Inspection and Pipe Rehab Company Does it Differently

Rehabilitation contractor takes a different approach, hiring subcontractors rather than employees.

Inspection and Pipe Rehab Company Does it Differently

Drain Services is always the prime contractor on its jobs, but since the company has no employees, all labor is subcontracted.

Kevin Cameron boldly entered the plumbing industry with a business model that, if not unique, certainly is unusual — his work crew members are not his employees — and he hopes eventually to franchise the concept.  

“I’ve always been an entrepreneur, since I mowed my first lawn,” says Cameron, vice president and founder of Drain Services. An accountant by education, he came in contact with the industry when subbing out plumbing work for properties he’d begun to acquire and redevelop. It turned out the plumber with whom he contracted needed bookkeeping help, so they worked out a deal to swap their expertise. 

Before long, Cameron decided to jump into plumbing itself. In 2011, he bought an inspection camera. In 2012 when he became curious about the best methods of correcting the problems uncovered by his camera, the company moved into repair and rehab work, investing in CIPP equipment. Today at age 32, he and his wife run a half-million-dollar-a-year sewer and water rehabilitation enterprise out of Fargo, North Dakota, with customers in three states.

Making a market

Because he obviously was not the first plumber in Fargo, Cameron encountered competitors, most of whom were not doing trenchless work. “My competition is the excavator and the plumber who have been in town for 30 years,” Cameron says. “Excavators still take up much of the market — excavate and replace a line. If I were in Minneapolis where trenchless is more preferred, I would have different competition. But here, the impulse is to excavate. ‘I have an emergency, and I have to dig up the ground!’ That’s my hurdle.” 

Consequently, though Cameron is a staunch advocate of trenchless remedies, Drain Services is bonded to perform excavation work and can roll into a job ready to dig if it comes to that. Behind his Ford F-350, Cameron hauls a Kubota excavator on a trailer along with up to 240 feet of pipe, pumps, pipe bursting equipment and other needed materials. He keeps two RIDGID pipe inspection cameras in the truck at all times — a main unit and a backup — along with Picote Solutions robotic milling machines. “When that truck pulls up, it’s a one-stop shop.” 

Other rolling stock includes Ford Transit vans with municipal sewer and water inspection equipment in one and pipe lining tools in another, and a dump truck. About half of the company’s work is residential, with commercial and municipal jobs splitting the other half. Cameron is an effective advocate for the business, closing nine out of 10 residential deals he bids on. Municipal bids are won about 30 percent of the time, he says, because a city government tends to package several projects, and his small company doesn’t have the bonding capacity for bundled work. “So I end up losing that bid.” 

The company does not undertake routine sewer line or waterline maintenance work. Cameron tried it but decided it was not his thing, so calls for clearing clogged drains are routed to a master plumber. Nor does the company run new sewer lines or waterlines. It does perform auxiliary repairs such as drain tile installation, wet-basement solutions, rooftop drainpipe rehabbing on commercial structures, and sealing of lateral main connections. But pipe rehabilitation is the company’s forte. “We’re the experts. We have the best cameras. After someone else clears it, we’ll go in and inspect a line and, if necessary, repair it.”  

Typical jobs involve homes built from the early to mid-1900s with 100-foot-long laterals running out to the main. “Our typical customer is looking to have a complete relining done, and we’ll do every foot of that 100 feet,” Cameron says. The ensuing renewal of the line typically involves a CIPP system launched from inside the basement, or pipe bursting, with fiberglass joints sealing it all. 

“We just completed a trenchless repair that was pretty interesting,” Cameron says. The job was in a residential neighborhood on a two-lane, one-way street. A sewer line had failed and backed up. The sewer line ran through a manhole on the customer’s property that was shared with a neighboring property, though the neighbor had abandoned his connecting line. 

The customer first bid the task as an excavate-and-replace job but was put off by the cost of it along with the complications of tearing up the street. The customer then called Drain Services. “We went in there and gave them a temporary sewer outlet and in three days gave them back their sewer, having run a 100-foot lateral with no street or land disturbed.”

A new model

What is of special interest is the “we” he talks about. Cameron does the Drain Services work himself with a few subcontractors. The company’s business model does not include employees. 

