What Do Drain Technicians Do

On a typical morning, I come into the office first thing, about 9 o’clock, and hear about the schedule for the day ahead. Then I spend the rest of the day running service calls either at homes or businesses, whatever happens, to be on the schedule is always a surprise, and my day usually ends around 7 o’clock.

Responsibilities:

• Running a company van by maintaining the van’s inventory, washing, fueling, and tracking necessary maintenance.
• Maintaining personal cleanliness while on a job (keeping my uniform and appearance clean while I go into people’s homes) and cleaning up after myself when a job is completed.
• Cleaning sewer lines for residential homes- including backed up toilets, bathtubs, sinks, and washing machine lines.
• Helping licensed plumbers on any larger jobs, including installing water heaters that need two techs to move in a new heater or two techs to remove it, and larger jobs that require digging water lines up or digging up sewer lines for repairs.
• Performing video pipe inspections to see if sewer lines are broken or have roots growing through them. Video inspections are also used to confirm the sewer lines have no damages for the sale of homes during the inspection period.
• Taking detailed photos and measurements of larger jobs that require an estimate to be written up, and working with a supervisor to relay the job so that the estimate can be written up.

Almost all services performed by a residential drain tech are emergency, so no day is predictable and whatever job calls in is where you get to go. That could mean some days are over by 3 o’clock and others go as late as 8 o’clock, it all depends on what is going on around town. That could mean that on a Monday I’m helping a licensed plumber on a job installing water heaters, Tuesday I’m working on an all-day sewer repair, and Wednesday through Friday I’m in and out of as many as 15 different homes and businesses who all have different drain cleaning issues.

It can be exhausting and is a labor-intensive job that requires as much troubleshooting as it does moving heavy equipment in and out of my van, working on roofs, and getting into some dirty work that not everyone can handle, but it’s all a part of the job. Some days I’m stuck trying to figure out one issue for hours and other days I don’t run into any issues, but you’ve just got to take everything in stride.

Pros

The pro of my work is that I will never be out of work simply because there will never be a world where people don’t need access to plumbing. It’s hard and dirty work, but getting to see customers so relieved when I show up to their house to fix their problems is a great perk of the job, along with the satisfaction to work with my hands and keep busy. It’s never dull and there is always something to learn on the job, and in the coming months, I’ll be enrolling in the plumbing apprenticeship program so that I can start the process of being a licensed plumber.

Cons

The cons would be our more difficult customers and late jobs that take longer to complete than a couple of hours. Typically a service call is straightforward, but sometimes I have to get on roofs and there are recalls, which no one likes.