Taylor Prouty cleans people’s drains and conducts sewer scopes through his company, Drain Hound, which opened this year.
Prouty started the business because the service was in high demand in Clark County.
“At the beginning of this year, 2022, I was working for a new plumbing construction company and I kind of saw a high demand for drain cleaning in the Vancouver, Clark County area and I took the opportunity, bought a bunch of tools and drain snakes and hydro jetters and went to work,” Prouty said.
He was drawn to the profession because of his uncle who owns a one-man business, Todd’s Heating and Cooling in Battle Ground, which has operated for 15 years. He said his uncle ran on “word of mouth and trust from customers.”
“Just seeing what he built himself, how positive the feedback he gets from his customers and the appreciation he gets from his customers is kind of what motivated me to want to do my own thing, similar to that,” Prouty said.
Prouty explained sewer scopes are crucial for homeowners as a means to inspect their sewage system. Without those inspections, homeowners may need to get costly repairs if their sewage systems are not sufficient.
“In my experience, a lot of homebuyers have gotten themselves into bad situations because they buy a house without having a sewer scope done on it,” he said. “Then they end up having a clog in the mainline, then they have a plumber come out and then they realize it’s a $10,000 to $15,000 repair.”
To remedy that problem, Prouty works with realtors. He encourages those who are looking to buy a house to get a sewer scope done for a few hundred dollars to save themselves from more costly repairs down the line.
Prouty said he sees issues arise mostly in older homes with cast iron and concrete drain lines, but has seen it in newer ones as well.
“(In) those old cast iron lines, the bottoms of the pipes start to rust out, so eventually you don’t really have the bottom of the pipe and it catches stuff really, really easily, causing a backup there,” he explained.
He talked about one ambitious job where he was called at 9 p.m. and rushed to a customer whose whole mainline backed up.
“They flushed their toilet and everything was overflowing, the shower was overflowing,” he said. “What keeps me going and motivated to do that is just the appreciation you receive from customers.”
A review posted to Drain Hound’s website noted Prouty responded immediately to fix an issue they were having. The reviewer said he got right to work, cleaned the person’s drain line, and “made a modified drain connection with minimal fuss that’ll keep things draining better in the future.”
At this time, Prouty said he doesn’t have any plans to expand his business. He prefers to keep it small, so the customer experience is consistent. He takes the calls and does the jobs on his own.
Drain Hound is open 24 hours and can be reached at 360-953-9390. The business serves all of Clark County.
To learn more, go online to drainhound.com.
