Allow me to explain something nearly all septic companies refuse to: there are two kinds of people in this reality. Those who assume septic systems are merely “buried containers for waste,” and those that have had raw sewage erupting into their property at the dead of night. I discovered this reality the difficult way in 2005—waist-deep in sludge, shivering in a Washington rainstorm, webpage as my brothers and I assisted a weathered installer fix our family’s collapsed system. I was fourteen. My hands ached. My pants were wrecked. But that night, something crystallized: This ain’t just manual labor. It’s families’ lives we are protecting.

Most companies begin by maintaining tanks. We began by constructing them—from scratch. Back in the beginning of the 2000s, when other kids were glued to Xbox, Art Nikolin (our lead guy) and his siblings were carving out trenches under the careful eye of a septic pro their father hired. Hour by hour, that installer noticed something in us. Possibly it was our stubborn refusal to give up when a PVC pipe failed at 9 PM. Or how we’d argue about soil drainage rates like kids debate pizza toppings. By 2008, we weren’t just helpers—we were licensed installers. But here’s the kicker: we learned this craft in reverse.

Look, 90% of septic companies start with service. They get how to clean a tank but couldn’t tell you why the absorption area failed three years after installation. We got our hands filthy from the ground up. Literally. I remember this one rough summer—2006, I think—when we constructed 17 systems across Snohomish County. One client’s yard had soil like concrete. The “expert” crew before us walked away. But our teacher taught us a method: soak the ground overnight, dig at dawn. We completed by noon. That system? Still running flawlessly 18 years later.

Skip ahead to 2023. We get a phone call from a panicked homeowner in Woodinville. Their recently installed septic system—constructed by a “cheap” crew—failed during Thanksgiving dinner. Raw sewage oozed into their yard. The company abandoned them. We showed up at 10 PM. Art took one peek at the tank placement and sighed. “They put it above the house? Gravity doesn’t work that way, people.” By morning, we’d redesigned the complete layout. Spared them $20K in landscaping damage too.

This is what sets Septic Solutions LLC different: we create systems like we are gonna live with them. Because truthfully, we did. That original tank we built as kids? Our family depended on it for a ten years. Every pipe we laid, every tank we set, had skin in the game. When you have eaten dinner 10 feet above a septic field you installed, you do not cut corners.

Let me get real—septic work isn’t glamorous. But you’ll find an art to it. In 2015, we tackled a disaster job near Lake Stevens. Stone-riddled terrain. Limited budget. Three other companies said it couldn’t be done without dynamite. We invested a week manually excavating around rocks, fine-tuning the drain field precisely. The client got emotional when we completed. Not because it was cheap—but because we saved her hundred-year-old oak tree.

Our edge? We are not just installers. We’re experts of soil. We recognize which brands of PVC break in Washington’s temperature cycles (skip the blue-striped stuff). We have memorized which counties have clay that’ll destroy a drain field in 5 years. Shoot, we even improved our tank baffles in 2019 after seeing how grease buildup cripples pumps. Minor tweak. Huge impact. Maintenance crews thank us for it.

You want stats? Okay. Since 2010, 92% of our systems have survived 10+ years without serious issues. But data won’t stink when things go bad. Ask Mrs. Henderson from Monroe. Her former installer used cheap aggregate that converted her leach line into a cement-like tomb. We spent New Year’s Day 2021 breaking it out. She mailed us cookies for a twelve months.

This is the brutal truth: nearly all septic failures take place because someone missed a step. Did not test the soil correctly. Used substandard tanks. Miscalculated the water table. We have fixed dozens of these disasters. And each and every time, we remember another lesson. Like in 2022, when we began adding dual-access risers to each job. Why? Because Randy, our head tech, got frustrated of watching homeowners wreck their lawns during maintenance. Now maintenance is a quick job.

I won’t lie—this work wears on you. Art’s got a photo from our initial commercial job in 2009. We look like babies playing in Tonka trucks. Today, we’ve laugh lines from squinting at soil reports and laugh lines from clients who turned into friends. Like the elderly couple in Bothell who require we stay for lemonade after every service calls. Or the brewery in Everett whose tank we replaced last fall—they branded a beer “Septic Solutions Sour.” (It’s… an acquired taste.)

So yeah, we’re not the most affordable. Or the flashiest. But when a storm cuts power and your tank’s flooding? You won’t care about coupons. You’ll want the crew that have been there, done that, and still smell like faint regret. The team that responds at 2 AM because we’ve all been that homeowner trapped ankle-deep in crisis.

Thinking back, it’s funny. That installer who mentored us as kids? He quit years ago. But his voice still echo in our heads every single time we open ground. “Push deeper,” he would say. “Future you will thank past you.” Turns out, he hadn’t been just talking about septic tanks.