ON THE COVER

“Team work makes the dream work,” says Sam Arundel of The Drainage Department in Mount Maunganui. He’s shown here (second from right) with, from left, apprentices Tommy Gadsbey, Ryan Martin and Dan Hutchinson.

Sam Arundel of The Drainage Department in Mount Maunganui is on a mission to change traditional perceptions of drainlaying, as he explains to NZ Plumber.

Sam Arundel believes drainlaying is an under-appreciated trade, both within the plumbing industry and for clients.

“We can put all this time and effort into the drainage and the clients or builders may not even see it because it all gets covered up,” says Sam. “In fact, the sign of a job well done is that it looks exactly like it did at the start.”

Done once, done right

As Sam explains, people can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on new homes, and in that home’s lifetime, it’ll probably have the kitchen remodelled two to three times and have all sorts of renovations—but the drainage will largely remain untouched. “It’s so important it’s done to a high standard because it’s only going to be done once,” he says.

Sam, who was recently awarded 2022 New Zealand Plumber, Gasfitter or Drainlayer of the Year, has run The Drainage Department in Mount Maunganui since 2018. He’s grown the business from a ‘one man band’ to now employing six staff, doing all kinds of residential and industrial drainage services, advanced wastewater systems, drain clearing, septic tanks and larger scale earthworks across the Bay of Plenty.

He trained as a plumber and gasfitter before becoming a specialised drainlayer, and says in his early days, drainlayers were seen as “a bit of a joke”.

“All the plumbers and gasfitters thought they were way more important than the lowly old drainlayer. It was like, if you ended up doing drainlaying then you must have made some mistakes. I kind of steered away from it, even though I thought it was interesting… It

AUTHOR: NICK WALKER

wasn’t until I went overseas and still wanted to do it that I followed that path.”

Promotion through pictures

One of the ways he’s changing the perception is by embracing social media to showcase exactly what goes into drainlaying jobs. Sam’s wife Zennor has been instrumental in running this side of the business as an experienced marketer and graphic designer.

“I worked for years before we had kids and started The Drainage Department, so now I’m applying those skills to our business,” she says. “I created our website and work on our graphic design, photography and social media, and do the accounts.”

Having Zennor’s skills to help grow the business has been a significant advantage. Pictures speak a thousand words, and by taking photographs before, during and after jobs, Sam can essentially put his team’s work on display.

“If you take a photo of the site before you start and a few during the work, it’s almost a competition to see how neat and tidy it can be at the end. With all the mess you make in between, it’s quite impressive if you can return a site to how it looked beforehand.”

Social media is just one of the technologies Sam uses to run The

Eighteen-year-old Tommy Gadsbey is a first-year Masterlink apprentice at The Drainage Department. Sam fully supported Tommy to attend a 16-day Outward Bound course earlier this year, as one of the winners of a 2022 Masterlink Apprentice Outward Bound Scholarship.

Sam with two-year-old daughter Winnie Plum.

Sam and Zennor Arundel at the 2022 New Zealand Plumbing Awards in June with Sam’s New Zealand Plumber, Gasfitter or Drainlayer of the Year Award.

Drainage Department efficiently. In work terms, he uses tools like laser grade control technology with his excavators to improve productivity and profitability, as well as Kiwi software tool Fergus for quoting and job management.

“I don’t know how all the old boys would have done it, having to spend all their weekends and nights quoting. You can load all your price books and materials in there, and just save so much time. Being a business owner, your time gets taken away from you in so many ways, so the more things you can use to give you time back, the better.”

Time has become a precious commodity for Sam and Zennor, who are raising fouryear-old Rafferty and two-year-old Winnie Plum while also growing their business. Zennor says it’s been a real juggle.

“There’s a lot of tagging in and out to get things done. As most people with small

“Drainlaying is about so much more than standing around on a spade, and that’s what I want to promote.”

kids will know, their needs are huge so it’s often a matter of working late into the night and on the weekends. We enjoy working together and make a great team—we bounce ideas off each other and our skills complement one another.”

“A really viable option”

Sam believes technology not only helps with running the business, but it feeds back into the culture as well. In a way, it also plays a role in modernising the way people see and understand drainlaying in general.

“It’s part of what makes for a really cool business that I hope people want to be involved in. It’s not just rough and tumble, wearing oily shirts and rags. Drainlaying is about so much more than standing around on a spade, and that’s what I want to promote.

“It’s a really viable option for people with a bit of intelligence—you’re not just slogging your guts out. There are definitely positions and opportunities for people to utilise their brains as well as practical skills.”