The doctor is in the tub

Eddie Singleton's experience at Tub Doctor has been very Halloweenesque.

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Rainier Ehrhardt/Staff

Tub Doctor technician Shane Thomas installs a control valve for a shower .

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Annette M. Drowlette/Staff

Rachel Singleton sets up a shower in the Tub Doctor showroom in Augusta.

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Eddie Singleton, whose father was in the Army, was a Boy Scout and received his Eagle Scout award as a teenager.

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Mr. Singleton (top left) was selected Most Valuable Lineman when he played for the Evans High School football team. Still craving action sports, Mr. Singleton has taken up kickboxing.

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Eddie Singleton holds two of his grandchildren, Bryson Singleton (left) Sara Ingram, in 2001.

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Rainier Ehrhardt/Staff

Tub Doctor technician Shane Thomas takes out old piping before installing a new shower at a home in North Augusta. Tub Doctor does bathroom repairs and replacements.

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Eddie Singleton, whose father was in the Army, was a Boy Scout and received his Eagle Scout award as a teenager.

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Annette M. Drowlette/Staff

Eddie Singleton, owner of Tub Doctor sits in a walk-in tub October 14, 2009 in Martinez, Ga.

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"My men brought back a petrified cat. They had torn out a wall, and there was actually a cat inside the wall. And I don't mean scared," said the owner of Tub Doctor on Washington Road in Augusta.

Mr. Singleton has fixed bullet holes in tubs. At a customer's request, he has crawled into a mausoleum at a cemetery.

"The people had bought this mausoleum. It had cracks in it, and they wanted those cracks fixed," Mr. Singleton said.

He has even refinished a table that is used for autopsies. And once, a mother frantically called because her child's toe was stuck in the drain of a tub. Mr. Singleton's wife, Rachel, advised her to pour vegetable oil in the drain or call 911.

"You could hear a child screaming in the background," Mr. Singleton said.

Though Mr. Singleton built his showroom on Washington Road in 2004, his Tub Doctor has been in business for 27 years

"We specialize in bathrooms. Nothing else," Mr. Singleton said. "People have asked us to do kitchens, but we specialize in bathrooms. We feel very comfortable in that area. We've probably been in over 500,000 bathrooms since 1982 doing some type of repair or complete remodeling."

Tub Doctor handles residential and commercial projects and has clients in Richmond, Columbia and Aiken counties. It also provides services for clients in Columbia and has worked for motels as far away as Tampa, Fla.

"We operate practically anywhere people are willing to pay us to go. Our jobs can be as simple as a $50 job up to a $30,000 job," he said.

Mrs. Singleton handles ordering for the family business. His daughter, Kari Ingram, works as office manager, and his son, Michael Singleton, previously worked there.

On a typical day, Mr. Singleton works mostly in sales, but he's trying to hire a salesperson to cover these duties. In the future, he hopes to spend more time promoting the business.

"I still wear more hats than I need to wear. There's a down side in the sense that this is my baby. It's still hard to cut certain strings and give up certain responsibilities," he said.

Mr. Singleton's sense of humor keeps the business environment fun. He jokes around with his employees, who make the business worthwhile, he said.

"What's even more rewarding now is that we help a lot of people be able to change their life to a certain degree because of putting in showers and walk-in tubs," he said. "They can stay in their house longer, and they have the dignity to shower themselves without having someone help them."

Dr. Mike Felz, Mr. Singleton's best friend, is also a customer. He has had three bathrooms remodeled by Tub Doctor.

"He's fearless," Dr. Felz said. "Challenges are no problems for him. Diligent. He won't settle for less than excellent. His business grew because of his reputation for honest and excellent service."

Mr. Singleton is fearless enough to have taken up kickboxing as a hobby 10 years ago.

"People know me because I've done Night Fights here in Augusta in front of 2,000 or 3,000 people," he said.

Many of his fights were held at Bell Auditorium and Fort Gordon. Dr. Felz was by his side.

"I've been the ring doctor for a number of his fights," Dr. Felz said. "I was there when he's gotten knocked out and when he's won."

Family first

Mr. Singleton and his family moved to Martinez in 1963. His father, William Singleton, was in the Army. His mother, Kathleen Singleton, was a stay-at-home mother. He has a younger sister, Deana.

The family moved around frequently during his childhood, including living overseas.

"We had a very close-knit family," Mr. Singleton said. "Like most Army families, we relied on each other for entertainment. We moved a lot, so I'm an introvert by nature. I enjoy being by myself. I've changed quite a bit over time because of the business -- having to talk to people,"

"For my mother and father, their children were their lives. We spent a lot of time together."

