After 20 years in business with Rabe Plumbing & Heating, with a service line in sewer and drain cleaning, owner Kevin Rabe decided in 2006 to establish a sewer and drain business with a different name and identity.

There were two reasons. First, other plumbers who needed subcontract drain-cleaning services were reluctant to have another plumber’s truck in the driveway. Second, he saw that with a business focused solely on sewer and drain cleaning, and service trucks set up properly for it, he could provide better service, grow that business, and increase his profit margin.

By early 2007, Rabe had established Action Sewer & Drain Services, right next door to Rabe Plumbing in Morton, Pa. (near Philadelphia), but with a totally separate appearance and business plan. After two years, and with salesman Dan Vasquill on the road promoting both companies, Rabe can truthfully say: Mission accomplished.

Well-equipped

Rabe, a master plumber, started his plumbing company as a one-man operation with an apprentice, a full range of tools, and hope for the future. Over the years, he added sewer and drain tools, such as camera equipment, waterjetters, and pipe-bursting systems. “I was never shy about purchasing equipment to provide different services for my customers,” he says. “I got into jetting because I saw a benefit to my customers and a better margin for me, as well.

“But my one jetter was not working enough to have that investment. I needed to find ways to keep it busier. Having a jetter was like a power play. Having the equipment and capability opened the door for subcontracting for other plumbers who were not offering those services. It allowed us to work with them while we also focused on growing the business and opening doors to municipal work.”

While his two companies can share equipment, Rabe believed the employees should be dedicated to one or the other company. In setting up Action Sewer & Drain, he transferred three of the long-time plumbing technicians to the new company, along with one office worker, and trained them for their specific jobs.

“These are the guys who take the jetter out for Action, and they are trained in every aspect of sewer and drain,” Rabe says. Everyone who works for Action also has a journeyman plumbing license. “I think it is important that they are more knowledgeable than the average sewer and drain-cleaning company employee,” Rabe notes.

Outfitting the trucks

“In this business, you need to specialize and be aware of all the needs of the customer. The most important thing is to have your trucks set up with the right equipment so that your technicians can service customers efficiently. You don’t want to do anything half way.

“We started offering these services in a small truck, but we found that in order to give the best service for the customer every time we were out there, we couldn’t be wasting time going back and forth for equipment. You need every truck to be equipped with multiple tools and devices. We have one Ford E-550 with a 15-foot utility bed. It is a huge truck.” Action also has a fully equipped 2007 Dodge Sprinter with a high roofline.

“I don’t understand how other companies can provide these services in smaller trucks,” Rabe says. “I know we have every tool that could be needed when we pull up to a job. Cameras, locator equipment, jetters, hand tools.”

The vehicles have diesel engines because Rabe believes they offer more power, which he wants when towing a jetter filled with 600 gallons of water. He promotes both companies as having the best equipment and trucks in the business. “The truck that goes out is equipped and set up to provide that specific service,” he says.

The plumbing company uses a mixture of 14 service and support vehicles – eight different styles of trucks with gasoline engines. The equipment list for Action includes:

• Two trailer jetters from US Jetting (300-gallon tank with 18 gpm/4,000 psi, and 600-gallon tank with 18 gpm/4,000 psi).

• Aquatech, a division of Hi-Vac Corporation, combination truck (1,500-gallon tank, 60 gpm/2,000 psi).

• Cameras from General Pipe Cleaners and Spartan Tool LLC.

• Locators from Metrotech and Goldak Inc.

• Pipe-bursting system from TRIC Tools Inc.

Measuring growth

Action Sewer & Drain did bring a significant net increase in business in its first year. However, with a salesperson on the road, meeting prospects and reaching out to plumbing contractors and commercial and municipal customers, business began to roll in.

“We are reaching out to apartment complexes and school systems, to restaurants for preventive maintenance, and to municipalities,” Rabe says. The company is also offering its services to high-rise buildings.

Rabe says owners of high-rise buildings seek out pure sewer and drain cleaners. They do not call plumbers to check the stacks (the systems that carry waste vertically from the top floor through to the basement to the building sewer). Action Sewer can take care of buildings as high as 20 stories, using a jetter on the ground and a long hose. Technicians use a rigging rope to pull the hose up to jet the stacks. “That is the best and most efficient way to do it,” Rabe says.

The company is now getting on the bid lists with municipalities and engineers. All told, the customer base in the plumbing operation has shifted from 90 percent residential to 50 percent, the balance being commercial. “With commercial work, you build a relationship with someone,” Rabe says. “You can have your truck or jetter there for a number of days, or weeks, versus just providing one or two hours of service for a residential customer. There is not as much travel, but a lot more billable hours.”

The go-to guy

In operating two companies, Rabe has five technicians who have been with him from 10 to 20 years. No one person acts as a supervisor in either company. “I am the guy they come to when there is a question or problem,” says Rabe.

With the addition of another company, and the growth of both operations, Rabe sees his role changing significantly. “When I started my plumbing business, it was just me and a helper,” he says. “I needed to perform the work myself. As the first business grew, and with the addition of Action, I needed to work on my business, not in my business.

“I need to be not so much a plumber but a business person and manager. That is the difference between what I did coming up and what I do now on a daily basis. But I believe that in order to have a successful business, you have to keep being good to your people and they will stay with you. That is the key. You look out for them and they look out for you.”

In 22 years, Rabe has never laid anyone off. His advice: If you don’t grow too fast, and if you don’t put all your eggs in one basket, then you can provide a variety of services and keep your people busy and invested in what they are doing for the company. It is a formula that has worked well so far, on both sides of the property in Morton, Pa.