How to Successfully Manage Multiple CIPP Repair Teams: A Complete Guide for Plumbing Companies
CIPP repairs are in high demand today. The market for trenchless pipe lining is growing at an astounding 4.9% CAGR, hitting $3.8 billion in expected revenue by 2030. Is your company ready to be a part of this growth?
If you’re running a single-team repair business now, you could be primed to expand to multiple CIPP repair teams in the near future. But you’ll want to be certain that the time is right.
What You’ll Learn in This Guide:
How to add 2-3 additional CIPP teams without operational chaos
Training protocols that ensure consistent pipe lining quality across all crews
Equipment management strategies that minimize downtime
Scheduling and dispatch systems to streamline operations
Growth challenges and how to solve them
Why Scale Your CIPP Operations Now?
With an ever-increasing need for cost-effective and eco-friendly pipe repairs, your CIPP repair business could be seeing fast growth and expansion over the next few years. Not only are more residential customers looking to cured-in-place pipe repair as a better alternative to trenching out sewer lines, but businesses and even local governments have seen how trenchless repairs could benefit operations.
The Market Reality Check
According to Circle of Blue, the U.S. experiences an average of about 240,000 water main breaks per year, and the cost of repairing or replacing the current infrastructure could exceed $1 trillion over the next 20 years. Some of the country’s communities are running on 75-year-old infrastructure, with places like Philadelphia, PA, still using pre-Civil War pipes. Infrastructure repair isn’t just important; it’s necessary.
Market Drivers
Aging Infrastructure: our underground water supply infrastructure is aging out, and communities will need to turn to an effective solution.
Cost Efficiency: trenching is expensive on several levels, but CIPP repair prevents unnecessary expenses by avoiding digging and rehabilitation.
Minimal Disruption: conventional repairs tear apart lawns, buildings, and roads, leaving property owners and neighborhoods struggling to function.
Versatile Applications: CIPP repairs work for residential sewer repairs, but they’re also ideal for industrial, healthcare, and commercial applications.
Quick Self-Assessment: Are You Ready to Scale?
Take this quick quiz to see if you’re ready to grow your business to multiple teams.
Are you turning away CIPP jobs due to scheduling conflicts?
Do you have 6+ months of consistent pipe lining backlog?
Is your current crew generating 80% utilization?
Do you have access to expansion capital to cover first-year costs?
Are you ready to shift from hands-on technician to operations manager?
If you answered yes to 3 or more of these questions, you’re ready to scale. 2 or fewer? Focus on optimizing current operations first.
Essential Foundation for Multi-Team Success
Careful planning leads to better expansion, so start your multi-team journey with a clear plan and specific goals in mind.
Financial Planning That Actually Works
Your startup costs are your first consideration when expanding to multiple CIPP repair teams. From equipment costs to salaries, you’ll want to know what numbers you need to hit before hiring another crew.
CIPP Equipment
Each team should have their own equipment setup. This includes the inversion unit, rollers, the curing system, CCTV system, and all cleaning equipment. This alone is a significant investment for a growing business. Talk with your pipe lining supply company to see what the pricing looks like.
Pro Tip: New equipment, although more expensive at the start, often outlasts pre-owned equipment. Don’t let the initial investment deter you from buying equipment that lasts, functions properly, and comes with warranty support.
Service Vehicle/Trailer
You’ll need to get your new crews from your shop to the customer safely, and with all the equipment secured properly. Fleet vans work well for almost all trenchless repair needs, but if you’re working on large-scale projects, you may want to consider a custom trailer as well.
Pro Tip: Both new and used vehicles and trailers work well, but the cost is significantly different. If you’re buying new, you’ll need to fully customize your van or trailer to keep your equipment safe during travel. If you buy a used setup from another pipe repair company, you could save both time and money while still getting a reliable vehicle.
Training
Your new crew members may come with plumbing backgrounds, but it’s uncommon for formal plumbing education to include CIPP repair methods. Invest in a training program to get your new teams up to speed and ready to build your business.
Pro Tip: You can save on training costs when you go through a trenchless supply company like T3. We provide customized training for our customers, and we’ll train at our Missouri or California offices, or at your local shop!
Working Capital and Inventory
With more than one crew in the field every day, your equipment maintenance and replacement budget will be higher. Have enough capital set aside to replace an entire CIPP repair setup, as well as enough margin to cover additional emergency costs.
You’ll also need to keep a larger inventory of materials on hand, so you’ll need to increase your current budget to keep your inventory fully stocked.
Pro Tip: Even with the best planning, you could find yourself short on supplies. Choose a supply company that can answer emergency requests and get your supplies to you in record time. The big guys see you as a number in their system. Find a company that treats your business like it were their own.
