Let me explain you something unpopular: sewage is fascinating. Seriously. When other kids were frittering away summers at the pool in 2008, my brothers and I were up to our shins in clay, studying a weathered installer named Carl curse at a off-center septic tank. Dad believed it’d build character. Turns out, he was correct—though I certainly didn’t thank him when I missed the whole soccer season. But that summer? It changed us. While other companies were just servicing tanks, we were figuring out to build them from the ground up. For real.

This is the septic truth nobody admits: any fool can dig a hole. But creating a system that lasts 30 years? That’s art mixed with science, with a splash of determination. I discovered that the difficult way in 2015 when we got overconfident. Installed a system near Mount Rainier using “textbook” techniques. Six months later, the client called us—voice shaking—about sewage gurgling up like a horror movie. Apparently, “conventional” doesn’t cut it when the groundwater table delivers curveballs. We tore it out, absorbed the $12k loss, homepage and invested the next winter getting qualified in hydrogeological assessments. Lesson carved into our bones: certifications ain’t just paperwork. They become armor.

At Septic Solutions LLC, we breathe this stuff. Not metaphorically—though Carl did slice his thumb open that first summer showing us pipe welding. (“Hold it steady, kid!”) Our team does not just have licenses; we are got consumed. Washington State demands installers to clock 24 hours of further education. Our lead designer, Marco? He does 24 hours every quarter. Why? Because in 2019, we faced a horror job near Woodinville where three “qualified” companies had given up. The soil was like concrete soup, and the homeowner was on edge of suing the world. Marco retrieved his International Association of Plumbing Officials (IAPMO) manuals—yes, he devours them for fun—and reconfigured the whole drainage field using a uncommon pressure distribution method. Two years later, that client mailed us a Christmas card with a snapshot of her thriving garden… right over the septic field.

But I’ll get raw for a second. Certifications are meaningless if your crew views them like trophies. Our edge? Every tech at Septic Solutions has themselves failed. Badly. Like me in 2015. Or Jake, our repair guru, who got wrong a tank baffle issue in 2021 and had to grovel to a angry grandma in Snohomish. (He now teaches our “Baffles 101” workshop.) Failure is our best instructor—which is why we’re fanatics about cross-training. Our installation team shadows repair crews all winter. Why? Because witnessing how systems break teaches you how to build them better.

You want proof? Talk to the Hendersons. In 2022, they bought a “ideal” cabin near Snoqualmie Pass—only to discover the existing septic system was a ticking bomb. Three companies quoted them $35k+ for a full replacement. We arrived, looked at the permits, and caught something weird: 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’ve become now newsletter subscribers. Yes, we have a septic newsletter. Please don’t laugh—2,300 people read it.

Here’s the kicker: professionalism is not what you flaunt. It becomes what you grind through. I still think of Mom’s face in 2010 when we got our first business license. “You’re gonna waste those college brains on sewage?” she sighed. But this profession? It is alive. Soil shifts. Codes transform. And when you are knee-deep in a trench at 3 PM on a Friday, rain penetrating your collar, you realize certifications aren’t about pride. They exist about keeping someone’s basement from becoming a biohazard.

We got walls of certificates—WSDA, OSHA, you name it. But the one I feel proudest of? The personal note from Carl after he retired. “Never thought you kids would survive longer than me.” We didn’t either, old man. Not in a million years.

So yes. If you require a new septic system, six other companies will eagerly take your call. But if you want a group that has messed up, adapted, and geeked out over wastewater flow rates at 2 AM? We’re the ones with dirt under our nails and manuals in our trucks. Because in this industry, the best certifications never hang on walls. They’re buried in the ground—working.