I need to share with you something nearly all septic companies won’t: there are two types of people in this reality. Those who believe septic systems are merely “underground boxes for waste,” and those that have had raw sewage gurgling into their property at 2 AM. I learned this distinction the difficult way in 2005—knee-deep in muck, shivering in a Washington rainstorm, as my siblings and I aided a grizzled installer fix our family’s failed system. I was 14. My hands ached. My jeans were ruined. But that evening, something crystallized: This isn’t just manual labor. It’s people’s lives we’re protecting.

Most companies kick off by maintaining tanks. We began by constructing them—actually. Back in the early 2000s, when other kids were gaming on Xbox, Art Nikolin (our operations head) and his family were digging trenches under the experienced eye of a septic veteran their father hired. Hour by hour, that installer recognized something in us. Possibly it was our fierce refusal to walk away when a PVC pipe exploded at 9 PM. Or how we would argue about soil drainage rates like kids argue about pizza toppings. By 2008, we were not just assistants—we were qualified installers. But here is the twist: we learned this business backward.

Look, 90% of septic operations begin with service. They know how to clean a tank but can’t tell you why the drain field failed three years after construction. We got our hands muddy from the ground up. No joke. I think back to this one rough summer—2006, I recall—when we put in 17 systems across Snohomish County. One homeowner’s yard had soil like granite. The “pro” crew before us walked away. But our mentor taught us a technique: saturate the ground overnight, dig at sunrise. We finished by noon. That system? Still operating without issue 18 years later.

Fast forward to 2023. We get a phone call from a panicked homeowner in Woodinville. Their fresh septic system—put in by a “budget” crew—failed during Thanksgiving dinner. Raw sewage seeped into their garden. The company ghosted them. We got there at 10 PM. Art took one look at the tank placement and sighed. “They put it uphill the house? Gravity ain’t gonna work that way, people.” By sunrise, we had redesigned the complete layout. Protected them $20K in landscaping restoration too.

This is what sets Septic Solutions LLC unique: we create systems like we are gonna live with them. Because in a way, we did. That first tank we installed as kids? Our family used it for a ten years. Every pipe we placed, every tank we set, had skin in the game. When you’ve eaten dinner 10 feet above a septic field you installed, you do not cut corners.

Let me get straight with you—septic work ain’t glamorous. But you’ll find an skill to it. In 2015, we took on a disaster job near Lake Stevens. Boulder-filled terrain. Tight budget. Three other companies said it couldn’t be done without dynamite. We invested a week hand-digging around stones, fine-tuning the drain field millimeter by millimeter. The client teared up when we wrapped up. Not because it was affordable—but because we saved her ancient oak tree.

Our advantage? We’re not just installers. We’ve become experts of soil. We recognize which brands of PVC crack in Washington’s temperature cycles (avoid the blue-striped stuff). We’ve memorized which counties have clay that’s gonna choke a drain field in 5 years. Hell, we even reworked our tank baffles in 2019 after seeing how grease buildup destroys pumps. Tiny tweak. Huge impact. Maintenance crews appreciate us for it.

You need stats? Fine. Since 2010, 92% of our systems have gone 10+ years without serious issues. But numbers won’t stink when things go bad. Ask Mrs. Henderson from Monroe. Her previous installer used cheap aggregate that transformed her leach line into a solid tomb. We used New Year’s Day 2021 breaking it out. She delivered us cookies for a twelve months.

Let me share the ugly truth: nearly all septic failures happen because someone missed a step. Did not test the soil correctly. Used inferior tanks. Got wrong the water table. We have fixed dozens of these failures. And every time, web site we record another lesson. Like in 2022, when we decided on adding double risers to all install. Why? Because Randy, our lead tech, got frustrated of watching homeowners wreck their lawns during maintenance. Now maintenance is a 15-minute job.

I won’t lie—this work takes a toll on you. Art’s got a snapshot from our initial commercial job in 2009. We look like kids playing in Tonka trucks. These days, we have laugh lines from squinting at soil reports and laugh lines from clients who became friends. Like the senior couple in Bothell who require we stay for lemonade after all service calls. Or the brewery in Everett whose tank we improved last fall—they branded a beer “Septic Solutions Sour.” (It’s… an interesting taste.)

So yeah, we aren’t not the cheapest. Or the fanciest. But when a storm knocks out power and your tank’s overflowing? You will not care about deals. You’re going to want the team who’ve been there, done that, and still smell like slight regret. The team that answers at 2 AM because we’ve all been that homeowner standing ankle-deep in crisis.

Thinking back, it seems funny. That installer who mentored us as kids? He retired years ago. But his words still resonate in our heads every time we open ground. “Go deeper,” he would say. “Future you will thank past you.” Apparently, he was not just talking about septic tanks.