Daniel Padilla · Journeyman plumber · since March 2026

Daniel Padilla.

Newest plumber on the crew, the youngest, and the one who came up through the Pima Community College Plumbing program's second-year cohort. Apprenticed with us 2024–2026 and sat the journeyman exam in March 2026 (passed first time).

Daniel Padilla at a workbench with PEX-A tubing and an Uponor expansion tool.

Background

Daniel grew up in South Tucson, four blocks from the Bay 3 yard. Sunnyside High School class of 2021. After a year working in his father's auto shop, he enrolled in the Pima Community College plumbing program in fall 2022 (Marisol's first guest-teaching semester there) and signed on with us as an apprentice for the program's required field hours starting January 2024.

His Pima Community College graduation project was a small greywater system for an instructor's house in Menlo Park, designed and installed under our supervision. The project was the basis for a 12-minute presentation to the program's spring 2024 cohort that's still occasionally referenced.

Credentials

Pima Plumbing
Pima Community College · 2-year certificate · 2024.
Apprentice
2024-01 to 2026-02 · ~3,800 documented hours.
Journeyman
AZ ROC R-37R journeyman exam · passed 2026-03-14.
OSHA 10
since 2024.

What he does

Daniel runs his own greywater stub-out installs since fall 2025 and is now lead on the smaller branched-drain projects (single-source, three-or-four-basin layouts). Pairs with Marisol or Kara on cistern installs for the larger CIS-1 builds. Owns the deburring kit, the PEX expansion tool, and the gold-standard tape measure.

What's next

The five-year plan, openly published as a personal commitment: master plumber exam at year 6 of trade time (anticipated 2030), then a master license held under his own name while staying with the crew. Eventually, Daniel expects to start his own greywater-and-rainwater shop in Sahuarita, where his family is from, after another decade with us.

"My grandfather used to take buckets out under the canale at his house in Hermosillo when it rained. He'd water the lemon tree from them for three days afterward. He didn't call it 'rainwater harvesting.' Nobody at his house called it anything. I get a little embarrassed about how much paperwork is involved in something he just did."— Daniel Padilla · 2026 conversation