I need to tell you something nearly all septic companies won’t: there are two types of people in this world. Those who believe septic systems are simply “subterranean tanks for waste,” and those who’ve had raw sewage erupting into their yard at 2 AM. I understood this reality the hard way in 2005—standing in muck, shivering in a Washington rainstorm, as my family and I assisted a veteran installer restore our family’s broken system. I was fourteen. My hands blistered. My jeans were wrecked. But that moment, something changed: This ain’t just manual labor. It’s families’ lives that we’re preserving.

Nearly all companies begin by maintaining tanks. We began by building them—actually. Back in the early 2000s, when most kids were playing Xbox, Art Nikolin (our ops manager) and his brothers were digging trenches under the watchful eye of a septic pro their dad hired. Hour by hour, that installer recognized something in us. Maybe it was our relentless refusal to give up when a PVC pipe burst at 9 PM. Or how we’d sit and argue about soil drainage rates like kids discuss pizza toppings. By 2008, we were not just helpers—we were certified installers. But here is the twist: we learned this business from the ground up.

See, 90% of septic companies begin with pumping. They understand how to clean a tank but can’t tell you why the leach field collapsed three years after construction. We got our hands muddy from the ground up. Literally. I think back to this one rough summer—2006, I believe—when we put in 17 systems across Snohomish County. One customer’s yard had soil like concrete. The “expert” crew before us gave up. But our teacher taught us a trick: hydrate the ground overnight, dig at dawn. We finished by noon. That system? Still working perfectly 18 years later.

Skip ahead to 2023. We get a call from a desperate homeowner in Woodinville. Their brand-new septic system—installed by a “budget” crew—went belly-up during Thanksgiving dinner. Raw sewage leaked into their landscaping. The company disappeared on them. We showed up at 10 PM. Art took one peek at the tank positioning and shook his head. “They put it above the house? Gravity doesn’t work that way, people.” By dawn, we had redesigned the entire layout. Protected them $20K in landscaping restoration too.

This is what makes Septic Solutions LLC different: we construct systems like we’re gonna maintain them. Because actually, we did. That first tank we installed as kids? Our family depended on it for a decade. Every pipe we installed, every tank we positioned, had our reputation on the line. When you have eaten dinner 10 feet above a septic field you built, you never cut corners.

Let me get straight with you—septic work ain’t appealing. But you’ll find an art to it. In 2015, we tackled a disaster job near Lake Stevens. Stone-riddled terrain. Shoestring budget. Three other companies claimed it was impossible to be done without explosives. We put in a week manually excavating around boulders, repositioning the drain field precisely. The client cried when we completed. Not because it was affordable—but because we had saved her ancient oak tree.

Our edge? We are not just installers. We are storytellers of soil. We understand which brands of PVC crack in Washington’s freeze-thaw cycles (skip the blue-striped stuff). We’ve memorized which counties have clay that’ll destroy a drain field in 5 years. Hell, we even improved our tank baffles in 2019 after noticing how grease buildup cripples pumps. Tiny tweak. Major impact. Maintenance guys appreciate us for it.

You need stats? Fine. Since 2010, 92% of our systems have survived 10+ years without significant issues. But data won’t stink when things go wrong. Ask Mrs. Henderson from Monroe. Her last installer used substandard aggregate that turned her leach line into a cement-like tomb. We spent New Year’s Day 2021 jackhammering it out. She delivered us cookies for webpage a twelve months.

Here’s the harsh truth: the majority of septic failures occur because someone missed a step. Failed to test the soil thoroughly. Used inferior tanks. Miscalculated the water table. We’ve fixed countless of these messes. And each and every time, we remember another insight. Like in 2022, when we decided on adding double risers to every job. Why? Because Randy, our head tech, got tired of watching homeowners ruin their lawns during checks. Now maintenance is a brief job.

I can’t lie—this work wears on you. Art’s got a snapshot from our initial commercial job in 2009. We look like youngsters playing in Tonka trucks. These days, we have crow’s feet 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 each service calls. Or the brewery in Everett whose tank we improved last fall—they named a beer “Septic Solutions Sour.” (That’s… an acquired taste.)

So absolutely, we aren’t not the cheapest. Or the fanciest. But when a storm cuts power and your tank’s overflowing? You will not care about discounts. You will want the crew who’ve been there, done that, and still smell like slight regret. The team that picks up at 2 AM because we have all been that homeowner standing ankle-deep in catastrophe.

Looking back, it seems funny. That installer who mentored us as kids? He quit years ago. But his voice still ring in our heads each time we break ground. “Dig deeper,” he’d say. “Future you will thank past you.” Apparently, he wasn’t just talking about septic tanks.