Roto-Rooter Corporation Franchise Overview

About Roto-Rooter Corporation

Roto-Rooter was established in 1935 and is the largest provider of plumbing repair and sewer & drain cleaning services in North America. Roto-Rooter also provides water damage cleanup services in most of its company-owned locations. It operates businesses in 118 company-owned territories and approximately 400 franchises, serving approximately 91 percent of the U.S. population and 40% of the Canadian population. Roto-Rooter also has licensed master franchises in the republics of Indonesia and Singapore, and the Philippines.

Franchise History

Roto-Rooter was founded by Samuel Blanc in 1935. He invented the famous electric Roto-Rooter sewer cleaning machine in 1933 after trying to unclog his son’s sewer in his hometown of Des Moines, Iowa. Before the Roto-Rooter machine, sewers had to be dug up and cleaned out with hand tools. In 1980, Roto-Rooter became a full-service residential and commercial plumbing repair company. Over the past few years, Roto-Rooter expanded into water damage cleanup services. Roto-Rooter completed its U.S. franchise territorial expansion in the 1960s and has no more room for additional franchises in the United States. However, Roto-Rooter is still expanding internationally with master franchises in various countries.