Allow me to tell you something unpopular: sewage is captivating. I mean it. When typical kids were binge-wasting summers at the pool in 2008, my siblings and I were up to our knees in clay, studying a weathered installer named Carl curse at a off-center septic tank. Dad believed it might build character. As it happened, he was spot-on—though I certainly didn’t thank him when I skipped the entire soccer season. But that summer? It changed us. While other companies were just servicing tanks, we were learning to build them from the earth up. Actually.

Let me share the septic truth nobody admits: any fool can dig a hole. But constructing a system that survives 30 years? Now that’s art mixed with science, with a splash of stubbornness. I found out that the tough way in 2015 when we got cocky. Installed a system near Mount Rainier using “industry standard” techniques. Six months later, the client contacted us—voice shaking—about sewage bubbling up like a disaster film. As it happened, “standard” doesn’t cut it when the groundwater table serves up curveballs. We ripped it out, absorbed the $12k loss, and dedicated the next winter getting qualified in hydrogeological assessments. Truth carved into our bones: certifications ain’t just paperwork. They are armor.

At Septic Solutions LLC, we live this stuff. Not figuratively—though Carl did slice his thumb open that first summer showing us pipe welding. (“Hold it steady, kid!”) Our team doesn’t just have licenses; we’ve got consumed. Washington State mandates installers to clock 24 hours of ongoing education. Our lead designer, Marco? He does 24 hours each quarter. Why? Because in 2019, we faced a horror job near Woodinville where three “certified” companies had failed. The soil was like concrete soup, and the homeowner was on brink of suing everyone. Marco retrieved his International Association of Plumbing Officials (IAPMO) manuals—yes, he studies them for fun—and reconfigured the whole drainage field using a rare 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 honest for a second. Certifications are useless if your crew treats them like wall art. Our advantage? Each tech at Septic Solutions has individually failed. Badly. Like me in 2015. Or Jake, our repair specialist, who got wrong a tank baffle issue in 2021 and had to grovel to a irate grandma in Snohomish. (He now teaches our “Baffles 101” workshop.) Failure is our best teacher—which is why we are zealots about cross-training. Our installation team shadows repair crews every winter. Why? Because seeing how systems collapse teaches you how to construct them better.

You looking for proof? Check with the Hendersons. In 2022, they acquired a “dream” cabin near Snoqualmie Pass—only to discover the existing septic system was a disaster waiting. Three companies quoted them $35k+ for a full replacement. We arrived, looked at the permits, and caught something strange: the original 1998 installer had never updated their certification for sand filter systems. As it happened, web page 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. Do not laugh—2,300 people subscribe to it.

This is the reality: professionalism is not what you flaunt. It becomes what you grind through. I still remember Mom’s face in 2010 when we got our first business license. “You are gonna throw away those college brains on sewage?” she lamented. But this job? It is alive. Soil shifts. Codes evolve. And when you find yourself stuck in a trench at 3 PM on a Friday, rain penetrating your collar, you realize certifications are not about pride. They are about keeping someone’s basement from becoming a biohazard.

We got collections of certificates—WSDA, OSHA, you mention it. But the one I feel proudest of? The scribbled note from Carl after he left. “Would never have thought you punks would beat me.” We didn’t either, old man. Neither did we.

So yeah. If you need a new septic system, six other companies will eagerly take your call. But if you want a crew that has messed up, learned, and geeked out over wastewater flow rates at 2 AM? We are the ones with earth under our nails and textbooks in our trucks. Because in this industry, the best certifications do not hang on walls. They are buried in the ground—functioning.