Expanding your service portfolio with Spray-in-Place Pipe (SIPP) Coating

Now that we’ve covered a surface scratch of what modern pipe rehabilitation is, and how Spraypoxy pipe coating solutions fit in the industry, let’s take a deeper dive into how you can benefit from Spraypoxy solutions in your business.

If you’re operating a drain cleaning, inspection, or repair business of any sort, or if you’re running a plumbing company, it makes complete sense to offer pipe coating services as a part of your service portfolio.

Your customers are constantly experiencing issues with leaking pipes – whether it’s the main lateral running under the slab to the city sewer, a kitchen line or a bathroom floor drain, or a toilet, all of these fixtures are causing continuous issues for building owners, as you already know.

The interesting thing about these problems and the common nominator between them is that all of them can be repaired in various different ways.

The obvious method of repair is replacement. By tearing down the structures these pipes are located in, we’re able to replace the deteriorating pipes with new pipes, effectively building a new piping system in place of the old. This is practically always a very time consuming and expensive way of renovating the pipes as it requires extensive amounts of manpower and resources to execute.

When looking out for more efficient ways of repairing pipes beyond replacing them, there’s methodology called Cured in Place Piping (CIPP), in which the pipes are rehabilitated by thorough cleaning of the pipes and installing a resin-infused fabric liner inside the inner walls of the pipe through pressure application. The installation can take place either through inversion or a pull-in-place liner installation.

Now, while both of these methods are viable options for repairing larger diameter pipes in longer runs, neither of these methods are optimal for small diameter, short run repairs. Enter Spray in Place (SIPP) pipe coating methods. While spray coating is a viable method for also working within larger pipe sizes (up to 8”) and in longer runs (up to 160ft), it’s by far the easiest and quickest way of producing small repair operations within domestic homes, apartments, and more.

The basic investment is moderate, especially if you are already offering existing drainage services such as drain unclogging, cleaning, and inspections. The initial tooling for successful pipe coating jobs is simple, as you will only need:

• Tools for thorough cleaning of the host pipe before coating. This often consists of a dedicated high-speed drain cleaning machine equipped with a powerful engine and a reel of flexible shaft, on which various wall to wall cleaning tools are installed on and rotated with. The cleaning tool kit can also be acquired with a bootstrap budget, by investing in couple of ready-made flexible shafts (with shaft casing, rotator shafts, and friction bearings included), and adding some necessary tools such as carbide tip infused chain knockers and silicone carbide brushes. A compact jetter can also be helpful in conducting the initial cleaning of the pipe for inspections.
• Drain inspection equipment that enables you to conduct inspections into the current and rehabilitated conditions inside the pipe. After the cleaning, the condition of the pipe is inspected and recorded to confirm that the pipe is in a suitable shape for executing a spray coating repair on it. Inspection camera is also necessary for monitoring the coating process, and after the coating layers have been applied and the coating has completely cured, a final inspection takes place where it’s confirmed that the coating application has been successfully finished.

As you’ve learned here, the entry point of getting into spray coating beyond the initial spray technology investments is pretty tuned down. We’d ballpark the low point investment needed to get into professional pipe coating to be around $28000 / 27000€ which makes this a highly intriguing business opportunity – the amount of investment needed of course varies on the basis of whether you already own equipment needed for the process, and the level of jobs you’re planning to take on. The equipment needs vary drastically between coating vertical stacks in a multi-storey apartment building and domestic homes as the lines are longer, and the pipe sizes potentially much bigger.

Once you have decided on the tech & equipment stack to get you in the game, it’s time to form your business plan around the spray coating service offering. You’ll want to make sure your customers know that when they’re faced with problems in their sewer system, you’re able to offer them a low-cost, efficient and durable solution to the problem. While spray coating the interior surfaces of a pipe will not match the durability and service life of a CIPP installation or a pipe replacement, it does give the pipe a good 10 more years of service life, depending on the conditions of and around the pipe that is repaired.

Business-wise, you’ll need:

• A website, a landing page, or a page inside your existing website demonstrating your spray coating services. Teach your customers about what these services are, what problems they solve, why it’s a great way to solve certain problems, demonstrate quality and professionalism of the service, tell them about your process and guarantees and remember to tell them how they can order this service from you. (Once you’ve executed your first pipe coating projects, remember to get testimonials from your customers and add them to your spray coating marketing page for amplifying trust through social proof.)
• A nice handout brochure to give out to potential customers and leave to be shared at your local chamber of commerce, etc. Utilize Spraypoxy’s great marketing graphics for making a statement of a brochure, which illustrates the outcomes of spray coating in a visually enjoyable way. Beyond this, the brochure should contain much of the same content as your sales page on your website – service description, benefits, process, guarantees, problems solved, etc.
• As a Spraypoxy installer, you’re able to use our vast library of marketing collateral such as photos and videos as a part of your marketing tactics; social media posts, client emails & newsletter sendouts, and more. These professional materials will add credibility to your services from the get-go.
• Learn to sell the service to your customers – here at Spraypoxy, we’re actively working together with our distributors and installers in training all aspects of the business: technical training, sales training, and more. Learn to tackle common objections in sales situations, and learn how to sell this service as an add-on option to your existing jobs. Fastest way to profitability in offering pipe coating as a new service is to not just find new customers for coating, but making sure to offer coating as a solution to all drain jobs you do, when it’s a suitable solution.

Integrating Spraypoxy SIPP pipe coating services as a part of your existing business is a pretty streamlined process: the equipment and tools needed for producing the service are easy to use, high quality and high performance gear that have high mobility so they are easy to have travel with you in your service van to be brought out whenever needed.

There are infinite amount of jobs where Spraypoxy pipe coating solutions enables you to offer your customers solutions to their problems:

• Coating complete small diameter pipe repairs inside buildings
• Coating partial pipe repairs inside buildings
• Coating floor drain wells against leaks
• Coating pool circulation system water pipes
• Coating balcony rainwater extraction pipes
• Coating drain ventilation pipes

… and so much more.

After taking on the necessary trainings, you’ll be well equipped to visit any jobsite, map out the needs and understand how to offer epoxy coating as a solution to various drainage related issues. Your customers will appreciate your ability to solve their problems on-site instead of redirecting them to other service providers or selling them an unnecessarily expensive & heavy duty repair to a problem that could be solved more simply.

Offering pipe coating services will build your brand even more professional and technologically developed operator, who’s staying on top of the latest developments in the sewer rehabilitation market.

Spraypoxy and our distribution partners are here to support you every step of the way to make sure you become successful in your new pipe coating service adventure.

If you have any questions regarding Spraypoxy, our distribution partners or resellers, technology, material science, or anything else, please don’t hesitate contacting us. We are here to help you with whatever you need.