Equipment Standardization Strategy
It’s easy to think that all you’ll need is one new set of equipment for your new team. But training multiple CIPP teams on different sets of equipment can prove challenging. Standardizing your CIPP equipment can make scaling much easier.
Consider these four categories of equipment when building your standardized setup:
Primary Systems: inversion units, steam/hot water/UV curing systems, CCTV cameras
Backup Equipment: 25% redundancy rule for critical CIPP components
Consumables: Resin-saturated liners, installation materials, cutting tools
Safety Equipment: Confined space entry, air monitoring, chemical handling PPE
Once your warehouse is stocked appropriately, you’ll be able to keep your crews running smoothly without retraining each member on different setups and without worrying about not having the equipment and materials necessary.
Why Choose T3 for Your Multi-Team CIPP Repair Equipment and Supplies?
We’re in the business of making your business better. That starts with great equipment, high-quality materials, and the training and support you need to use them right.
Our experts help you set up your business for:
✅ Consistent pipe lining quality across all teams
✅ Simplified training and cross-crew flexibility
✅ Streamlined inventory management for liners and resins
✅ Easy purchasing and competitive pricing
Territory and Market Analysis
The next step for expanding your teams is seeing the opportunities available for expanding your work. Whether you’re looking for more commercial and industrial opportunities or seeking more residential work, start planning now to have a strategy in place before you add additional crews.
Service Radius
Ideally, the core of your work should be within an hour of your main location. Staying close to your home base allows your teams to respond quickly to emergency calls and minimize travel costs. From there, you can expand as necessary, but this smaller radius gives you a more targeted marketing approach and a better idea of how much growth your business can expect.
Infrastructure Assessment
Reserach your immediate service radius for potential clients. Aging neighborhoods, urban areas, and industrial parks all carry higher demand for CIPP repairs.
Municipal Contract Opportunities
Another indicator of strong growth potential is the availability of municipal contracts. When cities are looking for infrastructure improvements with minimal disruptions, you can position your business as the go-to option when you have multiple crews to cover the scope of work more quickly.
Training That Builds Elite CIPP Teams
A key factor in your business’s success is the ability to trust that every team member brings the right experience and knowledge to every repair job. But without a standardized process for onboarding and continued training, there’s no way to ensure that this happens.
A comprehensive CIPP training program is the solution your business needs to scale your teams without giving up the quality of work your business is known for. Look for a trenchless training program that covers:
CIPP lining fundamentals and equipment operations
Safety standards and practices
Installation techniques for different types of pipe materials
Quality control and documentation practices
Advanced troubleshooting and problem-solving techniques
T3’s Comprehensive CIPP Training Approach
T3 prides itself on helping your teams master their installation skills through hands-on training. Our team members have over 50 years of combined experience in the field of trenchless pipe repair, and we’ve built our training program to pass that knowledge and wisdom on to you.
In-person training where your business is most comfortable: we train teams at our two locations (Springfield, MO, and Cerritos, CA), but we can also bring our experts to your location.
Customized training for your needs: what we teach depends on what you need to know, not a generic training process that leaves your teams unequipped.
Training for any equipment, not just ours: We train your teams on the equipment they’ll be using in the field so that there are no surprises on the job, even when it’s not equipment we sell.
Don’t settle for training that doesn’t fully equip your teams for the work they’ll be doing. Come to T3 for high-quality training that lets your business scale faster.
Daily Operations Management
Small CIPP repair businesses don’t have to navigate multiple jobs at the same time, so transitioning to a more complex business model takes intentional changes in daily operations.
CIPP Scheduling and Dispatch Optimization
When scheduling multiple teams simultaneously, you’ll need to have a protocol in place for daily dispatch. Teams can be organized by geographic zones and territories, job type, or urgency to streamline operations. This also allows you to utilize team strengths or advantages according to the needs of your customer base.
Job Type
Specialization allows multiple teams to optimize workflow, expertise, and time management for specific job types. It also makes it simpler to schedule and dispatch each team, knowing that the teams you send to clients will provide top-notch service and quality each time. Have teams to cover:
Residential: homes and apartments require smaller teams, a smaller equipment footprint, and plenty of experience working with residents present.
Commercial: retail, office, and sales floor spaces deal with foot traffic during the day, often requiring after-hours work on tight timeframes (less than a week).
Industrial: Fabrication and production floors avoid downtime at all costs, so CIPP repair teams will have to work in the middle of an active factory in most cases, as well as working with pipes that could carry volatile, corrosive, and hazardous materials.
Institutional and Healthcare: Schools, universities, hospitals, and clinics require different protocols and often have specific health and safety regulations that must be followed without exception, so repair crews should be familiar with laws and codes related to their work areas.
