Groundbed

For owners of corrosion control and integrity firms

The firms integrity engineers call first.
One company.

Groundbed is building a national corrosion control and integrity company from the firms that set the standard. When a CP, inspection or integrity firm joins, its technicians, inspectors and crew leads keep running the work, and its finance, safety, OQ and certification records move to one shared program.

See if your firm qualifiesCall 310-460-1025
Size
$500K and upEBITDA a year
Where
Anywherein the United States
The work
CP, integrity inspectionon operating pipelines, tanks and water systems
Close-interval survey chart Pipe-to-soil potential along two miles of pipeline. The instant-off reading stays more negative than the minus 850 millivolt criterion except for a short stretch near station 69+00, which falls short of the criterion. −1400−1250−1100−950−800−650−500 −850 mV criterion On Instant-off Short of criterion 0+0026+4052+8079+20105+60 Station, feet mV vs CSE
A close-interval survey along two miles of line, stationed in feet. The usual criterion is −850 mV or more negative against a saturated copper-copper sulfate half cell, with IR drop accounted for, most often by reading instant-off. Near station 69+00 the line falls short, and the next job is finding out why: rectifier output, a shorted casing, interference or coating damage.

Your inspectors and technicians.
Your operator approvals.
Your name.

Each one is settled with you before closing: your inspectors and technicians, with their certifications and OQ records; your approved-vendor listings with each operator; and the name on your trucks and reports. See how in the questions owners ask.

The Groundbed standard

Your technicians and inspectors keep taking the readings. We take the bids and the back office off your desk.

We work from a written integration playbook, built on add-on acquisitions in another services business. Your firm’s 100-day plan is written from it, with you.

What a firm brings
  • Customers who come back every year for required surveys and inspections, on assets already in service.
  • Technicians and inspectors qualified under each operator’s OQ plan.
  • AMPP- or API-certified people leading the technical work.
  • A safety record that operators approve.
What Groundbed puts in after a firm joins
  • Books, billing, collections and payroll move to one finance team in the first year. The people your customers call today stay the people they call.
  • Operator qualification records, drug and alcohol testing paperwork and the safety programs operators audit, kept current in one place.
  • Bids, pricing and master service agreements, including the insurance limits large operators ask for.
  • Software that turns survey and inspection readings into the reports your customers file, chosen with your crew chiefs.
  • Trucks, rectifier stock, interrupters, inspection and test equipment the 100-day plan calls for, paid for with capital raised alongside each partnership.
  • AMPP certification for technicians, from CP1 tester to CP4 specialist, and API 510, 570 and 653 certification for inspectors.
  • A bench of experienced operators and finance executives from our network, on call to you and your managers after closing.

Questions owners ask

Who is paying for this?

For each purchase, Worthings Court Capital arranges a bank loan and raises equity from a small group of capital partners for that deal. Each of those partners has chosen your company by name. You meet them after our review and before closing. If you have been approached by private equity before, ask us the same questions you asked them.

How would I be paid?

The price is paid mostly in cash at closing, from the bank loan and the equity raised for the deal. Part can come later, as a note (the company owes you the balance and pays it over a set number of years) or as a payment tied to results. If you want to, you can also take part of the price as a share of the larger company. The mix is written into the letter of intent.

Do I have to stay, and for how long?

We ask the owner to stay for a transition period. Its length, your title and your pay are written into the letter of intent. Part of that period goes to choosing and training the person who runs the company after you.

What happens to my inspectors and technicians?

We keep your inspectors, technicians and office staff in their roles, with their certifications and OQ records carried over. Any change to pay, benefits or titles is agreed with you before closing.

Will my customers or employees find out?

Not from us. We sign a confidentiality agreement before you send anything, and we do not contact your customers, employees, suppliers or bank without your permission. Before closing, we agree with you when and how each group is told.

What happens to the name?

How the decision is made goes into the letter of intent, and the decision itself is made with you before closing. We look at what your operator contracts and approved-vendor listings are held under, what your trucks and invoices say, and what a change would cost you in re-registering with operators’ vendor and safety prequalification systems.

What is my company worth?

Mostly it depends on how much steady profit the company makes after paying everyone, including a fair salary for you, and on how much of the work repeats each year. The letter of intent states the price and how we got to it.

Why sell to Groundbed rather than a large inspection or NDT company?

A larger company usually folds a firm it buys into one of its divisions. At Groundbed, your inspectors and technical leaders keep running the work, and you can take part of the price as a share of what the company becomes.

Is it a waste of your time to talk if I am not sure I want to sell?

