A New Business Idea!
Most commercial plumbing contractors have a special area of their shop where they save and store old expensive fittings, valves, sensors, flanges, and other parts that are glued together, but otherwise undamaged. Until now, these parts have just collected dust and occupied space. Using a PIPE DEBONDER, these valuable parts can be put back into service either on the contractor’s present and future jobs, or on the open market.
More than one PIPE DEBONDER customer has gone into business, not to install piping systems or repair broken pipe, but rather to unglue these “bone yard” piles of re-usable PVC, ABC, and CPVC fittings and put them back into inventory. Understanding that this is a completely new market, salvaging valves and fittings on a labor only basis can be profitable for both the contractor and the debonder. The small debonder (to 3 inch size) sells for $900 and rents for $80 for 2 days. In 2 days’ time most bone yards can be salvaged, but rather than the contractor renting the debonder, the new business owner can salvage $1000 or more of valves and fittings in a day. If he does it for $65 per hour and makes $450 per day and saves the contractor $1000 in parts, it is a win-win for both.
Pipe fittings to 6 inch are more valuable and take longer to unglue, but the recovery value is even a higher ratio than for small pipe sizes. For example, a 6 inch schedule 80 CPVC flange list cost is $245. A 4 inch schedule 80 PVC union list cost is $138.
Recovering the value of really large fittings is even more evident. A 12 inch schedule 80 PVC tee list cost is $2440. The LARGE DEBONDER sells for $6400 and rents for $500 for 2 days. At $120 per hour to debond large pipe fittings and valves, many thousand dollars of otherwise unusable fittings can be reclaimed for a few hundred dollars of labor.
Specialty businesses set up to unglue pipe have a large initial opportunity to make money and save the contractor money. The same is true for municipalities for water delivery and waste water collection and treatment facilities. It also is true for irrigators such as golf courses and parks. And every water park has lots of glued fittings that are of no value without being debonded.
One clever businessman has gone beyond ungluing bone yards for his customers to where he buys them at 18% on the dollar, unglues them, and offers them on a web site for available used fittings for 45 percent to 70 percent on the dollar.