Allow me to explain something most septic companies won’t: there are two kinds of people in this world. Those who assume septic systems are just “underground boxes for waste,” and those that have had raw sewage erupting into their yard at midnight. I understood this reality the tough way in 2005—knee-deep in muck, freezing in a Washington rainstorm, as my brothers and I helped a veteran installer fix our family’s failed system. I was 14. My hands were raw. My pants were destroyed. But that moment, something clicked: This ain’t just manual labor. It’s people’s lives that we’re safeguarding.

The majority of companies begin by servicing tanks. We began by constructing them—from scratch. Back in the beginning of the 2000s, web page when most kids were playing Xbox, Art Nikolin (our lead guy) and his brothers were excavating trenches under the watchful eye of a septic veteran their dad hired. Hour by hour, that installer recognized something in us. Maybe it was our fierce refusal to give up when a PVC pipe failed at 9 PM. Or how we’d argue about soil absorption rates like kids discuss pizza toppings. By 2008, we were not just laborers—we were licensed installers. But this is the kicker: we learned this business from the ground up.

Understand, 90% of septic companies launch with pumping. They understand how to pump a tank but can’t tell you why the absorption area went bad three years after setup. We got our hands dirty from the ground up. Actually. I remember this one brutal summer—2006, I think—when we installed 17 systems across Snohomish County. One customer’s yard had soil like bedrock. The “expert” crew before us gave up. But our guide taught us a method: hydrate the ground overnight, dig at sunrise. We finished by noon. That system? Still running without issue 18 years later.

Skip ahead to 2023. We get a phone call from a panicked homeowner in Woodinville. Their recently installed septic system—put in by a “cheap” crew—went belly-up during Thanksgiving dinner. Raw sewage oozed into their garden. The company ghosted them. We got there at 10 PM. Art took one peek at the tank location and sighed. “They put it above the house? Gravity ain’t gonna work that way, friends.” By dawn, we’d redesigned the whole layout. Spared them $20K in landscaping repairs too.

This is what puts Septic Solutions LLC different: we create systems like we’re gonna live with them. Because in a way, we did. That original tank we put in as kids? Our family relied on it for a decade. Every pipe we laid, every tank we placed, had personal stakes. When you have eaten dinner 10 feet above a septic field you constructed, you don’t cut corners.

I’ll get honest—septic work isn’t appealing. But you’ll find an skill to it. In 2015, we took on a horror show job near Lake Stevens. Boulder-filled terrain. Tight budget. Three other companies said it couldn’t be done without explosives. We invested a week manually excavating around stones, adjusting the drain field millimeter by millimeter. The client teared up when we completed. Not because it was cheap—but because we had saved her ancient oak tree.

Our edge? We aren’t not just installers. We’ve become historians of soil. We understand which brands of PVC fail in Washington’s winter cycles (avoid the blue-striped stuff). We’ve memorized which counties have clay that’ll choke a drain field in 5 years. Shoot, we even redesigned our tank baffles in 2019 after seeing how grease buildup ruins pumps. Minor tweak. Massive impact. Maintenance guys love us for it.

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

Here’s the brutal truth: most septic failures happen because someone skipped a step. Did not test the soil thoroughly. Used substandard tanks. Misjudged the water table. We have fixed countless of these messes. And each and every time, we file away another insight. Like in 2022, when we began adding dual-access risers to every installation. Why? Because Randy, our lead tech, got tired of watching homeowners wreck their lawns during maintenance. Now maintenance is a 15-minute job.

I will not lie—this work takes a toll on you. Art’s got a photo from our first commercial job in 2009. We seem like babies playing in Tonka trucks. These days, we’ve crow’s feet from studying at soil reports and laugh lines from clients who turned into friends. Like the retired couple in Bothell who insist we stay for lemonade after every service calls. Or the brewery in Everett whose tank we upgraded last fall—they named a beer “Septic Solutions Sour.” (It is… an acquired taste.)

So yeah, we are not the cheapest. Or the fanciest. But when a storm cuts power and your tank’s flooding? You will not care about discounts. You’ll want the guys who’ve been there, done that, and still smell like faint regret. The team that responds at 2 AM because we have all been that homeowner stuck ankle-deep in crisis.

In retrospect, it seems funny. That installer who trained us as kids? He stepped away years ago. But his voice still resonate in our heads each time we disturb ground. “Dig deeper,” he would say. “Future you will thank past you.” As it happens, he wasn’t just talking about septic tanks.