Time takes a toll. Beneath the streets and lawns and courtyards of Binghamton, a city of 48,000 in upstate New York, the toll is paid in deteriorating water and sewer pipelines.
Tom Markham, co-owner of Mr. Rooter of Binghamton, notes that 60% of the city’s underground infrastructure predates 1950 and has outlived its life expectancy.
“We’ve seen a significant increase in under-ground sewer and water service replacements over the past 10 years, and we fully expect that trend to continue, and even accelerate,” Markham says. “We see a huge opportunity in our market for underground work.”
The opportunity for the company is rooted in a 1997 decision by Markham’s father, Earl, and a partner. They opened a plumbing shop — a Mr. Rooter franchise (No. 40 in the Mr. Rooter family). Two years later, at age 32, Earl bought out his partner and the Markham family has been serving Binghamton ever since as one of the longer-running Mr. Rooter businesses, 35 years now.
Family transitions
The family interest in water and wastewater actually began when Earl’s father, Earl Sr., operated a septic service business in Binghamton. But Earl decided he would rather be a plumber, so he earned an associate’s degree in a plumbing technical program at a local State University of New York campus. His founding of the Binghamton Mr. Rooter franchise followed graduation, which established a similar sequence for other members of the Markham family.
Tom Markham also went to college, earning a business degree. Although joining his father at Mr. Rooter was always a possibility during his college years, it wasn’t a foregone conclusion, he says. However, upon graduation 15 years ago, he opted in. Markham’s brother Jamie, the other current owner, did pretty much the same, actually working elsewhere in the corporate world after college before joining his brother in the family business about eight years ago. Consequently, Earl retired in 2020, his sons ready to fully take on the business. Jean, Earl’s wife and the boys’ mother, continues to work in the office sometimes.
Future focused
Today, Mr. Rooter of Binghamton is a firmly established second-generation family business — and the second generation has its own ideas.
Tom Markham says he wants the company to always offer first-class plumbing service, yet the future truly lies in underground rehab and repair. While camera inspections and jetting have long been offered to customers, nowadays they can also count on Mr. Rooter of Binghamton for trenchless pipeline repair.
In the company’s yard is Perma-Liner Industries equipment to refurbish residential and small commercial sewer laterals 2 to 8 inches in diameter. Perma-Liner pull-in liners are cured in place either with the LightRay UV system or ambient air. The company also has a Perma-Liner inversion lining machine for rehab of larger-diameter pipe and longer pipe runs.
“Having both lining options available allows us to choose the approach that makes the most sense for a particular pipe repair job,” Markham says. “We are getting calls weekly for liners, mostly to rehab clay or Orangeburg or cast-iron stock, either updating a lateral system or repairing it.”
Most of the work is for sections of pipe 50 feet in length or less, although one pipe repair project for a hospital ran 180 feet.
In short, rehabbing sewer laterals and drains — that’s the future for Mr. Rooter of Binghamton, says Markham.
“We want to be the one-stop shop for anything drain related, from small pipes leading away from your house to drains in factories,” he says.
Although the city’s industrial sector has diminished, Binghamton boasts electronics manufacturing, health care and university-affiliated campuses, all of which offer drain cleaning opportunities for Mr. Rooter.
“We are called three or four times a week,” Markham says.
Mr. Rooter service calls in 2026 are about a 50/50 split between commercial and residential, with some 60% of the calls drain-related versus purely plumbing in nature. “Our plumbing work is growing at about the same pace as our drain work,” Markham says, “but we are focusing on expanding our work on drains.”
Culture kings
Mr. Rooter of Binghamton has seven service technicians responding to calls, each in his own van. So that a tech can respond to any call, techs are cross-trained to a point. Markham says he wants team members to be able to work on most any task that comes up. Consequently, the team is not broken into divisions.
“We have different guys specializing in different things, but everyone also kind of does everything,” Markham says.
To keep specialty skills sharp as well as maintain more general skills, the company holds technician meetings every two weeks, with vendors sharing the latest technological features of equipment and other trainers teaching and honing more rudimentary knowledge. The knowledge pool at the company is pretty deep at this point, Markham says, with several techs having five to six years of Mr. Rooter experience, another with seven years, and an especially veteran tech with 20 years.
