Celebrating its fourth anniversary, Drain Buster’s Plumbing in Los Osos, Calif., is Miles Morrison’s part of the American dream. He started his plumbing career in Northern California right out of high school and dreamed of opening his own plumbing business one day. That dream came to fruition in June 2011 when Morrison, then 32, opened Drain Buster’s Plumbing.

Morrison thought long and hard about the name of the company — which stems from his love of drain cleaning, not the 1984 movie “Ghostbusters.”

“I wanted something people would remember and recognize,” he said. “I have been thinking and dreaming of what the company name/design would be for years. I had a few other ideas but this is what stuck with me, what I kept coming back to.” He came up with the phone number (528-CLOG) as well, so it, too, could be easily remembered.

Aside from Morrison and his wife, Regina, who handles all aspects of the office, the company has one other employee, Dillon Macaire. Morrison does plan on expanding the company soon. With one truck and two vans, Drain Buster’s covers all of San Luis Obispo County. The company does residential and commercial service and repair plumbing, as well as remodels. 

“We also do video inspections of storm and sewer drains/lines, which is one of my favorite parts of the job,” Morrison says. The area will be switching from individual septic systems to a city sewer system in 2017 and he intends to hire more personnel in order to handle the work.

The Drain Buster’s truck is a 1982 Chevy one-ton utility bed with door stickers. Supreme Corp. is the maker of both Spartan van boxes. One of the vans is a 2003 Ford E350 with a big sticker logo and the other is a 2015 GMC Savanna with a new logo that is a little different than the original. “I came up with the design on my own,” Morrison says. “For the text font, I wanted something slimy that resembled dripping pipes, as well as the pipe wrenches that are used regularly in everyday plumbing work.”

Morrison’s favorite truck is the GMC (pictured) because it is well-designed for stocking a large volume of supplies, as well as a lot of head room to stand up. The Sign Place installed the stickers on the company’s first van, the 2003 Ford. Frank Linson at Linson Signs in San Luis Obispo installed the stickers on the 1982 Chevy, as well as the 2015 GMC. “The hope is to get more business from the logo/signage,” he explains. “We believe it is memorable and that people will easily recognize and remember it by the black and neon green colors and ‘dripping’ design.”

 Drain Buster’s Plumbing doesn’t have a company slogan or pay for advertising. It’s a word-of-mouth business, which Morrison considers the biggest compliment his customers can give the company.

“We strive to get every job done correctly and make our customer’s happy so they call us back and refer their friends, family and acquaintances to us,” he notes. “We are reliable, friendly and experienced. We provide excellent customer service over the phone and in person. My wife always strives to answer the phone — even during evenings and weekends. I work extremely hard and I’m not afraid to get dirty!”