Transcript for Hustle & Heat Episode 17
00:00:04
What’s up, guys, and welcome back to episode 17 of Hustle and Heat Podcast. My name is George, your host, and today I’d like to welcome a special guest. This guest has been around North Port for a while. He lays down the pipe every day. He is the man, the myth, the legend. Without further ado, I’d like to welcome Brian Decker from Decker’s Plumbing and Drains. Brian, welcome to the podcast, man.
Hey, good morning. How are you?
Good, man. How are you?
Good, good, good. So, tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do.
00:00:31
So, we’re family-owned and operated. My wife and I opened the business in July of 2019, right before all those hurricanes started coming through Florida and Southwest Florida. It’s plumbing, drains, now we are septic, and now we’re full well-water systems. We do whole-home RO systems, septic installation, pump-outs, and all plumbing. We’re a 24/7 operation, residential and commercial. Anything plumbing, anything water touches, you name it, we can fix it or replace it.
My wife and I met back in ’05, and we got married in 2011. Back in 2011, the trades were not in a great place. There were some downtimes in construction work and building, and the economy was not great at that time. So, I was working two jobs. One was a plumbing job, and the other I was working at Home Depot. We had to go around to a couple different companies, number one because they were doing layoffs because of the economy, and number two because we wanted to learn the business. We wanted to learn the ins and outs, what was good, the bad, and the ugly, to potentially get to where we are right now.
So, we did float around a few times, not purposely because we wanted to stay in a good spot and have a good career in plumbing, but things happen internally with companies and they lay off. I was in the union for 11 years. I started in ’98, and then I had to bail out when I moved over here to the west coast because I’m originally from the east coast, Fort Lauderdale, and there are no unions around here. The closest one’s Tampa, so we didn’t want to go work in Tampa every day, every week, living in North Port. So, we had to bail out, and that’s when we started investigating and doing our own research of all the other plumbing companies and such to learn our own path to create our own business.
So, in the process, what has been the hardest struggle to form what you are now, Decker Plumbing, Drains, and Septic?
00:02:50
The struggle, we don’t really call it a struggle. We call it a growing pain. There are several things on the plate of growing pains. It could be being able to entertain our customers and show them everything that we can do for them. It’s being able to have the right people in front of our customers, the right employees, the right people answering the phones.
They have a saying, love at first sight. So, I believe it starts at the first phone call with the energetic voice of my son Austin, who answers the phones, and it goes all the way into knocking on the door, handing the card over to the customer, introducing ourselves, asking if the truck is parked properly on their property, and being involved in showing that we really do care about the customer first. Second is taking care of the plumbing and doing it right the first time. It goes all the way to the end, cleaning up our work areas. We have Simple Green and leave a little scent around so it shows that we’re clean plumbers.
There’s a saying that plumbers are dirty because they mess with sewage and dirty sewer machines and things of that nature, but that’s not the case with Decker Plumbing. We’re clean. We take care of the homes when we go in. We wear booties. We wipe up after we’re done. We have mats that have our logo on them, and we put all our tools on those mats to protect the flooring, protect the countertops, and things of that nature. So, it’s the care in our hearts at the end of the day from start to finish. The money comes at the end of the day naturally. It’s what the approach is and what the care is during that process.
So, it sounds like you’ve put a lot of thought into your process.
Yeah, we have.
When it comes to customer satisfaction and making the customer feel comfortable and safe and clean, is that the only thing you think separates you from the other plumbing companies, or what else is it about Decker that separates you from all the other plumbing companies in your experience?
00:05:03
I think a separation is that my wife and I are hands-on. We are out in the communities. We show that we care, and we are part of the chambers. We’re part of the CDBIA, Boys and Girls Clubs, and Habitat for Humanity. It’s giving back to the people in need, the communities, and such.
We do a lot of quote-unquote charity work. This month alone, we did one free pump-out because a homeowner lives check to check, unfortunately, and she just didn’t have the money for her septic tank to be pumped out. She was on Facebook asking the community for help or who to go to. Our company was shouted out several times. She called, and I spoke to her directly. I went out to that call directly and pumped out her septic tank for no charge at all to make sure she was safe and make sure her home was safe.
We really do care at the bottom of our hearts. Like I said in the beginning, the money follows, but it’s really taking care of people at the end of the day, making sure them and their families are safe. A plumber has a responsibility to take care of the health and safety of the community because of sewage, water, and such. Water is consumable. Sewage is contamination. So, it’s really important because they can get sick at the end of the day if something is done incorrectly.
