Huang's toolkit is filled with handy spare parts collected over the years. (Jiang XIaowei/SHINE)
He slept in a bureau dorm so he could be on call for emergencies at any hour.
In 1994, he was cited as an "Model Worker" by the city, a top honor recognizing diligence and excellence.
In the late 1990s, he was given an apartment by the government as part of a worker welfare program. He moved in with his wife and son.
The booming commercial property market and burgeoning professional real estate management firms toward the end of the last millennium changed Huang's trade. Workloads declined from about 20 jobs a day to six or seven.
"Nowadays, modern residential buildings are sleeker and smarter, but new flush toilets and faucets are also more complicated than the older ones when things go wrong," he says.
Electric wires are usually buried underneath floors, and if a wire is halved in the middle to connect two different appliances, it can be a headache for an electrician to locate the problem when a power failure happens, Huang explains.
"Replacing a faucet valve could cost a few hundred yuan, but in many cases, the problem can be solved for under 100 yuan by replacing just a small spare part of the valve," Huang says.
In his office, there are boxes of faucets and spare parts collected over the years. He has also improvised many small tools to deal with specific problems — like a combination bent wrench and two screwdrivers to handle hard-to-reach bolts. His toolbox even contains slender surgical scissors.
Huang says he is not Internet-savvy and doesn't need the digital realm for his work.
"We have to see the problem with our own eyes," he says.
For Huang, being a plumber often means being soaked in dirty water, working long hours outdoors in heat or cold and even missing important family occasions when emergencies occur.
In 2014 on the night before Chinese New Year's Eve, Huang's company received an emergency call from an elderly woman living alone. She said the lights had gone out in her apartment. Huang was not technically on duty, but he rushed to her assistance since none of his colleagues was available.
"She reminded me of my mother who lived in Chongming and of the many family reunions I had to miss because of my job," he says.
"If I couldn't be there for my mother, I could at least be there for her."