One technician has earned his master plumber license (as has Markham) on the job and two others are preparing to take the test. Over the years, six techs have earned the license.
“While it’s not necessary for our shop, the master plumber license is a skill set our techs can add to their tool kit for their future careers,” Markham says.
Such consideration for employees seems to be in the company’s DNA. In the hiring process, for example, candidates are first evaluated on how they would fit in the company’s family-like culture.
“When we bring potential candidates in for interviews, we focus on character first, how they carry themselves when they walk through the door,” Markham says. “Plumbing experience is great to have, but it’s not a requirement. We’re looking for people who are punctual, have a positive attitude and treat others well. If someone has the traits of a good employee and fits our company culture, we’ll teach them the trade.”
Markham adds that the process is self-perpetuating, because once employed at Mr. Rooter, team members reach out to like-minded people.
“We’ve been fortunate that a lot of our recruiting happens organically,” he says. “In a small city, reputation travels fast, so we pride ourselves on running a professional shop and treating people well, and the word seems to get around. Our team plays a big role: Good technicians usually know other good technicians, friends or family who would fit right into our company culture.”
Markham’s father instilled in him and his brother a good work ethic and the overriding importance of satisfying customers. While learning the ropes as a tech, though, Markham says he also came to understand the need to have satisfied employees.
“When I began to manage the company, I knew I wanted to make sure that the work wasn’t just a job for the technicians,” he says.
Development of the “family” culture ensued.
Full toolbox
Markham says Mr. Rooter remains beholden to its plumbing customer base, even as it expands its service into peripheral areas.
“We would love to be more drain-oriented 10 years from now, but we have such a plumbing client base, we will always have those plumbing calls coming in,” Markham says. “We will always take care of the plumbing customers on whom we built this company and they will take care of us.”
Besides the pipe lining equip-ment, other tools of the trade for this multifaceted firm include two US Jetting rigs — model 4018 units, each 4,000 psi and 18 gpm — and seven RIDGID inspection cameras, one unit carried in each van. Markham says full-color visuals of pipe interiors are particularly persuasive when a customer with a plugged or broken line is wavering about a fix.
“With the old black-and-white cameras, you sometimes couldn’t even tell what you were looking at,” he says.
Now, the stories of a broken pipe, impeding roots or other obstructions are told in living color.
Plumbing hand tools are a mix of brands, with Milwaukee Tools dominating. Markham says the company always stands ready to get needed equipment.
“Whatever makes techs’ tasks easier,” he says. “Anything that will make their work days easier, we are ready to invest in.”
As a consequence of all this employee-nurturing emphasis, Mr. Rooter team members and customers have bonded to some extent.
“Some customers trust our techs so much they leave their doors open for them, and some businesses give keys to us for after-hours service calls,” Markham says. “In the world we are living in, we love their respect and trust in us.”
Franchise pioneer
Franchises can bring several advantages to new business owners. They let an owner quickly tap into an established customer base, receive immediate support drawn from the franchise experience of like owners and systematically build a company on a proven business model.
“We definitely benefit,” Markham says. “We have a yearly conference, which allows us to get together with other Mr. Rooter owner-operators. The conferences help us stay at the forefront of technology and marketing. We always are in the know about what is coming.”
Markham and his brother are well familiar, working in the business as early as age 8 helping clean up the shop on the weekends and attending those conferences with their father growing up. They saw firsthand their father’s interactions with other Mr. Rooter owners, being seen as sort of one of the franchise’s pioneers. There are some 250 Mr. Rooter locations in the U.S. and Canada today, but at the time of the Binghamton branch’s founding, it was franchise No. 40 for the Mr. Rooter family. In fact, it was recognized as Mr. Rooter Franchise of the Year in 1994.
Now the brothers enjoy having a little friendly, intra-family competition with their father to see if they can achieve some of the same accolades he received in his time running the business. They are off to a good start. During Markham’s early tenure taking over the business, the Binghamton franchise was named Mr. Rooter Rookie of the Year.
There could even be a third generation of the Markham family getting involved one day. Markham has two young daughters, ages 8 and 4. The 8-year-old, he says, is talking about someday being a Mr. Rooter franchise owner.
“It’s cool seeing the next generation getting into it,” he says.
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