So, we go in there with a focus of taking care of the customer and doing the job right the first time. We don’t want them calling us back and saying, “Hey, this failed in a week or two.” We want them to be ecstatic the next time they see us in the community or ecstatic on Google or Facebook saying, “This company is the right one for all residents in this community because they did take care of me from start to finish.”
That’s awesome. And I will admit you guys are very hands-on, you and Billy Jo herself. I see you guys at every networking event that I go to, and I know she’s very involved in the boards of different networking events, CDBIA, the chamber, and stuff like that. So, that is awesome. And I know from my experience here at Dubz Barbecue doing business with you, whenever I have a problem, you do show up.
Yeah.
And you do check up on your employees. And not only that, your employees are awesome.
Thank you.
When we were building out, I loved talking with them. It didn’t distract them. Some employees you talk with and they stop working. They can talk and work at the same time, and you guys did a great job for me and I really appreciate that.
Thank you.
So, let’s talk about your new venture with whole-home ROs and septic pump-outs. What made you do that?
00:08:15
So, septic, when we go to a blockage at a home and the customer has a septic system on their property, we start outside and work our way in. When we start outside, we open up the septic tank and see what the problem is inside there. A lot of times the septic tank is what’s creating the problem inside the home. So, if the septic tank is full and needs to be pumped out, we were giving away that work to other local companies.
We just felt it was time to become a one-stop shop. So, we made the jump. We bought the pump truck, and now we’re doing septic installations. We’re doing septic repairs. We can do all septic parameters right now, so we don’t have to push that type of work away from Decker Plumbing. It makes the customer feel more at ease instead of saying, “Oh, I’m sorry. You have to call such and such to get this part of your problem handled.” They really want Decker to handle it all for them too, is how we feel about it.
So, when we go to that problem and find out it’s a septic issue that needs to be pumped, they contact the office. Myself and Brian, another Brian, who’s our septic guy, get in the truck and we go right out immediately. We pump out that septic. We clean the filter. We make sure everything is up to par. We make sure the drains under the home are wide open, fully operational, and it gets them a fresh start. When we go out there, we don’t just do that type of work. We educate them about maintaining the system.
From 2000 till present, there’s a new code where you have to have an effluent filter inside your septic tank. That filter should be maintained once a year and cleaned, pulled out, cleaned, and then reinstalled into the septic outlet tee. It’s almost like an AC filter that protects the AC system. This filter protects the drain field from getting grease, fats, oils, number two, paper, and solids into the drain field. So, it’s definitely a plus to have that filter on there, and maintaining it is a huge factor involved.
So, going to the clean water side of things, which is the reverse osmosis systems, we do whole-home RO systems, we do salt services for well systems, and we also do reverse osmosis systems underneath your kitchen sinks where you can just have a fixture with perfectly clean water at one source of your home instead of the entire home. If you do the entire home system, you don’t need to have that other additional filter system in the kitchen. It’s usually either one or the other.
So, yeah, we added that to our repertoire, and a lot of people are excited about that too.
When did you start doing that?
We started that in January of this year.
Yeah. Have you done any so far?
Yeah, we’ve done a couple, a handful of them. We did a couple in January and a couple in February.
Do you maintain them as well?
00:11:28
Yeah, correct. There’s a pre-filter that needs to be replaced once a month. So, the first year we come out for free. We change those filters for no charge, and we maintain the system for no charge for one year for free if they buy the whole system from us. After that, there’ll be a small fee incorporated.
For the filter changing, you’re probably going to be around 159 a visit per month, and that’s the filter change-out and the full diagnostic of the system to make sure it’s working properly.
How much is the system itself?
So, the systems for a whole-home RO are roughly about 11,000.
And how many gallon tanks do you get?
About 350 gallons of clean water can be made. So, there’s a ratio of how much it dumps and how much it makes in clean water. The ratios vary depending on the system that you get, but it’s usually about four to five gallons dumped to make one gallon of clean water.
Wow.
So, it’s a lot of dumping. So, you have to have somewhere for that drain line to be run to be dispersing that much water without a problem on your property, flooding or mud or sludge on the property. So, we have to basically walk the property with the homeowner and figure out the best spot for that drain line to go to with no problems from the city and no problems from neighbors getting that much water.
Oh, that 350-gallon tank holds the clean water.
Correct. Yes.
So, you’ll never go through that much water in a day. Usually it’s about 75 to 100 gallons per person in a house.
Per day.
Per day, sorry. Yeah, per day. So, if it’s a larger family, we may have to get a larger holding tank.
