Global success in the pipeline for LVIturva

All Finnish humility aside – this northern nation is one of the best places in the world to develop new ideas. The number of pioneers and innovations across various industries underline such hype: safety reflectors, noise-cancelling earplugs and now LVIturva’s new solution for renovating plumbing in detached houses, are but some of the many examples of Finnish ingenuity.

An open mind has been key for LVIturva, established in 2010 as a regular pipe company. Its unprejudiced and solution-oriented attitude has brought the company unprecedented success.

“The bright idea here is that we have managed to bring the cured-in-place pipe method to be used in smaller scale projects, such as in single-family house renovations,” explains CEO Juhana Kilpeläinen.

Cured-in-place pipe (CIPP) technology is a widely used trenchless rehabilitation method in large construction and renovation projects, where a surface made of polyester resin and saturated with epoxy resin is installed inside old drainage pipes. Hence, old pipes do not have to be dug out, and sewer renovation can be successfully carried out quickly and efficiently.

“Before our solution, a plumbing renovation could only have been done by demolishing concrete from the entire width of the pipes and replacing them,” says Kilpeläinen.

Necessity is the mother of innovation

From the customer’s perspective, the revolutionary technology converts weeks- or even months-long nerve-wracking projects into an exceedingly cost-efficient three-day effort.

“Traditional plumbing companies wait in their office for customers to show up once something is seriously broken and needs to be fixed,” Kilpeläinen observes. “We have established a sales organisation with the intention of selling information and scanning the condition of the customer’s pipes in order to evaluate the need for renovation.”

However, for a regular Joe, it can be borderline impossible to spot any flaws in their house pipes. LVIturva has thus reinvented the whole industry by making owners of detached houses realise they should act proactively, before any serious or irreversible damage is done.

A lead-pipe cinch

The fast growing company had 10 employees in 2012. Today, LVIturva’s workforce comprises over 200 personnel, while this year’s turnover is expected to reach 20 million euros.

The company’s success story began in 2014. After visiting various expositions around Europe, the representatives of LVIturva realised that no one was incorporating CIPP solutions for detached houses, where the pipe diameters are considerably smaller.

“It became clear that only straight pipes were being cured in place, but not bends nor branches, which detached houses tend to have plenty of,” Kilpeläinen explains. “We began to search for suitable partners to seek solutions with. Soon enough we had a functioning technique ready and the world wide open.”

Aside from the domestic market, LVIturva is currently also operating in Sweden. Next in the pipeline are the Norwegian and German markets, which both also have similar renovation needs.

“The atmosphere of thinking outside of the box, combined with the guaranteed high standard of quality with everything made in Finland are great assets for us,” Kilpeläinen reasons. “For instance, our idea would never have occurred in Germany, as there is still high demand for old-fashioned concrete demolishing methods.”

History has shown that Finns from different backgrounds are used to pulling together, so that within the bounds of possibility are things that might have been considered only as pipe dreams elsewhere.

“I am really proud of what we are doing,” Kilpeläinen concludes.