Service contractors are busy people. Already struggling to find workers amidst an ongoing labor shortage, plumbing and HVAC contractors saw demand soar during the pandemic as most people transitioned to a work-from-home environment. The repair and replacement market boomed as aging mechanical and plumbing systems struggled — and failed — to adjust to the increase in use with entire families stuck at home. With increasing demand, plumbers and HVAC techs are finding new ways to streamline workflow, and it all starts with their tools.
“Shifts in the national labor market have been the biggest changes affecting the drain cleaning industry since the pandemic,” says Dave Dunbar, national sales manager for General Pipe Cleaners. “Plumbers and drain cleaners are having a harder and harder time keeping a pre-pandemic number of trucks on the road because they can’t find people who want to do this difficult job. Business owners have had to pay much higher wages to attract competent workers, and this has affected prices to the consumer. Because they are understaffed, many large drain cleaning companies are no longer able to handle the demand, and this has allowed smaller companies to enter the market. Some of these newcomers are plumbers who had never done drain cleaning before, and some are unlicensed contractors rushing into the economic vacuum. Regardless, we notice that the newcomers are purchasing more and more drain cleaning equipment from General.”