1916
Jon Birnie’s son, Thos. R. Birnie was born
1922
Jon Birnie, who was a baker by trade, could not find work. He started in the sewer and cement business cleaning and installing sewers with a bicycle, bamboo rods, shovel, and wire cable.
1941
R. Birnie’s daughter Joan Birnie was born
1942
Jon Birnie passed away, leaving the business to family
1945
R. Birnie’s second daughter Arlene Birnie was born
1946
- Thos R. left Norton Abrasives to start work at the family business and reached out to his dad’s previous customers. The business operated out of his home at 40 Grosvenor Ave S.
- He bought the original roto-rooter machine from Mr. Bailey at the bank? because roto-rooter did not want to come to Canada. The machine cost $460.
- The war board set his service price at $10/hour. At this time it cost 40 cents an hour to hire someone.
- R. Birnie’s wife Gertrude became the business’ first call taker
- Grandma Thompson thought the business wouldn’t last
- The business created the “Don’t Dig” branding
1947
Picture of first year’s income statement
1949
R.’s son Thomas (Roy) Birnie was born
1953
- R.’s second son, Robert (Bob) Birnie was born
- During the early 1950s, competitors would offer 1 penny an hour more to entice employees to leave
1962-3
The company got out of the construction aspect of the business and focused on sewer/drain cleaning services
1966
Grandma Gerturde’s health was poor so Aunt Mildred came into the business and became our next call taker
1966-1970
- R. increased the price to $12/hr with a $2 discount if the customer paid on the same day
- R. started keeping records of every job address the business went to and what work they did there. Kozo Kumita recommended keeping records not by phone number but by address. There were 1000s of cards with job information.
1968
- Roy Birnie started working in the business full time as a drain cleaner
- Staff worked 5.5 days a week, Mon – Sat at 1pm
1971
- Robert Birnie started working full time in the business
- The price for service increased to $15/hr
Mid 1970s
- The company started using the Marko machine
- The company did a lot of work for Proctor & Gamble, which introduced us to the Ridgid machine
1975
Bob left business to sell men’s clothing but returned to the family business within the year
1976
Roy’s son Jonathan Birnie was born
1976/1977
- Roy and Bob put 2 business phones in their homes in their closets, one was a mountain number and one was a downtown number
- Active Answer became the first phone answering service for the company
1977-1978
Roy and Bob brought the company back into the repair end of business, instead of focusing just on drain cleaning. They expanded services to rain conductors, weeping tiles, water lines, sewer repairs
1979
Bob’s son James (Rob) Birnie was born
1983
R. brought Roy (age 34) and Bob (age 30) into business ownership
1984
After 40 years of running the business out of Thos R.’s family home, the company moved their offices into 1383 King Street. (known at the time as Jack’s Barber Shop), buying the building for $50,000.
1986
- Joan Birnie-Barham’s son Tom joined the company
- R turned 70 and said he would not do any more digging. He became semi-retired
- Roy and Bob bought the company’s first mini excavator for $13,000 and started focusing on waterlines services
1987/1988
- The company started using Line locators to trace sewer cables. Prior to this Thos R. would locate using a pickaxe and witching techniques
- Long time employee Gerry O’Shaughnessy started working for the company
1991
- Arlene Birnie-Hagel’s son Roy Hagel started working in the business
- The business created the “Old Kids on the Blockage” branding
1992
- The company became the first in Hamilton to have cameras to put down the sewers. The color camera cost $18,000 (Ques Nopafax)
- Roy and Bob travelled to the U.S. and met contractor Frank Blau
- The company’s first plumber Mike O’Connel joined the team
1993
- The company bought its first Spartan Jetter for $33,000 and started offering jetting of sewers
- The company grew and expanded its team to 12 people
1995
- Roy Birnie’s son Jon started working in the business
- The team started using booties over their shoes when working in customer’s homes
1996
The business joined Contractor’s 2000 and started to learn and develop under the teaching of Frank Blau and his amazing team(Now known as Nexstar Network). We are still members today!
1997
- Bob Birnie’s son Rob started working in the business
- The company became the first in Hamiton to move off of standard hourly rate pricing to providing a flat price per job to their customers
1998
- The company started using Formadrain and became the first in Hamilton to do residential lining of sewers
- The company moved its offices to its current location at 390 Lake Ave
2000
- R. Birnie passed away
- The company was left out of the Yellow Pages, causing the business to create the 5stinky branding
2001
- Rob Birnie became first licensed plumber in the business
- The company started focusing on plumbing services
- Gertrude Brinie passed away
2003
- Jon Birnie became a licensed plumber
- The company won the Plumbing Technical Truck of the Year award
2000s
- The company started using the pipe freezing machine and no flame soldering tools
- We became the first company in Hamilton to use wirsbo piping
2010
Roy and Bob brought their sons Jon Birnie (age 34) and Rob Birnie (age 30) into business ownership. They were the same age as their fathers when they took ownership
2016
The company started using Service Titan software system
2018
The company bought its first bursting machine and started using bursting technology
2020
- Roy Birnie retired after 52 years
- Bob Birnie became semi-retired
2021
Rob’s son Tyler, 5th generation Birnie, started helping out the business during the summer