So, they’ve got 350 and 500.
Nice. Yeah. I have a whole-home RO at the house. It came with the house. It’s nice. You have it maintained every month?
Nice. Yeah, it’s very important to maintain it because those can go south very quickly.
00:13:34
Yeah, and recently it’s starting to give me a smell, though. I don’t know why.
All right. So, it might be time for the filter to be changed. There’s two filters. There’s a membrane and then there’s a pre-filter. The membrane every 12 to 18 months should be changed. The other pre-filter should be changed once a month.
Yeah. So, you think the membrane needs to be changed?
It’s possible it might be due. How old is the system?
I don’t know.
Oh, I got you.
I came with the house.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
How old is your home?
So, it might be original. Might have been with the builder.
Yeah.
But the membrane filter is quite large. It’s about two and a half feet long, and you can take it out and flip it around and that’ll get you another 12 months. Then once you do that flip one time, you have to change the whole thing out.
Really? Is it expensive to change?
Yeah, they’re not cheap. You’re probably going to be roughly in the 350 range for a filter change-out, but it’s very important and vital to the system.
Yeah, I understand. So, tell us who Brian is at home. What do you do in your spare time?
00:14:29
Work, work. No, that’s it. No, we love to go on little getaways, my wife and I, my son. We do little cruises here and there. We like to go to the Hard Rock, the Tampa one and the Hollywood one. Orlando, we hit the Airbnb up over there. We have a lady that has an Airbnb there, and we hit the parks up. My son loves Universal, and we hit Epcot up a lot.
Yeah, you ride the coasters?
Only a couple a day because they start to get to me after a while.
Really?
Yeah. The older I get, the more dizzy, or I can’t eat before I go on a coaster. I’ll say that much.
Yeah.
Yeah, I’ll just feel bad the whole day after that.
Dude, recently I went to Universal and stuff, and we were on the Transformer ride. It’s just like the 3D ride, and there was a guy next to me. He just threw up all over the floor, and luckily he threw up at the end. So, like, we were parking, he went, and I was like, “All right, perfect timing.” I got up and left.
Yeah, I think it’s just the older I get.
Yeah, I get that.
Yeah, I’m 49 years old and been here a while and plan to be here much longer. So, my son Jack, he’s 17.
Is he going to be a plumber?
00:16:06
He wants to be involved in the company. We’re going to start him in the clerical and office area and then ease him into the field. He’s 17 and likes his hobbies. He’s a gamer and likes computers. So, we’re going to incorporate that into the office and clerical things with him. That should be happening soon, probably by summertime this year.
That’s good.
Yeah. Then our other son, Austin, he answers the phones for us. Our other son, Colton, just moved back down from Gainesville, and now he’s an apprentice in the field with our guys. Then we have two daughters, Caitlyn, and she lives in North Carolina, and Jessica. She lives in Punta Gorda. She’s a hairdresser.
Nice. It sounds like your company’s very family involved.
Yeah, very family involved and family-oriented. Always meeting, trying to get dinner with the whole family together once a week, having little gatherings. My mom’s local also. She’s in Bobcat Trail, and she’s living there by herself right now.
Really?
Yep.
Okay. All right. Anything else that you want to talk about when it comes to Decker Plumbing, yourself?
00:17:44
We’re always hiring. We’re always looking for a superstar. We never want to say, “Oh, we’re not hiring,” because there’s always a superstar out there that is a good fit for Decker Plumbing and Drains, we feel. So, if you hear of anybody that is looking for work, a plumber with probably two or more years of experience, we would love to sit down and talk with them and see what type of knowledge they have and how their work ethic is, things of that nature. We’re always looking for new contractors like GCs and builders to become a partner and be on their team for new homes, new construction, septic, and plumbing.
Do you install septic tanks too?
Yeah, we do all septic installations. We’ve done probably a dozen or more new septic installations for new construction and for old existing ones that failed inspections. We do a lot of inspections for realtors and new home buyers and people selling. I feel it’s very, very important to have their septic system inspected if they’re going to buy a house, and also their drain pipes. If the house is older, like 1985 or older, we highly suggest having their sewer lines inspected with a camera.
00:18:55
Cast iron pipes are not the greatest type of sewer pipe in Florida. They corrode. They rot from the inside out, and they get very corrosive and build up inside. Unfortunately, we’ve seen a lot of the bad and ugly on that side of things. When people buy homes down here in Florida, they don’t think about having the sewer pipes inspected or having the septic inspected. They move in, and within months or less than a year they’re calling us out and having blockages or failure of drain fields. That’s the bad and ugly part. We have to break the bad news to them and tell them there’s a broken pipe or the drain field is failing, and that’s where the money gets heavy in their pocket.