Geographic Location
While your central location is a determining factor in your market reach, your teams could cover a wider range if they can be dispatched from their homes. This also limits transportation demands and opens up a more emergency-ready scheduling option, where response times could be reduced by 30 minutes or more.
Emergency Response Team
If you designate one installation team to emergency response needs, you can improve your response times without sacrificing other teams already on the schedule for regular jobs. This team could be in-office personnel that work with inventory, equipment maintenance, or prep on a regular basis, but in emergency situations are fully trained and ready to respond quickly. In many cases, this may be ownership, administrative leaders, or training experts rather than daily crew members.
Daily CIPP Dispatch Protocol for Multi-Team Success
6:00 AM: Crew check-in and CIPP job briefing
6:30 AM: Equipment inspection and liner/resin loading
7:00 AM: First pipe lining job departure
Throughout the Day: Real-time updates and CIPP job adjustments
End of Day: Completion reports and next-day CIPP preparation
Communication Systems That Work
As you expand, keeping communication clear and organized is a necessity. Replace paper-and-pencil processes with integrated tech solutions to keep everyone on the same page:
Crew Management Software: Real-time CIPP job tracking and updates
Mobile Apps: Photo/video documentation of CIPP installations
GPS Tracking: Fleet management and trenchless service optimization
24/7 Support Hotline: T3's live technical support advantage for CIPP issues
You may not need every component immediately, but each of these resources will make your multi-team growth easier and less stressful.
But when it comes to support for your teams, the most important resource you could have is a pipe lining supply company that backs you up when things go wrong. T3 has a live expert on call for any need, any time. There’s no pre-recorded answering service, and there’s no waiting to get an expert on the line when you need the help right away.
Customers getting sticker shock?
Customer Experience Consistency
Your customer journey is a key factor in your success.
“But we’re just getting the job done.”
Not when you’re trying to grow your business. From your first impression to your last handshake, every part of your customer experience counts toward landing the next customer.
1. Pre-Job
Confirmation calls with clear and reasonable arrival windows help customers feel more comfortable, and it shows your teams care about the people they’re serving. Whether these calls are made from a single administrative employee or from the team leads themselves, they serve as a perfect first impression for how your teams operate.
Team members should also have a CIPP installation prep checklist to make sure they arrive ready to work without missing equipment or materials.
2. On-Site
A professional uniform, clean and organized equipment, and clear protocols show customers the attention to detail your team will exhibit for repairs. When teams show up disorganized and unprepared, customers lose confidence. Even if the repairs are done correctly, you might still have complaints and concerns based on a lack of professionalism alone.
3. Installation
A great installation team should respect the owner’s property, as well as their time. Keep equipment organized and clean, minimize the space your team requires, and have proper barrier materials (plastic covers or curtains, etc.) in place before starting work to maintain air quality and keep surrounding spaces clean.
4. Post-Job
Installers should take extra care in cleaning up and returning the space as close to its original state as possible. Have your teams verify installation quality and communicate warranty information before leaving. Clear up any questions and concerns, and provide contact information for anything else they may need.
5. Follow-Up
After completing the work, a satisfaction survey can help teams improve their processes for the next job. It’s also beneficial to provide maintenance reminders as needed, whether through automated SMS or email campaigns. You can also provide an easy way for customers to help your business grow, whether through online reviews or word-of-mouth marketing.
Quality Control Across All Teams
When your quality takes a back seat to quantity, your business won’t keep growing. But you can prevent that from happening with the right quality control standards in place.
Non-Negotiable CIPP Quality Standards
Regardless of the installation type, you should have firm standards in place for CIPP quality control that cover all components of your process:
Liner wet-out standards and tolerances
Cure times and methods for verification
CCTV inspections before and after installation
Standard operating procedures for documentation and reporting
Train your teams to follow these standards first to keep their work consistent from team to team.
CIPP Documentation and Reporting Systems
The standard operating procedures for documentation make it easier to see issues before they become emergencies, and they provide the information you’ll need to offer warranties with confidence. We recommend:
Pre-installation CCTV inspection videos
Photos/videos during liner installation when possible
Logs for curing temperatures and times
Final inspection to verify quality of work
Customer sign-off and CIPP warranty documentation
Continuous Improvement Process
Your teams can start work confidently with the right training program, but there should always be an established process for improving daily operations.
Leadership and Administration
For leaders, take time to analyze performance from team to team to see where weaknesses and strengths exist. Learn from internal records as well as customer feedback to help teams become even better at their craft.
Maintenance and Inventory
Visually inspect and test your teams’ equipment to evaluate maintenance needs. Well-maintained equipment reduces costs, improves on-site efficiency, and extends lifespan.
