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Plumbing contractors often find themselves in a competitive marketplace, and many businesses struggle to find ways of differentiating themselves from their competitors. One often overlooked yet highly lucrative opportunity lies in drain cleaning and inspection. With aging infrastructure deteriorating, drain cleaning is not merely about addressing clogs and blockages; it's about ensuring the smooth flow of wastewater and preventing costly plumbing emergencies down the line. As such, integrating drain cleaning services into a plumber's repertoire can yield significant benefits, both for the plumber and their customers.

New technology is also helping advance drain cleaning and pipe inspection machines, making the plumbers job easier than ever.

“Modern drain cleaners tend to come prepared to use snake-style machines, high-pressure water jetters, flexible shaft devices and pipe inspection camera systems. Although all of these machines have their specialty, having access to many different types of technology can have a synergetic effect on the drain cleaner’s efforts,” notes Dave Dunbar, customer success specialist, General Pipe Cleaners. “When high pressure water jetters were first developed in the 1980s, some plumbers thought that they would replace snake-style machines. However, it was found that jetters have their place in clearing pipes of grease and soft stoppages but are inferior to snake-style machines when dealing with hard stoppages such as roots and clogs of paper products. Similarly, when flexible shaft devices gained popularity about five years ago, some professionals thought they would quickly replace both snakes and jetters. Again, the present consensus is that they are simply another tool in the professional’s arsenal. Plumbers and drain cleaners tend to do better when they approach each job with a flexible mindset and use the most appropriate tool for the situation.”

Lauren LaBreck, product manager, plumbing and drain cleaning at Milwaukee Tool, notes plumbing contractors need versatile and portable solutions to keep them working and quickly move onto the next call.

“There’s been concern over the years that battery-powered drain cleaning solutions do not have the power or run-time to complete the job,” she says. “That used to be true, but here at Milwaukee Tool, we’re committed to developing solutions that improve the ability to clear and inspect from the fixture to the sewer line for users to service more calls with less hassle. All of our solutions are designed to support the capacity that is needed to complete the application. For example, Milwaukee’s M18 FUEL High-Speed Chain Snake for 1-1/2 to 4-inch pipes delivers the power to descale up to 75 feet out while delivering full power at maximum distance. With the power to complete multiple jobs on one charge, the chain snake can clear up to 150 feet of scale build-up when paired with the two included M18 REDLITHIUM HIGH OUTPUT HD 12.0 battery packs.”

According to Jeff Albertini, director of marketing, plumbing and mechanical for RIDGID, there’s a large movement toward Wi-Fi/Bluetooth-enabled camera reels that can stream and record live video to any smart device.

“RIDGID’s full line of monitors has Wi-Fi enablement options to leverage smart devices such as phones or tablets as an alternate screen,” he says. “RIDGID also introduced this technology without a monitor a few years ago with the CSx Via hub and it has been constantly evolving to introduce new features and improve UI. Software is currently driving a lot of the improvements we will see in inspection equipment now and in the next couple of years.”

RIDGID’s FlexShaft and drum lineup also continues to grow, Albertini notes. Additionally, the manufacturer recently launched RIDGID Pipe Patching Kits to help plumbers expand their drain cleaning and inspection services. “These kits allow plumbers to make fiberglass repairs on up to 6-feet of 2- to 6-inch pipe in hours without the added hassle of major digs. Plumbers can offer their customers high-quality, long-lasting results in a fraction of the time and as a value-add after inspecting and cleaning pipes. This no-dig solution adds another revenue engine for contractors to pursue.”

Field solutions for any challenge

Drain cleaning andpipe inspection can be one of the more challenging aspects of a plumber's job because it can be physically demanding, Dunbar notes.

“Although much lighter and safer than the equipment that previous generations wrestled with, modern drain cleaning machines are still relatively heavy and require patience and caution to operate successfully,” he says. “Second, when cleaning a sewer pipe, the drain cleaning professional is working in a dangerous and contaminated workplace, where situational awareness and personal hygiene measures are absolutely required. Third, a clogged sewer can have many different causes, and the contractor must keep an open mind to avoid misdiagnosing the problem.

“For example, a backed-up lateral drain line might be caused by roots, a collapsed pipe, a belly or dip in the pipe, a buildup of non-flushable paper products, sludge and grease, or simply because he had 12 people over for the weekend and his system was overwhelmed,” Dunbar continues. “It's important that the contractor keep an open mind when diagnosing the problem and have access to several different types of drain cleaning machines to ensure that they will be successful. Having a snake-style machine, a high-pressure water jetter, a flexible shaft device, and a pipe inspection system are all considered necessary equipment in today's industry. In addition, as in most other fields, there is no substitute for experience. A rookie can learn the basics in all the above machines in a single day, but the growth curve is steady and continues to rise for years after their first experience.”

LaBreck points to limited access to power as a major job site challenge for plumbers. “They are forced to run extension cords across yards, up to rooftops, down staircases, or wherever they need to work. Constantly needing to find an outlet decreases productivity, but the power cords also lead to safety hazards such as A/C shocks. Milwaukee’s drain cleaning solutions are battery-powered for easy set up and transportation to and from the job.”

Albertini notes that the time spent on the job site can be a challenge.

“If you can condense the steps it takes to complete an inspection, plumbers win,” he says. “They can expand their services and resolve their customers’ plumbing challenges quickly. Diagnosing the problem quickly allows plumbers and drain cleaners to efficiently navigate the job site. Additionally, quality and serviceability are important — nothing can hurt a company more than machine downtime, whether it’s a broken camera head or snapped push cable, contractors need to have equipment that is rugged and can be easily serviceable when problems do arise.”

