The Liner Guys don’t mind cleaning up after other companies, as long as they have their RIDGID tools to help them do it.

The London, Ont., company specializes in lateral sewer repair and restoration and is frequently called upon by homeowners upset that another contractor failed to fully clear a clogged sewer line, said co-owner Steve Stefanidis. The first thing he does is inspect the pipe with a RIDGID SeeSnake^® camera.

“I can tell right off the bat the other plumber didn’t have a camera,” Stefanidis said. “When we put our camera in we can see they’ve punched a small hole in the root system, but they haven’t really cleaned the whole thing up. When we leave the job, the final inspection is done with the camera so we can be sure we’ve gotten every single piece of that root out.”

Stefanidis said he doesn’t understand why others don’t use cameras, even if their failure does provide work for him: “Anybody starting a plumbing company, especially if you eel (clean), I have no idea how you’d do your job without one of these.”

Though it does some residential service work, Liner Guys primarily restores residential and commercial sewer laterals with liners. The technology, which doesn’t require digging, is less common in Ontario than in the United States, Stefanidis said, adding that some customers don’t believe the work has been done if their yard isn’t dug up.

“We should leave a little bit of a mark just to convince them that some work was done,” he joked.

Here, too, the RIDGID SeeSnakes come in handy by allowing the technician to see if the liner is fully inflated. “Without it, it’s just a guessing game,” Stefanidis said.

In addition to five SeeSnakes of different sizes, Liner Guys’ inventory of RIDGID tools includes the K-40 Sink Machine, K-60 Sectional Machine, K-1500 Sectional Machine and NaviTrack Scout^® locators. Stefanidis said he won’t use any other brand.

“Their tools are built the best. We rely on them, we count on them, they always work for us, they’ve never let us down,” he said. The K-1500 is particularly impressive, he added.

“It’s gone through root systems that have been two, three, four feet long that other companies with other brands of machines have given up on,” he said. “We go out there and we’ve cleared the sewer for them.”

Homeowners also are impressed by the CS Monitors used with the RIDGID SeeSnakes. “They’re looking over your shoulder the whole time because it’s not something they’ve ever seen before,” Stefanidis said. “The camera inspections bring us a lot of work in, more than through any kind of marketing we do. Someone brings us out to do a camera inspection for their sewer and it usually leads to a plumbing job or a lining job.”

In the end, Stefanidis credits RIDGID tools with helping his business to grow.

“Without the RIDGID equipment to rely on every day, I’m not sure how successful we would have been,” he said.