WHO WE ARE

LEARNING THE TRADE

There, at Land Hardware in KC's historic Northeast neighborhood, Bob learned to cultivate relationships with his customers from the area — from homeowners to Clarkson Construction to handymen and tradesmen from the neighborhood and surrounding areas of Downtown KC, Columbus Park and the River Market. These historic areas gave Bob unique insight into some of the oldest homes and businesses in Kansas City.

Land Hardware offered the classic hardware store services all too forgotten in today's times: window pane and screen replacement regardless of age, screen door repair, locksmithing and key cutting, sized-to-order black iron and galvanized pipe cutting and threading with an old Ridgid pipe threading machine, and much more. The need to provide the local area with electrical and plumbing parts for these historic homes and businesses taught Bob a great deal about the plumbing industry and the plumbing trade.

Those were skills he would later use as shop manager for Reddi Services when he joined them in 1991. Later he became a service tech for Reddi Root'r/Able Plumbing until he left in 2000. As a plumber and drain cleaner for Reddi Services, Bob worked in various homes, businesses and situations — from Iatan Power Plant in Weston, Mo. to Strawberry Hill, Hallbrook to Worlds of Fun, Union Carbide to the Village of Glenaire, Kansas City International Airport and everywhere in between. Through those nine years Bob amassed a level of knowledge and expertise for drain cleaning and repair uncommon among his peers, and is grateful to Reddi Services and the Gravatt family for his time there and the career he led.

Bob's parents sadly both passed away in the spring of 2000, and he was faced with a series of life-changing events and decisions. He decided to leave Reddi Services in late 2000 and filed with the City of Raytown in November of 2000 as a drain cleaning contractor.

Bob's son Brett began riding around with him on drain calls all over KC and the metro area, learning drain cleaning while being the "gopher/GoFer" and "flashlight holder." Today Brett is the only full-time employee of Bob's Root'r Service besides Bob, and his wife Glenis manages the office.