Productivity and clean up after the job is done can also be a pain point in drain cleaning applications, Albertini explains. “Plumbers need to leave residential jobs clean and tidy, and that takes time since drain cleaning can be a messy business. If a drain cleaner can eliminate or cut down on some of that mess, everybody wins, and they can move on to their next appointment faster.”

Selling to customers

Drain cleaning should be filed under preventative maintenance versus just emergency management, Dunbar notes, something residential customers tend to not grasp as much as commercial and facility maintenance personnel.

“Many plumbers and drain cleaning professionals find that entering a Preventative Maintenance contract with restaurants and industrial customers can be quite lucrative,” he says. “Simply send the truck to the location once every six months and jet, snake or flex-shaft the drains. Utilizing a camera system for before and after videos shows the impact of this procedure and serves to sell their services for years to come. Although food service is the biggest market for preventative maintenance contracts, we find their application spreading quickly across the whole business landscape. Aggressive contractors with a legitimate service to sell are getting the message out. Again, residential customers tend not to follow this advice, but there are exceptions. Preventative maintenance is always superior to emergency management!”

LaBreck agrees, saying contractors should relay to their customers that “proactive drain cleaning helps to maintain the performance of the pipes and the overall aging process of lines to ultimately extend their life. For example, rehabilitating the line and getting it back to its original diameter prevents future damage, the need to reline, or backups on the floor.”

There is a growing trend in some states where every real estate transaction must be accompanied by a drain inspection, especially on septic systems, according to Albertini.

“An easily addressable client base could be a local municipality which could open the door to hundreds of inspection jobs,” he says. “Taking it a step further some even require full repair of the lines before closing if there is any damage, another gateway into an additional service.”

Pipe patching is one such way to repair the pipe to prevent future backups, Albertini notes. “While a contractor has already cleaned a drain, many customers would rather fix it on the spot versus having to call the plumber back in 6 months.

Another potential market for drain cleaning and inspection services is in rental and apartment properties, Albertini says.

“In these complexes with older plumbing infrastructure, scheduling routine ‘checkups’ and cleaning and inspections of common problem areas gives customers peace of mind that everything is flowing smoothly,” he says. “Customers don’t want to have to make an emergency call when something goes wrong – if they have the reassurance of routine checkups on their plumbing systems, they have one less thing to worry about.”

Success stories

According to Dunbar, drain cleaning equipment is considered a very good capital investment and has one of the highest returns on investment of any plumbing category.

“Several years ago, I was talking to a plumbing contractor at a trade show and he confessed to me that he had just spent approximately $30,000 to fix his fleet of three pipe inspection units,” Dunbar says. “However, he said that he was happy to invest in the repairs because each one of the units had made him over $50,000 the year before. It was at that moment that I realized that I was in the wrong end of this business! He told me how he used his drain cleaning business as a lead generation system for his pipe replacement/pipe relining business. It turns out that one or two drain cleaning jobs out of every 10 give him an opportunity to sell a pipe replacement job, which can cost as much as $30,000 each. In an average year, he will pitch and close enough pipe replacement jobs to pay for his ‘top of the line’ camera systems many times over. And although this contractor is on the high end of the drain cleaning income curve, he is not unique. I have gotten in the habit of asking contractors how long it took them to pay off their snakes, jetters, flexible shaft devices and cameras. Often the answer is one day or one week! With returns on investment like this, owning drain cleaning machines in a well-run organization can be like printing money!

As a success story, LaBreck points to Daniel Kuzmick, the owner and plumber of Main Drain Plumbing, who was featured in Plumbing & Mechanical this past November about his decision to outfit his team with Milwaukee Tool drain cleaning and inspection equipment.

“I look like a rockstar,” Kuzmick says about Milwaukee’s M18 Modular Pipeline Inspection System. “The amount of information I’m able give my clients and be correct while understanding the situation and what it is going to take to fix. When I can give that information, it’s not science. It’s cut and dry, black and white. That’s efficient. It makes me feel good that I have concrete evidence to explain why I’m doing what I’m doing.”

For RIDGID, Albertini introduces Antonio Delacerda, a master plumber and owner of A-Team Plumbing in Tulsa, Oklahoma, who started his business after spending 21 years in the Army.

One day while excavating, his team ran into a 15,000-volt utility line that an underground locating company didn’t find with their equipment. Thankfully, the hit didn’t cause harm but was alarming enough to shut down work and remind Delacerda of the risks of excavating to do a pipe repair.

This is one of the reasons Antonio and his team got into pipe patching, a solution based on cured-in-place pipe (CIPP) that has been used for years globally as a structural repair in short sections of broken and damaged pipe. Along with the safety benefits, Antonio also saw the appeal of this type of repair for customers wanting to save their landscaping investment. RIDGID’s Pipe Patching Kits have saved A-Team Plumbing from having to dig up more than 600 feet of pipe.

“The stress level is a whole lot less now that we switched it all to RIDGID,” Delacerda says. “It’s still a little messy, but it’s so much easier. The one thing I really like about it is the resin containers. It’s so much easier. I can control pouring the resin into the patch. The other thing that I like are the push rods, and that the ring on the top of the packer doesn’t clip on, it screws on. The other brands, we’ve broken off the nose of the packer but haven’t broken RIDGID’s.”

Drain cleaning professionals provide a critical service to their communities.

“Life as we know it can’t exist without flushing toilets,” Dunbar adds. “Plus, they are helping to shore up our sewage treatment infrastructure by cleaning and repairing defective pipes. And finally, their drain cleaning equipment can help them earn a good living during both boom times and recessions because pipes are always clogging!”