How much is a new septic tank and drain field?
So, you’re roughly about 12 grand. Demo of the old tank, demo of the old field, we have excavators, dumpsters on site. We have to bring in new perk sand, which is the white, very fine sand so the water can percolate through that. So, it’s a project.
How long does it take?
Permitting is the longest part. Permitting right now, you’re probably between three to four weeks just to get the permit, and then the job fully takes one week or less.
And when you’re doing the job, how can someone… they can’t use their bathrooms, showers, anything like that?
00:20:37
So, the old system will stay in place until that permit is in our hands physically, and then we can mount it on the front of the house. Once we begin the job, we take the old tank out immediately the same day, and then we put the new tank in the same exact day. So, they’re not without plumbing maybe for an hour or two because we have to pull the old tank out of the ground, put the new poly tank in the ground, so they can use their system again by dinnertime. The tank is 1,060 gallons. So, by the time we’re done with that project in three or four days, they’ll never fill that tank up where it’s going to overflow. So, it gives us plenty of time to do the rest of the system while they can still use the toilets and flush.
Have you ever thought about doing grease traps?
Yeah, we could do installations of that, but we can’t do pump-outs because it’s not proper to mix sewage and grease in the same truck. I would have to fully clean that truck and make it spotless of no sewage if I were to put grease from a grease trap in my truck. So, we don’t do grease trap pump-outs, but we can maintain the grease system by hydro-jetting it, cleaning the pipes underneath the kitchen, cleaning all the grease out of the floor drains and all the pipes coming from the dishwasher and things of that nature. But unfortunately, we’re not pumping out the grease traps at this time.
Have you ever installed a grease trap?
Yeah, I used to do them back in the day in the union, actually.
Yeah, they’re big systems. They’re bigger than a standard residential septic tank.
Do you think you would have been better off going with the union or doing Decker Plumbing?
00:22:40
No, we’re very happy we took this jump and that we are where we’re at right now. Union was a stepping stone, I feel, in my life, and it showed me a lot. It showed me the good, bad, and ugly too. So, it’s a stepping stone that got me to where I’m at right now, got us where we’re at right now.
How about you and your business? How did that begin, and how are you where you’re at right now? That’s a huge accomplishment, what you’ve done and where you came from and where you’re at.
Yeah, it’s been a process. We signed the lease when I was 22.
Wow.
My parents are my silent partners. My dad was very adamant on me doing this. So, I went to college. I didn’t like it. I always wanted to be a chef.
Yeah.
I don’t consider myself a chef.
I went to cooking school.
Yeah, but I don’t feel like if you go to cooking school that you’re a chef.
Right. I know a lot of people that went to cooking school and they suck.
Mhm.
I feel like on-the-job experience is more valuable, especially if you have good mentors. If you’re just working at McDonald’s or places like that, that’s a different story, but I feel like on-the-job learning actually teaches you something.
It’s like going to college versus actually getting that job and getting your hands dirty.
Mhm.
It’s a big difference, you know what I mean?
00:24:33
But I was 22. My dad said, “Let’s do it. Let’s do it. Let’s do it.” I was like, “Okay,” and then we did it, and COVID hit, and then we opened in the middle of COVID. I was 23 when we opened. It was crazy. It was a weird experience for sure. I remember my first day. I was so nervous when we opened. We didn’t get a customer till like 3:00. Then once like 4:30 hit, we were so busy I couldn’t lift my head up.
Wow.
And on the way home, I fell asleep five times. I was taking a cook home, and he kept waking me up. He’s like, “Wake up, wake up, wake up.” I got home, I hopped in the shower, and I just put my head on the wall and cussed myself out. I was like, “What are you getting yourself into? This is going to be a nightmare,” blah, blah, blah.
The next day when I woke up, I walked out and said, “There’s nothing I can do now. I just got to keep pushing.” I walked out of the house and I said, “Today we’re going to make today easier than yesterday.”
Yeah.
And that’s been my motto ever since. I’ve been working hard. People don’t see how much work goes into a place like this. They think you’re rich and this and that, but you’re not.
Yeah, it’s always important to move forward, keep moving that foot forward. Look back in the past, but you can’t ponder on it.
No, that was a learning experience that you either throw in the trash or you learn from it.
Yeah. I don’t think about yesterday. I think about today and tomorrow.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
Because yesterday’s already done.