Also keep track of inventory on a weekly basis to prevent supply issues. No one wants to start their days without the materials they need for the day’s work.
Professional Improvement
Finally, take time on a regular basis (monthly or more often) to review recent challenges, answer questions, and support team members so that problems aren’t repeated for upcoming jobs. A simple 1-hour meeting each month could be the difference between a long streak of poor results and a spotless record.
Common Challenges and Proven Solutions
Your most common challenges when expanding to multiple CIPP repair teams are staffing, equipment needs, and customer service. But each of these challenges can be met with success. You just have to plan for them from the start.
CHALLENGE 1: Staffing and Retention Challenges
Like many labor industries, finding and keeping qualified CIPP technicians is a primary challenge for a growing CIPP repair business.
SOLUTION: Create a strategy for filling your employment pipeline.
There are several strategies you could use, but it should include high-quality training so your employees are successful when they start their work.
Our customers know this first hand: T3’s custom-tailored training and support helps new and experienced installers approach every job with confidence. And it’s perfect for helping your new hires get up to speed faster.
But initial training isn’t the only path to more strong hires. Consider:
Apprenticeship programs: connect with local trade schools and offer mentorship and training that can lead directly to post-graduate careers
Better compensation structures: performance-based comp plans place tangible value on quality work and continued training
Career advancement tracks: set up a clear path from apprenticeship to leadership to encourage team members in long-term career development
CHALLENGE 2: CIPP Equipment Management Issues
Going from a single team to multiple crews will change how you utilize equipment. More jobs means more wear and tear, and the most expensive equipment may be used by multiple teams when you’re first adding additional crews.
SOLUTION: Establish protocols for equipment use and maintenance
Preventative maintenance is your first line of defense against equipment failure, and it’s often the most valuable in the long run. Schedule regular maintenance for all equipment, and keep records of any repairs or problems your teams encounter.
If you’re currently sharing equipment between teams, develop a system to easily schedule use to avoid work conflicts. Check-out and check-in protocols can also make it easier to find the equipment if it isn’t where it was expected to be.
It’s also wise to have contingency plans for breakdowns. If you have a 25% backup inventory for equipment and tools, most major equipment issues can be covered quickly.
Have Support On Speed Dial
Even your best laid plans can fall apart occasionally. That’s when live support becomes your most important tool. But if your pipe lining supply company only sells equipment and materials, you might not reach the people you need when you need them most.
At T3 Lining Supply, we’re more than your small business supply experts. We’re a team dedicated to helping your business grow sustainably, and that includes on-demand customer support with live experts, not recordings and automated services.
CHALLENGE 3: Customer Service Consistency
As your teams expand, it’ll become more and more important ot provide consistent service across the board. And much like maintaining equipment, prevention is your best strategy for avoiding customer service mistakes.
SOLUTION: Standardize your non-negotiables and make a plan to keep them
These non-negotiables will definitely include best practices for installation, but they should also include more interpersonal standards:
Customer Communication: Your team members should have a simple and straightforward set of protocols and procedures for customer interactions, from greetings and etiquette to guidelines for describing the CIPP repair process properly.
Refreshers: Initial training is important, but continued refreshers on pipe lining techniques will keep your services consistent across all repairs.
Customer Feedback: Your best tool for improving customer satisfaction is watching feedback from your clients carefully. Look for situations where complaints are more prominent, but also places where customers were thrilled with the work.
Escalation Procedures: When jobs get complicated, teams need to know who they can go to for next steps so issues are resolved quickly.
T3: Your Path to Multi-Team CIPP Success
You don’t have to grow your CIPP repair business alone. Partner with our experts at T3 Lining Supply to go beyond warehouse stocking: we’re your one-stop shop for training, equipment, materials, and support.
Comprehensive Training
Our experts have more than 50 years of combined experience with cured-in-place pipe repair, and we’re ready to bring our wisdom to your team. Train in-house with us, or have us come to your shop. Learn on new equipment from our catalog, or get training on the equipment you already have.
And never go through training that doesn’t actually apply to your teams. We fully customize all our training to your needs, not a textbook template.
Why Train with T3 Lining Supply?
Standardized Equipment and Materials
Ready to standardize your inventory for all your teams? Our catalog has everything you need, from resins and liners to inversion and UV systems. And we’re not one of the big guys that treats your business like another anonymous account. We personally make sure your orders get to you on time, complete, and with a friendly smile.
T3: We’re the Small Business Pipe Lining Supply Experts
Ongoing Support
No one beats our support. We have on-call experts for any challenge, day or night. When your teams call for help, they’ll have a live CIPP repair professional to walk through the situation and find a solution on the spot.