There wasn't a lot of money for vacations, but the family took many camping trips, including outings to Switzerland and Germany. From ages 13 to 18, he was a member of the Boy Scouts and became an Eagle Scout.

He attended Evans High School and played on the football team, where he was named Most Valuable Lineman.

He took classes at Augusta College (now Augusta State University) but realized he wasn't college material.

"I didn't have a burning desire for further education, unfortunately," he said.

When he was 21, Mr. Singleton met Rachel while working at Pantry Pride Grocery Store on Washington Road, where Bonefish Grill is now located. They married after dating a year and a half.

Mr. Singleton took a job in inventory control at Hajoca, an industrial plumbing company. He started his own business in April 1982.

"The decision was made for me," he said. "I was laid off,"

At Hajoca, Mr. Singleton learned how to do chip repairs on bathtubs and performed repairs as a side job. He started his business in the back of an old station wagon.

"We borrowed $900 from my in-laws, which was paid back fairly quickly," he said.

Mr. Singleton had learned that tubs could be reglazed, and he went to school to learn how to refinish them.

In the early years of the business, his wife set up appointments from their home. She stayed at home with their children until they entered college, and then started doing wallpapering and chip repairs.

"She's my best helper when it came to prepping tubs," he said.

Over the years, clients requested services such as wallpapering and flooring, so Mr. Singleton expanded his services.

He got his first building in 1983. He rented a small room in a house on Old Evans Road. Since then, he has had three locations in Columbia County, including his current store.

Mr. Singleton started doing full bathroom remodeling in 1995. He has 10 employees.

One of his early employees, the Rev. Sonny Jones, was a fellow Boy Scout and football player. He started working at Tub Doctor in 1985.

"He still rates as one of the best employees that I ever had," Mr. Singleton said.

The Rev. Jones said that his friend is a man of his word.

"He's honest, which is a rarity today," he said. "He loves to see the finished results of his work, knowing that it's been able to help someone. He's fair. Naturally, in business, you've got to make a profit, but his main objective, I believe, was to help people."

Strong and weak

"One of my fortes and one of my weaknesses is that I jump in," Mr. Singleton said. "When I want to do something, my personality isn't to check every little detail. I just look at that and say, 'I can do that.' If I sit back and think about it, I would never do it."

Mr. Singleton said he learned business through the "school of hard knocks."

"Most people that are small-business owners are a lot like me. All they want to do is go out and work and make money. But it's the paperwork side of all the regulations," Mr. Singleton said.

When he started the business, Mr. Singleton worked 50 to 60 hours a week. Now, he works more hours because the business has expanded.

Moreover, the industry has evolved over the years, he said.

"When it comes to refinishing, I try to steer people away from it because it is a Band-Aid method," he said. "It's something that's not going to last. Now they rely on relining because it's a more durable process, or we take tubs out and put new tubs in."

Jobs now require more manpower. A simple refinishing or chip repair is a one-man operation, but installing a tub can require up to six workers.

"I tell people I should change my name from Tub Doctor to Shower Doctor," Mr. Singleton said. "Probably 60 to 70 percent of our business now is updating people's bathrooms where they have accessibility problems, and the tub is not useful for them anymore."

In those cases, Tub Doctor installs a shower or walk-in tub, which has a seat and allows a person to step in, close the door and still have the experience of bathing in a tub.

"That's something that they weren't able to have four or five years ago," he said.

Mr. Singleton said he has noticed a shift from bathrooms being merely functional to having many luxury features.

"You have tubs that have not only jets, but you can also have air injection and lighting. It's actually like a mini spa that can be put in the bathroom," he said.

Instead of Formica countertops, customers are now using granite. People are also using vanity-style dressers with drawers.

A functional bathroom can cost $5,000 to $6,000. To get the "wow factor," bathrooms can cost $10,000 to $15,000 and up. He believes that a customer's wishes are key.

"I've seen a thousand bathrooms. What's important is that I see the bathroom through your eyes," he said.

In the near future, there will be a clear, natural chemical that can be sprayed onto any surface in the bathroom, including the walls and floor, that will kill all bacteria, he said.

"This chemical will stay there forever, as long as you ... don't paint over it. You're going to be able to go in and basically make the bathroom bacteria free," Mr. Singleton said.

The industry has suffered along with rest of the economy.

"This would be the first slump where we're really feeling it. We're in the process of hiring some new employees, but work doesn't come to you that much anymore. You have to get out there, and you have to beat the bushes and network with people," Mr. Singleton said.

Fortunately, he said, he has been around long enough for customers to remember his business when they need a tub doctor.

Reach LaTina Emerson at (706) 823-3227 or latina.emerson@augustachronicle.com.