About The Sewer Doctors
About The Sewer Doctors
John Vaughan, owner and founder of The Sewer Doctors is a Kansas City native.
The Sewer Doctors was born in 2015 with one truck, a credit card and his wife’s reluctant but ever-supportive encouragement to go and “bring some integrity back to the sewer industry”.
Prior to that, John had been working for a well known “Big-Bob-Rooter” type company for several years and, while he was an award-winning estimator year after year, he saw the industry becoming more and more about questionable sales tactics and truth-bending to get a sewer repair “sold”. He refused to compromise his own ethics when assessing sewer lines and yet was always able to delight his employer and maintained a top-tier status with his company. His success confirmed to him that there was plenty of honest work to be done in the Kansas City area residential sewer industry and there was absolutely no reason, other than greed, to be anything but truthful when inspecting sewer lines and recommending repairs when needed.
One evening in 2014, he and Michele were sitting down to dinner and he presented the idea of branching out on his own, focusing his camera inspection expertise on residential real estate inspections where he could do the most good. He’d seen over the years homeowners who hadn’t even unpacked their moving boxes, having sewer line backups that revealed expensive problems that could have been detected and dealt with during the home inspection if only they had been properly advised or understood the importance of having a comprehensive sewer inspection with a sewer scope by an IMPARTIAL, UNBIASED PROFESSIONAL.
“Most plumbing companies purposely misuse sewer scope technology to check sewer lines AFTER a problem is detected OR as a loss-leader “sewer inspection special” to set a homeowner up for a sales pitch.”
John’s vision was to promote the value of having the sewer lines inspected BEFORE the home buying transaction was complete by an unbiased inspection professional. By having a specialized inspection like this the home buyers and the agents representing them would be ensuring no ugly, expensive, unsanitary surprises would crop up for sellers or buyers that might hurt the home purchase process.
After hearing him describe hundreds of heartbreaking stories of downsizing widows, newly divorced single parents and young married couples moving into their first homes only to find they’d purchased a home with unknown sewer problems and were now burdened with spending thousands of dollars to have a sewer repaired or replaced, Michele knew that something had to be done.
They agreed that their Kansas City neighbors sorely needed someone they could call that would inspect the sewer lines and give honest, unbiased assessments with no hidden agendas or predatory sales tactics, so they set to work on planning The Sewer Doctors launch.
Our Core Values Include:
UNAWAVERING
INTEGRITY
Be Honest
Integrity is defined as: “The quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.”
Basically, do what’s right! We have no hidden agendas or intentions to “upsell” or “exaggerate” problems we find. When doing a sewer inspection, we’re there to report the facts. When cleaning a sewer line, we’re there to bring an existing sewer line into the best working order possible. In all of the services we provide, we want it done and done right!
UNCOMPROMISING
WORK ETHIC
Work Hard
Defined as: “The principle that hard work is intrinsically virtuous or worthy of reward.”. We believe that whatever we put our hand to should be given our best effort every single time and that by repeating this over and over again, we’ll be rewarded with your smile and enthusiastic referrals not to mention a sucessful business that continues to grow and thrive. At the end of a good days’ work, we rest easy knowing we fulfilled our purpose and did all we could for you, our Kansas City neighbor.
PERSONABLE
PROFESSIONALISM
Serve Others
“the conduct, aims, or qualities that characterize or mark a profession or a professional person”. We want to be well thought of by our clients. We believe this is easily achieved by conducting ourselves with polite confidence in our communication and outward appearance on every job. Sometimes we find ourselves the bearers of bad news, but we believe that even the worst of diagnosis can be delivered with tact and charisma. We pride ourselves on having an excellent bedside manner.
Summer 2015
The Sewer Doctors is born and after just a few key conversations the phone started ringing and texts started flying. Kansas City is full of savvy real estate agents who, immediately upon meeting John and hearing his mission, started directing their clients to sewer inspections as part of the Home Inspection requirements.
Summer 2016
So many agents and Home Inspectors saw the value in what The Sewer Doctors was doing for the KC Real Estate market, and the pleasure it was to work with someone who not only knew the business, but also how to talk to people, John couldn’t keep up with the demand. Knowing a second truck was needed John turned to his son. Having also worked for the same large corporate sewer company (and having been trained by John himself) Jordan seemed to be the perfect solution and the logical next step for The Sewer Doctors. Jordan and his wife, Amy, believed in the vision John cast so strongly that they agreed to take a huge cut in pay and security and alter their young, newly wed lifestyle to make a run at building this business. As John’s new business partner, Jordan brought his high energy personality, way with words, desire to educate and expertise to round out The Sewer Doctors.
Fall 2017
The Sewer Doctors continued to grow at a rapid pace all by word of mouth and reputation. The demand for sewer inspections and honest, affordable repair work was so great that it became clear that John and Jordan needed some kind of home base support. While Michele had been coming home each evening and weekends to work on the back office demands of a small business, it was very clear that there needed to be a full time person to helm the phones, scheduling, ,organizing and the million other details involved in small business operations and development. The Sewer Doctors had a decision to make. Michele could stay with the security of her role she loved as Executive Assistant to the CEO of a large corporation or she could invest her management, organization and process improvement skills into The Sewer Doctors, gambling that this small family business could support them all. After a great deal of back and forth, she took the leap of faith in September and hasn’t looked back since
Spring 2018
Here we grow again. This time The Sewer Doctors brought on their first remote employee. Daughter, Hailee, was living in Seattle pursuing a career as a professional swing dancer/instructor and looking for a way to bring her creative skillset to the family business. Willing to fill in where ever she was needed, she jumped on board as a jack of all trades, helping with marketing, video editing and using her talent in written communication to support Michele’s efforts in the office.
Spring 2019
And the phones keep ringing, the requests keep coming! Help! Niece Julie comes on the scene bringing her quiet charm to the team as part-time office assistant and sewer report quality control, freeing Michele up to work more rigorously in process improvement and business development.
Spring 2020
Whoa! The Sewer Doctors is on the move again! The start of this year finds us changing locations. We’ve long since out grown our garage and guest bedroom so we take the leap and turn the key on our new Headquarters in Sugar Creek, MO. This new facility will give us some elbow room and opens up a lot of possibilities for expansion and ways to serve our Kansas City neighbors. Stay tuned for more big things ahead!
Call or Text: 816-888-0750 | Info@theSewerDoctors.com
About Us
What’s the secret to our success? Be Honest. Work Hard. Serve Others. Click around our site to learn more about our family, history and why The Sewer Doctors is the BEST choice for sewer inspections and maintenance.
Hours & Info
Appointment Hours
M-F 8am-6pm
Office Staff Hours
M-F 9am-5pm | Call or Text: 816.888.0750
Info@TheSewerDoctors.com
Address
110 ½ N Sterling Ave, Sugar Creek, MO 64054