Allow me to explain you something controversial: sewage is fascinating. I mean it. When most kids were binge-wasting summers at the pool in 2008, my brothers and I were up to our waists in clay, studying a grizzled installer named Carl curse at a off-center septic tank. Dad figured it would build character. As it happened, he was right—though I certainly didn’t thank him when I lost the entire soccer season. But that season? It rewired us. While other companies were just servicing tanks, we were learning to build them from the ground up. For real.

This is the septic truth few people admits: anyone can dig a hole. But creating a system that endures 30 years? Now that’s art blended with science, with a hint of stubbornness. I found out that the hard way in 2015 when we got overconfident. Installed a system near Mount Rainier using “industry standard” techniques. Six months later, the client called us—voice shaking—about sewage gurgling up like a disaster film. As it happened, “conventional” doesn’t cut it when the groundwater table serves up curveballs. We pulled it out, ate the $12k loss, and dedicated the next winter getting certified in hydrogeological assessments. Truth carved into our bones: certifications are not paperwork. They are armor.

At Septic Solutions LLC, we bleed this stuff. Not figuratively—though Carl did cut his thumb open that first summer teaching us pipe welding. (“Hold it steady, kid!”) Our team never just have licenses; we have got obsessed. Washington State demands installers to clock 24 hours of ongoing education. Our lead designer, Marco? He does 24 hours each quarter. Why? Because in 2019, we hit a horror job near Woodinville where three “licensed” companies had failed. The soil was like liquid rock, and the homeowner was on edge of suing everyone. Marco pulled out his International Association of Plumbing Officials (IAPMO) manuals—yes, he studies them for fun—and redesigned the complete drainage field using a rare pressure distribution method. Two years later, that client mailed us a Christmas card with a picture of her blooming garden… right over the septic field.

But let’s get honest for a second. Certifications are worthless if your crew views them like decorations. Our secret? All tech at Septic Solutions has themselves messed up. Seriously. Like me in 2015. Or Jake, our repair guru, who misdiagnosed a tank baffle issue in 2021 and had to grovel to a angry grandma in Snohomish. (He now leads our “Baffles 101” workshop.) Failure is our best teacher—which is why we are fanatics about cross-training. Our installation team follows repair crews every winter. Why? Because seeing how systems collapse teaches you how to build them better.

You looking for proof? Talk to the Hendersons. In 2022, they bought a “perfect” cabin near Snoqualmie Pass—only to learn the existing septic system was a time bomb. Three companies quoted them $35k+ for a full replacement. We arrived, looked at the permits, and noticed something strange: the original 1998 installer had not once updated their certification for sand filter systems. Apparently, a straightforward recirculating sand filter retrofit—which our NSF/ANSI 40 certified team does weekly—spared them $18k. They are now newsletter subscribers. Yes, we have a septic newsletter. Please don’t laugh—2,300 people follow it.

This is the kicker: professionalism isn’t what you flaunt. It becomes what you sweat through. I still recall Mom’s face in 2010 when we got our first business license. “You’re gonna squander those college brains on sewage?” she lamented. But this work? It is alive. Soil changes. Codes transform. And when you find yourself buried in a trench at 3 PM on a Friday, rain drenching your collar, you realize certifications were never about pride. They are about keeping somebody’s basement from becoming a biohazard.

We have got displays of certificates—WSDA, OSHA, you mention it. But the one I feel proudest of? The handwritten note from Carl after he retired. “Would never have thought you kids would outlast me.” Same here, old man. Not in a million years.

So yeah. If you need a new septic system, six other companies will gladly take your call. But if you want a group that’s failed, evolved, webpage and obsessed over wastewater flow rates at 2 AM? Look for the ones with mud under our nails and manuals in our trucks. Because in this business, the best certifications never hang on walls. You’ll find them buried in the ground—working.