The beauty of buried water and sewer pipes and other utility lines is that they are out of sight. But when a repair is needed, fixing an underground line without ripping out a lawn or breaking up pavement is a technical feat.

That’s where Total Trenchless Supply comes in. The Woodland, California-based business offers products that allow contractors to fix problems without digging up the ground — Perma-Liner Industries being the premier product offering. The company also offers expert training to ensure that trenchless contractors use products and techniques that give every customer a top-quality fix.

So which came first — supplying products or training contractors? Neither. The nonobvious answer is Hall’s Plumbing. Chris Reynolds, 41, worked his way up in the 30-year-old plumbing company in Woodland before buying it nine years ago. As he continued to grow the traditional plumbing business, he added Perma-Liner trenchless solutions to the mix of services in 2020.

A Born CIPP Mentor

Perma-Liner subsequently trained Reynolds and other key team members of Hall’s Plumbing on a then-new ultraviolet curing system. Hall’s became one of the first 10 Perma-Liner contractors in the world to offer the UV solution. The company became so proficient in its use of trenchless products in general that Perma-Liner marketing employees began calling Reynolds for help.

“Salespeople would call and say, ‘I have this guy who wants to buy, but he has questions and would like them answered from an installer’s perspective,’” Reynolds recalls. “So I would call the contractor and answer the question, talk to them and make sure they had the right equipment for the job and let them know they could always call me if they needed to talk some more. I did that dozens of times.”

At some point, Reynolds realized he was making all those supporting calls for free, which violated his entrepreneurial instincts. He flew to the main Perma-Liner headquarters in Clearwater, Florida, and sat down with executives about doing some business coaching.

It turned out that Perma-Liner at one time operated an installer-trainer program. After Reynolds’ initiative, they rethought and reinstituted the program, with Reynolds becoming the go-to guy on the West Coast and another person covering the East Coast.

“Then they said, ‘You might as well have Perma-Liner products for sale in your shop, too,’ and I said, ‘OK,’” Reynolds says.

Making It Official

With the new arrangement in place, Total Trenchless Supply was born two years ago. Today, Hall’s Plumbing and the newer company operate as separate entities in the same 30,000-square-foot building in Woodland. Both companies are growing, with Hall’s Plumbing topping $12 million in revenue in 2024, up from $1 million shortly after Reynolds purchased the firm. The number of plumbing employees has doubled in the last two years to 52.

The other link between the two companies is excellent training. As he built out the plumbing company, Reynolds came up with an intensive program for instilling in his employees the Hall’s way of service. He constructed a service tech training platform so novice plumbers could hone their trade skills someplace other than in a customer’s bathroom or kitchen. He constantly had four to six plumbing trainees in the program and had all crew members congregate three times a week for sales and service training.

When he consequently found himself fielding questions from Perma-Liner customers and walking them through the lining process, it was a continuation of his teaching methodology born in his plumbing shop. The desire and ability to teach, it turns out, is a forte of Reynolds’, one that he developed as a leader in team-building activities during his public school days. Here’s an example of the type of training conversations Reynolds has with Perma-Liner contractors:

“What I always tell people is that the lining process is like Grandma’s chocolate chip cookie recipe. Baking is a science and if you don’t add the right stuff and the right amount of stuff and follow the process, the cookies aren’t going to be like Grandma’s. In lining, if you don’t follow the process and, instead, veer off, you can destroy the project. If you apply the rules and follow every single step of the process, you will get a good result. Now, things happen, and sometimes you have to deviate, but just understand that once you step outside the recipe, you are opening up a project to the possibility of a less-than-satisfactory outcome.”

Coaching ’EM Up

The training sessions can be conducted at a contractor’s office or job site. A second and more popular option is for the contractor to send two or three employees to Total Trenchless Supply’s learning center at its Woodland headquarters. In either venue, Reynolds and his cousin, Joe Garin, preside over the session, with a couple of experienced trenchless techs from Hall’s Plumbing doing most of the hands-on training.

“It’s really cool,” Reynolds says. “It’s me, Joe and a couple of our lead guys. Joe and I monitor the teaching for certification purposes, making sure the crew members in the class are being taught the textbook way. We then add extra stuff from our experience, telling them, ‘Do this or don’t do that.’ It gives the training extra value because we’ve been there. They get real-world applications.”

Is this mentoring, training or consulting work? All of the above. Reynolds calls himself the lead consultant at Total Trenchless Supply with Garin serving as the lead trainer. The mentoring piece is shared among them as customers and contractors come to trust both men and the company.

“Perma-Liner sends the contractors to us for training and ongoing support after they have spent a lot of money on lining equipment. We train them, give them confidence and then support them through their journey,” Reynolds says.

Most trenchless equipment and supplies sales are to contractors in northern California. Full-blown training sessions — one or two each month — also mostly occur in the West, though Midwest (Chicago) and East Coast (New York) companies have been helped. Some 40 businesses have benefited from the training so far. As for the informal phone conversations with anxious or inquiring contractors, they still happen nearly every day, Reynolds says.

A range of contractors participate in both the formal sessions and the phone calls. Some business owners are just starting out and need reassurance. Others have jumped into the trenchless market in a big way, bought some expensive equipment and have learned that their crew members need additional training. Still others have established a business doing residential CIPP work, have a chance to bid on a larger commercial project and need assistance to make the transition.

“The important thing about Total Trenchless Supply is that we are here to mentor these other businesses and not just sell them products,” Reynolds says. “I want to train people to do quality installations so they can grow their businesses. I try to figure out a way to add value to their companies and try to be there for support. I had a couple of mentors and this is a way of giving back.”

Trenchless Solutions’ Moment

Reynolds sits atop two disparate, yet connected, businesses. He has trusted lieutenants in key positions, including brother Jason, who oversees large commercial projects at Hall’s Plumbing and is spearheading that firm’s new involvement in commercial backflow prevention devices. Such assistance lets Reynolds concentrate on other things — building the brand, keeping an eye on the biggest plumbing projects and extending his Total Trenchless Supply list of clients.

As for the latter, he says: “The important thing is to grow a network of plumbing and trenchless companies all across the country, all like-minded and wanting to install quality product. Our goal here is to continue to build relationships to where we can all help each other succeed.”

Reynolds describes the current period as “the golden age of service companies.” That is to say, the country’s old infrastructure is only getting older and, in many cases, in urgent need of trenchless repair solutions.

“There will never be a better time for the industry. Everything is breaking in our direction,” Reynolds says. “As for Total Trenchless Supply, the only thing that might stop us is me. Unless I do something royally stupid, something self-inflicted, if we just keep our head down and do what we are doing, there is no end to the potential for us and other service companies.”