No. A first call commits you to nothing, and if you decide not to sell, that ends it.

How it works

  1. Call

    A confidential call of about 30 minutes. You tell us about the company and what you want next.

  2. Review

    We sign a confidentiality agreement, then read three years of financials and your largest contracts. If something would make us pass, we say so at this stage.

  3. Letter of intent

    A short letter with the price, how it is paid, your role after closing and how the name will be decided. The final purchase agreement is written from it.

  4. Meet the money

    Before closing, you meet the lender and the equity partners paying for the purchase.

  5. Close

    Closing, then a 100-day plan written with you and your managers.

Choose how you step back

Step back

Sell all of it. You stay for a transition period agreed with you before closing, and you help choose and train the person who runs the company after you.

Help build it

Sell most of it, keep part of the price as a share of the larger company, and keep leading the technical work as it grows.

Bring your family

Family members who work in the business keep their roles, with pay and titles agreed before closing, and one of them can be the successor you train.

The work we look for

  • CP surveys and monitoring
  • AC mitigation and interference testing
  • Coatings inspection
  • Pipeline and tank inspection, including water storage tanks (API 653 and 570)
  • In-line inspection verification and integrity digs
  • Leak survey

EBITDA is operating profit before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

Why corrosion control and integrity

$3.8BUS nondestructive testing services, across 1,805 businessesIBISWorld, 2026
300,217miles of gas transmission pipelinePHMSA, 2025
20,336miles of gathering line brought under federal corrosion control rules in 2022PHMSA estimate
Tank shell thickness chart Ultrasonic thickness readings on a storage tank's bottom shell course fall from 0.492 inches in 2011 to 0.447 inches in 2026, about 3 mils a year. Projected forward, the course reaches its minimum required thickness of 0.410 inches around 2038. That sets the next external inspection by 2029 and the next thickness survey by 2032. 0.400.420.440.460.480.50 Minimum thickness 0.410 in. External by 2029Thickness survey by 2032 0.4920.4780.4610.447 Projected Reaches minimum about 2038 2010202020302040 Inches
An example of thickness readings on a tank’s bottom shell course, taken every five years. At about 3 mils a year, the course reaches its minimum required thickness around 2038. Under API 653 that remaining life sets the schedule: the next thickness survey within half of it, and the next external inspection within a quarter of it, three years out instead of the usual five.

Pipeline operators test cathodic protection every calendar year and check rectifiers six times a year. Aboveground fuel tanks get an external inspection by an API 653 inspector at least every five years, and water utilities buy the same work: Wisconsin, for one, requires every drinking water storage tank to be inspected at least every five years.

Since PHMSA’s 2022 gas transmission rule, an onshore operator whose annual readings fall short for a systemic reason has to run close-interval surveys in both directions from the low test station, at about 5-foot spacing, unless that is impractical. Its 2022 gas gathering rule brought Type C gathering lines under the same corrosion control, line marker and leakage survey rules.

Every technician and inspector on an operator’s line must be qualified under the operator’s OQ plan, and many also hold AMPP, API or ASNT certifications.

Market: IBISWorld, Nondestructive Testing Services in the US, 2026. Mileage: PHMSA annual report mileage, 2025; PHMSA gas gathering fact sheet (Type C lines, effective May 16, 2022). 49 CFR 192.465(a) and (b) (gas) and 195.573(a) and (c) (hazardous liquids): annual tests at intervals of no more than 15 months, rectifiers six times a year no more than 2½ months apart. 49 CFR 192.465(f): close-interval surveys on onshore gas transmission lines. API 653 sections 6.3.2 and 6.3.3: external and thickness inspection intervals. Wis. Admin. Code NR 810.14(1): water storage inspections. 49 CFR 192 Subpart N and 195 Subpart G: operator qualification.

For brokers and advisors

Send a teaser, a blind profile or a name. Every introduction gets a reply within one business day.

Where a fee agreement with us applies, it is signed before we see confidential information and paid as written.

The size bar starts at about $500,000 a year of EBITDA, with no upper limit, anywhere in the United States.

Use the form below and choose “Advisor or broker,” or write to the address in the footer.

Start with a conversation.

Owners and their advisors are welcome. Every introduction is confidential.

What happens next
  • We read every message and reply within one business day.
  • If it looks like a fit, we set up a 30-minute call at a time that suits you.
  • Nothing you send goes to a lender or equity partner until you agree to it.

Or write to hello@groundbed.com or call 310-460-1025.

1925 Century Park East, Suite 1700
Los Angeles, CA 90067