It works this way: Cameron bids, say, a sewer line replacement job that will entail master plumber-level connecting work along with more rudimentary day-labor tasks. He then consults a list of subcontractors with whom he has worked and makes calls until he lines up a “crew.” Cameron is on site throughout the job as contractor, foreman and, if need be, laborer. “I am on every job site and can operate every single piece of equipment we need to use.” 

While excavation is done only when absolutely necessary, the company will rip up and replace, say, a concrete sidewalk, should a job require it. Cameron supplies any heavy equipment needed — the mini-excavator, the pipe bursting components — and the subs bring their own hand tools and supplies. “Basically, all the equipment on the operations side is the company’s,” he says. “They bring their knowledge.” 

This allocation of responsibility and liability on a job site is unusual. “My labor is done by my subs,” he says. “I’m contributing skills that I have while minimizing my liability for their work. It helps me control the work that’s getting done on a site. I can focus on doing my side of the job.”

Limited liability

He has a network of eight subcontractors he relies on for his contracted jobs. To avoid spreading his subs and himself too thin, he runs one project at a time, though several estimating jobs usually are in the works. Each subcontractor has a specialized set of excavation or pipe lining skills, but each is also broadly experienced enough to be familiar with a range of tasks. In this way, the crew is able to back one another in different phases of the work. 

“I think the business model is unique to about every business, let alone sewer work,” Cameron says. “Most companies have dedicated employees, mostly because management wants to have the control. I accomplish the same thing but without the liability.” 

He cites the theoretical example of admonishing an employee to “be sure you don’t hit that line.” If the worker subsequently does damage that line, it is management’s responsibility to repair it. But if a forewarned subcontractor does the damage, the liability is with the sub. “A dedicated employee increases my exposure to something I can’t control. It increases my risk. With my model, the only risk I have is what I do myself.” 

His model also off-loads to subcontractors the responsibility for training themselves in the latest sewer repair techniques or for other continuing education. “If I want to offer more services, I can get training at my own pace and then roll out the services at my own pace. I don’t have to drag a crew through the training process and hope they are learning it as I’m learning it. That’s their responsibility.” 

There can be disadvantages to working with subs instead of regular employees. Sometimes subcontractors don’t show up when scheduled. “I can’t demand they be on site at a certain time because they’re independent contractors and have other projects going on,” Cameron says. “When they’re late starting a job because of work conflicts, I just start the job myself. I run the jackhammer myself.”

He tried structuring the company with a superintendent or two under him to oversee work, but he couldn’t replicate the efficiency he’s come to appreciate with the current structure. One day he hopes to set up a franchise model and export his efficient work management arrangement.

Driving forward

The market area for Drain Services is roughly west of Fargo along Interstate 94 to the state line; east into Minnesota along the same highway to Minneapolis; north on I-29 to Grand Forks, North Dakota; and south along I-29 into South Dakota. But really, the business area is wherever Cameron says it is. “We are licensed and bonded out to work wherever we’re needed. I just look at an area and ask myself, ‘Do we have a potential market there, and will it be profitable?’”

If the answers are “yes” and “yes,” his one-stop shop hits the road.

More than partners

Drain Services is not a one-man company. It is a one-man, one-woman company. Kevin Cameron and his wife are, respectively, vice president and president of the firm. 

Married couples who are also business partners is an accelerating trend, according to some observers of the business scene, though statistics supporting that assertion aren’t readily available. Sometimes such a partnership is more symbolic than functional, with one spouse having a name on the letterhead without shouldering any real responsibility. That’s not the case here. 

At Drain Services, Kevin Cameron is deeply involved in the running of the company, managing every project, operating all the equipment as needed, and supervising the work of his subcontractors. Yet, he is vice president of the company. His wife is the top executive. 

“She has a voice on every new contract we enter into — a voice in all purchases. We do it with her signature,” he says. “She is not in the field, but she definitely is involved.”

In addition, she is a grounding force, keeping her ambitious and entrepreneurial husband from flying off in all directions. “She keeps my vision intact — keeps me on the rails,” he says. “She’s my anchor.” 

She is also mother of the couple’s 9-month-old daughter, which is a whole other enterprise.



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