
How is it that guys make so much money welding when they are constantly let go?
Click to expand...
The trick is to be very good at what you do. I worked heavy civil / marine construction all my life. I got to the point where I never got laid off. If the job I was on finished, and there wasn’t another job to go to. I got sent to the yard to work, until another job started up. I went for years never drawing an unemployment check.
 
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#25 ·
Like everything else, it depends a lot about where you are and what you want to do. If you are located in a place with a port, opportunities to dive will be higher than if you live out in the great plains. However there will probably be more competition. Type of work would also vary by location. In a port city there's be pier and dock inspections to be performed, recovery work off piers as idiots drive trucks and forklifts off the edge and so on. In more rural areas you might be checking bridge piers for washout and undercutting, possibly inspections of water towers, sewage plants and so on.

How much work is all about supply and demand. Same applies with welding in general. There's often a lot of talk about the "shortage" of welders. However many times those shortages are in specific locations, say where a lot of pipeline activity is occurring. You also have to keep in mind that big money jobs usually take people with higher skills and experience. Many places won't even look at you if you don't have alt least 5 years of experience doing what they want. In this economy, with many unemployed or underemployed, businesses can be choosy about who they hire. If on the other hand there is a dearth of qualified help, it's a lot easier to get hired.

What else can you do? Can you just weld, or can you cut and fit as well? Are you the type of person who has to follow prints exactly, or are you one of those who can figure things out? I was a lot like CEP when I worked concrete. In the winter when other guys got laid off due to lack of work, I always stayed employed. That's because I could do a lot more than simply finish concrete. I could do welding, mechanical maintenance, general shop work and so on. The guys who got laid off might be better finishers, but they'd turn their noses up at other "fill in" work over the winter.
 
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#27 · (Edited)
If you plan on getting into something like shutdowns, UA or contract work, it's almost always going to involve a lot of travel and long hours. It's a single mans game for sure.

Yeah, there are some locals that are lucky enough to have near year round work in one area. CEP spent most all his career doing pile work around the Seattle area where he lives. Most guys, not so much. I've talked to more than a few professional pipe guys who chase the work and a good many of them are divorced. You might try to shoot for getting into an apprenticeship with your local utility company (thru a union in most cases) if at all possible. The underwater thing is a long process and DSW is a first rate diver with a lot of experience, not to mention in other fields of construction too. You can take what he says to the bank. You'll be some time just learning how to dive, then actually work underwater. All that costs money. That's wouldn't be my choice for a starting point if I wanted to get into commercial welding. Learn the basics first and see if it's for you or not.

I'm not trying to burst your bubble, but the kind of work you have discussed in this thread is usually Road Warrior stuff and if you got a young family at home, it will take its toll. I spent the first six years of my first marriage working second shift in a GM factory. I strongly feel it laid paths to problems that eventually led to our divorce some years later. These are all just things to consider if you wanna get into this kind of game. You'll be expected to live and structure your life around your employers work schedule. It works out great for some guys, others not as well.

Good luck with whatever you figure out.

IMHO of course
 
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#29 ·
Yes, I'm trying to get into my local plumbing/pipefitting apprenticeship (union). I feel as though I have a very good shot of getting in (college educated, willing to get my hands dirty, will have a year of welding experience, and drug-free).

I'm just worried about stability. I'll work my *** off to become the best plumber/pipefitter/welder there, I'm just concerned that the work won't be there. I've read online about how a lot of union guys just never get called for jobs, and just collect unemployment. I don't want to do that at all.

I just want to burn metal things together and get paid decently for it, damn it. And without getting a divorce.
 
#28 ·
With your medical background have you looked into becoming a DMT diving medical technician or chamber operator? They do not dive as much but as far as I know they make good money.
You are getting to the point of wanting your cake and eating it too. You want to become a great welder, great diver, good pay, good location, and a family life.
You will most likely be forced to choose between having two and maybe three of those if you are lucky.
Becoming great at any of those will take about 10-20 years each.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
 
C
#30 ·
First thing you have to learn, is don’t let your ego get in front of you. I got sent up on the Canadian border to drive the longest concrete pile of the west coast. When that job was completed I got sent to a small marina project close to home. The foreman informed me in the Monday morning safety meeting he had nothing for me to do, but pick up paper in the parking lot. Sure it pi$$ed me off:mad:. But for $25.00 an hour, and close to home I did it. Got pulled off that job to drive 150-feet long concrete piling on Harbor Island. After all the piling were driven, this is what they had me do. You have to learn how to take the good with the bad!
 

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#31 ·
Wouldn't be a problem if I lived in a more coastal city, but I live between D.C. and New Jersey. If I was single, hell, I'd be overseas in a minute, working the crappiest jobs for the best pay. I don't mind travel, but would prefer work within a 50-mile radius or so the majority of the time.

Also have the option of living in Morgantown, WV. Not sure how much demand there is there.
 
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#32 ·
Falcon319 said:
I don't mind travel, but would prefer work within a 50-mile radius or so the majority of the time.
Click to expand...
Construction isn’t for you!:nono::nono: I worked from Alaska to southern California.
 
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#38 ·
Can it be done, sure. The question is where. There are plenty of low paying jobs out there. Today we've moved away from the blue collar culture that built this country. Part of it is the fact so many want to start out getting paid top wages. It's a lot cheaper to go else where for labor than it is here. There are plenty of small shops out there that pay a decent wage, but they are scattered around all over the place.

Between the uncertain economy and government interference in business, many places simply don't want to hire extra help. They may be swamped today, but who knows what will happen in 6 months. Also all these new government regs like health care, higher minimum wages and so on make many businesses wary of how much burden more employees will be. Government mandates on things like workers comp, Social Security, unemployment, health care and so on would cost me more than I made myself last year if I wanted to add a FT employee. That's even before I paid them wages. I'd have to put on a lot more work to cover all of that and just break even. There's no guarantee that work will be there and steady. It's a sad reality, but I don't really see it improving much in the short term. If anything I see it getting worse.
 
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#39 ·
Are there ANY relatively stable trades? Currently being interviewed for an electrician apprenticeship. Have a good shot at getting it. It'd be great, stable pay from the start ($17.24 from day 1, 5% raises every 6 months for 5 years), but not sure how consistent that work will be.

I mean, it'd be great to make $30/hour, but if I can only work 20 hours, that's not enough at all.
 
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