It can be challenging to maintain a competitive edge in a regional plumbing and drain cleaning business.

When Budget Rooter of Bear, Del., saw a chance to move ahead of the pack as an early adopter of pipe bursting technology, it jumped in with hip waders to differentiate itself from other regional players.

The service helps the company undercut the prices of traditional drain services — while working faster and with less damage to client properties.

In addition, pipe bursting has helped the company gain a strong foothold with commercial and government entities. Its success is built not just on the technology itself, but on skillful marketing, quick reaction to competitive threats, and financial tools that make the procedures affordable for customers.

Out of adversity

Budget Rooter today has a fleet of eight service trucks and two trailers. It employs seven field and three office workers. The firm’s drain and pipe cleaning, pipe repair and video inspection work is performed by registered master plumbers and certified drain technicians.

The firm was founded in 1992 by Suzanne Palady. Formerly a meat wrapper in a supermarket, Palady became disabled in 1991 after being struck on the back while working. Her husband, a plumber, commuted each day to Philadelphia.

“When I realized I wasn’t the mule I used to be and couldn’t lift heavy loads, I knew I had to make a buck somehow,” she says. Armed with advice from her husband and $500, she bought four telephone lines and the name Budget Rooter. A single truck and drain machine soon followed.

Palady plied the telephones, acting as a one-woman marketing and dispatch service. Her son, Jeff, who had learned the plumbing and drain cleaning trade from his father, provided the horsepower.

Bear is a loosely­ defined series of communities and sprawling housing developments located a few miles south of Wilmington. To be a viable plumbing business in the area requires a broad geographic reach, not only across Delaware, but into Maryland and Pennsylvania.

“Initially, things didn’t take off like I’d hoped,” Palady says. “In the first year we were taking home maybe $800 to $1,000 a month, and we realized we had to work harder to build a reputation.”

Making a mark

For the first three years, Jeff was the company’s sole field employee, often working past midnight on assignments while going to plumbing school for his master’s license. “People used to say that they knew our company was busy because they saw our trucks all over,” Palady says. “But that was just Jeff at work.”

Budget Rooter had competitors in the drain cleaning business, but fast construction growth in the New Castle County area surrounding Bear meant there was plenty of work for all of them.

“The competitors were typical plumbers using all kinds of rooters,” Palady says. “We were basically competing on the same technological level and succeeding by providing good service. Our prices are not the lowest and not the highest, but we always come when we say we’ll come, so we pulled ahead on our integrity.”

In 1998, Palady’s husband became disabled, putting even greater pressure on the business to turn a healthy profit. He died in 2001. But Palady remained determined to grow her business.

By 2006, Budget Rooter had gained a solid foothold in the market and was now shifting to a more commercial client base. Its high- profile clients included The Home Depot, Applebee’s restaurants, and civic contracts with New Castle County. Clients spanned a 40- to 50-mile radius.

“We also took on the dirtiest drain cleaning jobs imaginable,” says Jeff. “Some of the plumbing companies in the area don’t really want to touch a dirty drain or get into that debris — they only like to work on faucets and clean water. We thrive on restaurant grease and baby wipes.”

Technology booster

Jeff is the company technology buff, always looking for ways to outdistance other area drain cleaners. “If we can get an edge by doing something a little cheaper, a little faster or a little less expensively, he wants to go that way,” says Palady. “Even if it requires some initial investment.” After reading literature on pipe bursting equipment about two years ago, the company decided to investigate further.

Initially, Palady was inclined to buy a pipe bursting unit from Spartan Tool LLC, because of her husband’s allegiance to the brand. “My husband swore by Spartan,” she says. “After I married him, I learned all about drain cleaning — and Spartan.”

Jeff, on the other hand, was more circumspect about equipment. The company already had two Spartan waterjetters for heavy-duty drain cleaning, but advertising from other pipe bursting companies had also caught his interest.

“I investigated some likely companies, but the decision came down less to differences in technology and more to the type of support offered by the company,” says Jeff. “Some of the companies had good products but were located too far away and had no local dealer networks to provide support.

“When we called the Spartan sales rep in New Jersey, he came right over to demonstrate what he offered with a unit on his truck. If we’re getting into a technology that’s new for us, we want to be sure we get the technical support we need to make it work. I want to know who I can call in the middle of a pull if something goes wrong.”

Flexible system

Budget Rooter eventually settled on Spartan’s UnderTaker system, a 210-pound unit that could pull pipe sizes from 2 to 6 inches with up to three 45-degree bends in the pipe. Jeff also liked the idea that the unit could be powered either through the 3,000-psi hydraulic system of a backhoe or by a 13-hp Honda engine that comes with the unit. The company took possession of the unit at the beginning of 2006 and immediately incorporated the branding into its advertising campaigns.

“Even from a local marketing perspective, the UnderTaker is a cool name that gets customer interest,” says Jeff. “We can take advantage of the distributor’s marketing in our own sales pitches. The name helps to explain what it does, and the sign on the side of our truck helps to sell the idea.”

Most customers in the area were unfamiliar with bursting technology. While some larger commercial clients understood the principle behind it, residential clients were not yet up to speed.

“When we explain to a homeowner that we’re going to work on their pipes, but leave their rose bushes and sidewalk intact, it doesn’t take much to sell them on it,” says Palady. “I’ve even made up a small model that fits in a suitcase to explain it to people who can’t visualize it. It features a dollhouse in HO scale to help people to understand the technology better. If I can show you something tangible like this model, I can make you want that service.”

Commercial clients are often sold on the safety factor of trenchless technology. Eliminating digging also eliminates the liability involved in having workers enter a 9-foot-deep hole on their property.

Fighting back

Budget Rooter was the first company in the area to go trenchless, but not the only one. A large competitor offered pipe bursting a few months later, while an out-of-state contractor began to snatch jobs that the company had counted on, including a large contract for a local apartment complex.

“It wasn’t the technology or the service alone,” says Palady. “We found out that the company was offering direct financing packages to clients.” Budget Rooter had to adapt to the new market conditions by offering financing as well, through a third-party, American General Financial Services. “If we’re doing a large bursting job, now, instead of having the client go to the bank for a loan, we hand them the financing paper work on the spot,” she says.

Pipe bursting jobs haven’t replaced traditional sources of revenue. “It doesn’t dominate the business,” says Jeff. “It’s just one part of our strategy. We’ve been performing about three to four of these contracts per month on average, but it isn’t spread out evenly. In July and August, for example, we didn’t use the unit at all.”

Jeff is still the company’s trenchless technology point man, although three other employees are gradually being trained in its use. “I have nothing bad to say about the technology,” says Jeff. “But there has been a bit of a learning curve.

“One of the factors I didn’t consider initially was the condition of the soil. The unit stabilizes itself against the soil when it pulls, so if the soil is wet, the unit can start pulling itself right into a wet soil bank, instead of pulling the pipe. You need a dry and solid base for the unit to sit on. That’s the kind of knowledge you gain by experience.”

Good experience with pipe bursting has helped Budget Rooter expand its capability, broaden its clientele, and continue on a growth trajectory established more than a decade ago.