Owner of Bay Area Environmental Services, Inc. We have provided Jet/Vac cleaning of sanitary/storm systems, televising, Laser profiling, pneumatic plugs, grout & sealing, Slip-lining, CIPP point repairs, manhole testing, infiltration/exfiltration testing, etc., since 1982.
When we started this company I was 19 and Jerry 23. We had scraped together $800.00 (all the money in the world) to buy a 1968 Jet Rodder, then a year later a 1975 Combination unit. This was money you had to earn yourself because banks would not finance you.They had never heard of this type of work ,therefore they didn't know what they would do with the equipment if they had to take it back. It finally took having them come to a job site to see exactly what this was. So many late nights and sometimes all night, were spent with him sitting inside the engine trying to fix the Jet/Vac truck or trying to figure out why the reel wasn't working in the TV van, while I held the flash light, we were in it together. I learned that the clutch is not the peddle in the middle while trying to help with a brake job. I don't know why he got so mad at me, my leg was starting to cramp after 15 minutes of pumping the "brake", at least he was lying down. These are times we can look back on now and laugh about, but starting and running your own company can also be one of the hardest things you'll ever do. So many sleepness nights and worrying, because it is just not your own family you are responsible for, but those of every person that works for you, they are depending on us to keep everything running so they have a job to come to everyday. The promise we made all those long days ago if we made it, was to never forget these times, who we are, and where we came from, always be humble, otherwise, you really didn't make it in the end. The rewards have been having the experience of working with some really wonderful and honorable people, that we feeled blessed to have been a part of their beginnings.