Deep Roots and Dedicated Service

Levine and Sons augments 85 years of experience with an expanding slate of complementary services By Peter Kenter.
Deep Roots and Dedicated Service

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Levine and Sons is a family-owned business that's been active in the Detroit area so long that when it first opened in 1927, technicians on plumbing service calls traveled by trolley with their toolboxes. The company has remained true to its plumbing roots, but has expanded into related areas of service, including commercial and residential HVAC and sewer lateral relining. The business operates on four simple principles to thrive in an economically challenged market: know your market, know your job, arrive quickly and work efficiently.

The business, founded by Louis Levine, went on hiatus during the Great Depression but was firing on all cylinders by the end of World War II.

Louis’ son, Tom, got into the business when he was 18 years old and is still working with the company at 82 (see sidebar).

Then, as now, the company’s bread and butter was service and repair work including both plumbing and heating. The company also performed heavy industrial work at local oil refineries, working on large cast iron pipelines for such companies as Marathon Oil. Even then, the company hedged its bets, preparing for the possible conclusion of the refinery work with an increased investment in the plumbing business.

Today, the business employs 25 people and is headquartered in Redford Charter Township, Mich., a little more than 10 miles west of Detroit. Tom’s three sons assist him with the business, with Jim running operations and estimating, Dan handling finances, and Paul specializing in ordering, inventory management and equipment maintenance.

The company offers drain cleaning, sewer lining, pipe bursting, CCTV inspection, and dig-and-replace sewer line work in addition to standard plumbing and HVAC services. The customer mix is 80 percent residential and 20 percent light commercial.

Concentrating on the private sector

While municipal work is available for bid, Jim Levine says the company sticks to residential and commercial contracts, including such clients as office complexes, banks, restaurants and medical offices.

“We don’t own the big vacuum trucks and we’re geared to responding quickly, working quickly and billing quickly,” he says. “We’ve developed a great rapport with home and business owners, but dealing with the city is another type of work altogether, including permitting and major traffic control. The municipal jobs are generally longer-term contracts, and the longer you’re on the job, the greater the chances of running into a snag.”

The company operates 15 service trucks, including two Chevy 1-ton cargo vans and six Chevy Tiltmasters. They also have seven newer Ford E-450 cube trucks with 14-foot boxes and attics, and bodies by NBC Truck Equipment Inc. in nearby Roseville.

“We’re doing things a little different with the bodies,” says Levine. “We got away from aluminum body components, which corrode too quickly, especially at the back of the truck. We’re using fiberglass reinforced polymer bodies for the box, and all the trim is stainless steel instead.”

Drain cleaning and sewer line work form a steady 20 percent of the company’s revenue stream. The company devotes a full-time crew and three trucks to this segment of the business.

“Years ago, it wasn’t considered fashionable for a master plumber to do sewer work,” says Levine. “Today, with all sorts of cool, high-tech gadgets, it’s much more glamorous to get involved in sewer drain work. We offer a range of services to help reinstate laterals and leave it up to the customer as to which method they want us to use.”

The work begins with a free video inspection. Levine and Sons operates seven CCTV cameras, including the RIDGID SeeSnake, the Gen-Eye GL from General Pipe Cleaners, and Radiodetection models.

“Video inspection is really a loss leader for the drain cleaning and rehabilitation side of the business,” says Levine. “Generally, they also want their sewer line traced and we use either a RIDGID or Radiodetection locator for that.”

Traditional vs. trenchless

Customers are offered a variety of options from root cutting to hydrojetting and relining.

To help provide year-round service in cold weather, the company uses a US Jetting 5018 600-gallon heated trailer unit. Root cutting nozzles include models from Enz USA and StoneAge.

“I explain to the customer that I can try to cut out roots, but that I can’t clean out all of the roots from a 6-inch clay pipe with a 3.5-inch cutter,” says Levine. “We tell them that we’ll clear out 100 percent of the roots with a hydrojet but they will still have root regrowth at some point – or we can reline the lateral so they’ll own a seamless length of pipe with no joints and will never have to experience root intrusion again.”

Levine and Sons primarily works with cured-in-place pipe (CIPP) technology on 4-inch residential lines through the 6-inch transitions and will work on lines as large as 12 inches for light commercial customers. All CIPP technology is supplied by Formadrain’s pulled-in-place, steam-cured pipe repair system.

“It’s a licensed product and we buy all of the fiberglass and epoxy from the supplier as well,” says Levine.

The product is a rubber bladder wrapped with epoxy and fiberglass, which becomes the new sewer line. Once prepared and delivered to the site, a rope is run from the city manhole to the cleanout.

“We then pull it through from the basement using a four-legged, torque-multiplying winch with a tow strap as the crew feeds it through the manhole and communicates with the guys in the basement with a walkie-talkie,” says Levine.

The product is then inflated and cured.

“We like this product for two reasons,” he says. “First, it’s approved by the National Sanitation Foundation, which is required by the Michigan State Plumbing Board, and second it’s steam-cured. We’ve tried ambient cure products that we have to baby-sit for two to six hours, and with Formadrain we’re ready to move to the next project in 45 minutes.”

The CIPP process works well if there’s a structure running over the target pipe, or under a pool, garage or other building or addition.

“For broken clay pipe, I can’t use the system,” says Levine. “If there are sharp chunks of clay you might get an aneurysm in the bladder when it’s
inflated prior to curing. Then we’re stuck with wet, goopy fiberglass that’s partially hardened.”

If the lateral is impacted over a short section, Levine offers to install a 2- or 4-foot length of Fernco PipePatch from Source 1 Environmental. “These are packers pushed in using 10-foot fiberglass rods with their ends wrapped in epoxy and fiberglass,” he says. “We push them in place and then fill them with an air compressor.”

Patching and CIPP lining cover most of the company’s rehabilitation work, but in some cases they turn to their pipe bursting system from Pipe Genie Manufacturing.

After all of the trenchless options are offered, the company will also provide dig-and-replace service.

Flush TV offers novel exposure

Levine and Sons relies on word of mouth, Yellow Pages ads and its own extensive website to generate most of its business. The site includes links to a series of five-minute reality TV-style episodes called Flush TV, which feature the staff.

“These were done by Jennifer Katz, a Brooklyn filmmaker friend of Dan’s,” says Levine. “They were fun to do and they’ve been good for recognition value. Occasionally, people will walk up to me and say, ‘You’re the guy from Flush TV.’”

Cable TV advertisements, pay-per-click services and direct emails continue to become more important advertising vehicles.

“We keep an email database and will run email blasts to our existing customers,” says Levine. “On Thanksgiving, we’ll run a Turkey Day garbage disposal installation or maintenance special, or a discount on air conditioning service on the first day of summer. Sometimes we’ll offer a discounted line inspection and jetting service in a particular neighborhood when we’re getting a lot of storm advisories – whatever it takes to spur on existing customers.”

In Detroit, the economy remains weak and the middle class is under considerable economic pressure.

“At the same time it seems there’s a lot more competition than there ever was,” says Levine. “We’re even facing competition from municipal utilities who are making a profit on selling their services to homeowners, charging a flat monthly fee for plumbing service. These deals don’t always offer the best value to the customer because so much of the potential work is not actually covered.”

Still, the company is on a growth trajectory, including plans to expand geographically.

“We’d like to grow and service more adjacent counties,” he says. “Michigan was hit hard by the recession so we can make up some of the lost work by carefully expanding into new territory, without expanding to the point where we lose control of the network. But we still serve some of the same customers that we served when we started in 1927­, and we’re going to keep taking care of them as we grow.”



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