About Dub’l-lif - "Double-the-life"

Dub’l-lif was established in 1956 by Edwin (Ted) King and continues today to be run by members of his extended family as an independent business.  The team pride themselves on using the best materials to deliver consistently good products. 

All products have always been aimed at being at least ‘Double-the-life’.  The name Dub’l-lif was born out of a Somerset slant on ‘Double-the-life’ – hence say ‘Double-the-life’ quick and you are about right!

The company started as Ted tried to solve the problem of splitting broom heads for farmers.  Brooms were constantly pushing wet, heavy material, in all weathers …

Reinvigorating Broom Heads – The Broom Clamp!

Ted recognised many broom heads and handles were parting company!  The hole for the handles in broom heads (some with the addition of a short nail), were not keeping hard working broom heads and handles together. Handles were constantly falling out (hence the nail) and heads were eventually splitting. Taking this as a challenge, Ted designed, produced, tested and brought to market the Broom Clamp.

Made from mild steel and zinc plated, to reduce rusting, the universal Broom Clamps fitted to most types of saddle back (curved top) brush heads, quickly and easily. Standard broom handles fitted into the socket of the clamp and fixed simply with nothing more elaborate than two wing nuts to hold the Broom Clamp and handle securely in place.

Ted had invented a simple solution for splitting broom heads and made re-attaching handles easy.  The Broom Clamp strengthened and reduced broom heads splitting whilst ensuring handles stayed firmly attached to heads, no matter what substance the brooms were moving.

A stand at the Bath and West Show in the late 1950’s, proved the Broom Clamp was an instant hit. Ted needed to give up the day job and improve production from the current ‘one man’ operation from his garage!

In 1960 new premises were acquired. Ted’s son Richard joined the business full time. From this other ideas developed for the agricultural market. Boot Wipers, Platform Broom Handle Holders and Platform Broom Stays.

Inventing Yard Scraper Squeegees…

Now spending more time talking with farmers, Ted discovered more about what substances brooms were moving on farms, multiple times a day – slurry!  Hence why the heads were degrading and splitting so quickly.  Armed with this information, he designed and manufactured the first ever Straight Rubber Squeegee, to enable farmers to move liquid and solids combined using something designed for the purpose.

In 1962, again a move to bigger premises was needed, which is still our current site. This was a time when many smallholders had a small herd of dairy cattle close to the house.  Tractors with scrapers were in their infancy and not really an option in small spaces. This prompted the invention of the first Curved Squeegee.

In 1979 Richard took full control of the business continuing the ethos of producing high quality products at a realistic price.

In the early 1990’s Richard was instrumental in the design of the now popular Wheeled Yard Squeegee.

Although there have been some design changes and improvements in manufacturing techniques, the core range of Straight and Curved Yard Squeegee Scrapers, Saddle Back Broom Clamps, Platform Broom Handle Holders, Stays and Boot Wipers still remain the  focus of the business to this day.

Niche market – notched resin squeegees

Serrated (Notched) Squeegees were added to the range after requests from those spreading resin when road surfacing and top dressing. Richard worked closely with a number of firms to adapt one of our existing products to fit the requirements of the road surfacing industry which has proved most successful, with local, national and international companies. This meant we have had to increase the size range and different  blade materials to accommodate the additional needs of the industry. 

Dub’l-lif products are distributed all around the world and used in many industries on a daily basis.

New uses are found regularly and due to the nature of how the products are manufactured, items can be adapted.

Now bringing colour to the range

More recently a coloured range has been introduced.  The coloured range has been developed to help

• individuals identify their own tools
• limit cross contamination as certain people can be allocated to use designated colours of equipment
• specific colours of equipment can be allocated to work environments in pre-defined areas.

Mark and Tony, relatives of Richards say …

“We continue to run the business along very similar lines to Richard. We maintain a small team, many of whom we are proud to say, have worked with us for a number of years.  We are in charge of our own production schedules.  We hold stock to allow us to prepare and cater for peeks or troughs in demand.  Our traditional handmade process ensures quality levels are maintained at all stages of production.  Over 60 years later, we still ensure all our products are a minimum of ‘Double-the-life’.

If you have a need or an idea? Please do give us a call and we can discuss.

We look forward to hearing from you.”

Mark Petrich and Tony Bonfield