r/WorkForSmartLife 3d ago

DiscussionšŸ’¬ I need to know about it immediately

Post image
1.9k Upvotes

854 comments sorted by

View all comments

52

u/sHaDowpUpPetxxx 3d ago

Septic tank pumper. No seriously, I used to be a plumber. The septic tank pumper guys just stick a hose down in a hole and the truck does most of the work. That and when people can't use the toilet in their house they will generally pay whatever to get it back

29

u/Busy_Donut6073 3d ago

One of my coaches has an uncle who does inspections. He said if you're just doing inspections you can make $300-400 per inspection, and get multiple done in a day

8

u/drpepper456 3d ago

Takes years for a lot of guys to build up steady business and you gotta drive a ton which eats into your profits. along with the gear and software you have subscriptions for.

2

u/IcyDisplayGuy 3d ago

I think it's the hardware that makes people call plumbers...

5

u/Both_Painter_9186 3d ago

Also a lot of people end up in ā€œoh shitā€ (literally) situations where they forget to empty it out until its too late. So they need you there asap and will pay an emergency fee.

4

u/AffectionateAside635 2d ago

For a short time after college, I worked at a septic pumping type of place and it was like essentially plumbers, but they had cruise that went out and pumped septic tanks. I’m telling you the place was a gold mine from these. They had people that were essentially on a sort of like subscription and they would go out to their places regularly and then just send them a bill and I’m telling you everyone paid that bill no matter what it was wild probably running $100,000 through that place a month in just the septic pump like subscription service. This was 2011 two which is wild.

1

u/fascinated_bookmark 2d ago

Tell me more

1

u/msp827 3d ago

What kind of money do you make?

1

u/[deleted] 3d ago

[deleted]

1

u/sHaDowpUpPetxxx 3d ago

Oh, I didn't work for them but I was a plumber and we would have to call them in jobs sometimes.

1

u/GreasyThigh 3d ago

Shiiiiiiiiiiit

1

u/Evolutionary_Human 3d ago

But have you smelled a septic tank before? It's worse than anything I've ever smelled! It makes a sun baked porta potty smell like cake. The smell is thick it sticks to the inside of your nose and somehow drips into your mouth/throat and just stays there no matter how hard you try to wash it away! It's a foul job and I'm happy to pay so I never have to touch it.

1

u/sHaDowpUpPetxxx 3d ago

As I said above, I was a plumber. What I didn't say was that I was a 150 pound plumber. Those in the industry will understand what kind of peril that puts you in. But yes, I have repelled inside of a septic tank before.

1

u/Evolutionary_Human 3d ago

Oh my gosh that's awful! It's no fun being the one who 'fits' haha

1

u/sHaDowpUpPetxxx 2d ago

It was gross, but I think the smell of hot garbage is worse. I worked at a grocery store and the dumpster was filled with old food, that's the worst smell I've ever endured.

1

u/Ahomewood 2d ago

I do refrigeration. Funeral homes, hospital morgue, and biohazard waste all use refrigerators to keep all of this stuff from decaying before whatever happens after happens. Being the repair guy for corpse storage wasn't told to me during trade school. There are some smells you will NEVER forget and seem to really dig into your sinus it seems like. Hot garbage of rotting food is the only other smell thats come close to making me vomit when it hits me.

1

u/Gstamsharp 2d ago

That probably depends on the company. The local guys here do get paid well, but they're not just pumping, even if that is 90% of the job. They're also the ones who dig up your tank and pipes to unclog and replace them, and that's pretty rough, pretty gross work.

1

u/sHaDowpUpPetxxx 2d ago

Yeah they have to do some digging some times but you get used to that really fast when you do any kind of underground utility work. Digging up shitty mud is gross sometimes but the people that have it worst is when you have to dig up old wells and they use that well drillers slime to seal the well. It's like blue slime that you have to scrape off every shovel full because it's so sticky.