If I spend all my energy thinking about yesterday, then what am I really doing?
It’s called the past for a reason.
You know what I mean? I’m not winning. So, I got to win.
Yeah.
You’ve got no chance in this game. You’re either pushing or you’re losing.
00:26:15
Yeah, for sure. We see that in the plumbing industry also. Winning is hard, but winning is a gratification. When you see it and you step back and you’re like, “Wow, I did that. We did that.” Let’s keep on moving forward. It’s different being a business owner because it’s not about us or you anymore. It’s about those families that you are responsible for now. I’ve got 10 families I have to make sure I’m feeding and paying payroll every week, and I have to keep generating that work and making sure the community has that full trust in us to give us a call at any time of the day.
And that’s what we like, we love it, but we have to.
It’s stressful, though.
Yes.
That thought is always in the back of my head. I’ve got 30 people working for me. That’s 30 families to feed. And if I’m not doing the right thing and we’re slow and I have to cut hours or the girls aren’t making the tip money they need to make, it’s stressful to think about. You know what I mean?
Definitely.
And that’s why you just got to keep pushing. We advertise a lot on social media. We used to do the Clipper magazine a lot, but I stopped doing that this year. We got a billboard.
You got a billboard? Where’s your billboard?
Down the road.
Oh, cool. Is it the electronic one?
No, it’s the one that flips. There’s three people on there.
Oh, nice. That’s awesome.
We’ve had that for like two years now.
And we’re part of BNI, the Chamber, and a bunch of networking groups.
00:28:09
I see you sponsor a lot of CDBIA dinners and such.
Yeah. People love when your food comes through that place.
Yeah, I know there’s no competition on that one.
Seeing what else they serve, yeah. It’s either barbecue or Italian.
Yeah. Where do they get the Italian from?
I’m not 100% sure, honestly.
Yeah, I’ve never had the Italian.
Yeah, the Italian is lasagna and salad and rolls and things of that nature, which is good too, but barbecue gets those taste buds rolling.
100%. We’re part of the CDBIA as well, but I don’t really participate too much. I think I should probably make me some business caterings and stuff like that.
Yeah, for sure. Can’t turn food away.
No. Got to feed the crews.
Yeah. We’ve been donating some time to Habitat for Humanity when they’re building houses. We had a whole team go out there. They were in the second phase where the drywall was up and everything. We were painting walls for them. We weren’t doing plumbing, which was kind of odd. We had our plumbers painting, helping them out.
The owner, or the upcoming owner of that home, showed up. We had a gift basket for her, and we got to meet her and give her a hug and everything and congratulate her for taking that big step for her family. She was a single mom, and yeah, some tears were shed and happiness for her.
00:29:40
We love that type of stuff. We love seeing people smile at the end of the day and seeing that people care. People want to see that and feel it. So, that’s what Decker’s is about, the care, the generosity.
It always comes back, though. You give.
Yeah, it’s full circle, I feel too, 100%, and we see it all the time.
Sometimes people call and it’s on a weekend, and back to their funds and the economy, we waive our emergency fee for a couple of elderly people because they needed us immediately and they were in need. It was a 911 type of call. So, I talked with them, I got to know them for a minute, and I offered that to them. I will waive my emergency fee. I will be there in an hour, and we will take care of the problem.
That’s awesome. That’s very nice. People appreciate that more than you know.
Yeah. So, do you have any brothers or sisters?
00:30:56
I have an older half-brother, a younger brother, and a younger sister.
Oh, okay, cool.
Yeah. Tammer, he’s my younger brother. He’s at Toyota. He’s the floor manager. Tia works for me while going to school. Then Sam, my older brother, works at Mercedes in Jacksonville.
Oh, nice.
Yeah, he’s a mechanic.
My grandpa was a mechanic.
Oh, really?
Yeah, back in Jordan.
Nice.
Yeah. He used to race cars and stuff and work on Toyotas, which is funny now that Tammer works on Toyotas, or he sells Toyotas. So, pretty cool.
Is there anything else you want the people to know before we wrap this up?
I just want the community to know that Decker Plumbing and Drains is always there for you, 24/7, any time of the day or night. We are a family-owned and operated company. You might see me on the job. Most of the time I try to meet our customers and make sure that they’re taken care of from start to finish. Thank you for all your support, and give us a call at 941-979-0896 any time of the day.
All right, Brian. Well, thank you for being on. We appreciate you, and we wish you nothing but the best.
Thanks, George.
For all you guys, if you like this video, please like, comment, and subscribe. Thank you.
