Let me tell you something nearly all septic companies refuse to: there are two types of people in this reality. Those who think septic systems are just “subterranean tanks for waste,” and those who’ve had raw sewage bubbling into their backyard at 2 AM. I understood this reality the difficult way in 2005—knee-deep in muck, shivering in a Washington downpour, webpage as my family and I assisted a weathered installer repair our family’s collapsed system. I was a teenager. My hands were raw. My clothes were destroyed. But that evening, something crystallized: This is not just manual labor. It’s people’s lives that we’re protecting.

Nearly all companies start by servicing tanks. We started by creating them—from scratch. Back in the early 2000s, when most kids were glued to Xbox, Art Nikolin (our lead guy) and his family were carving out trenches under the careful eye of a septic pro their father hired. Project by project, that installer recognized something in us. Perhaps it was our fierce refusal to quit when a PVC pipe exploded at 9 PM. Or how we would argue about soil drainage rates like kids argue about pizza toppings. By 2008, we weren’t just laborers—we were certified installers. But here’s the secret: we learned this trade from the ground up.

Look, 90% of septic companies launch with service. They know how to clean a tank but can’t tell you why the absorption area collapsed three years after setup. We got our hands filthy from the bottom up. Literally. I recall this one hellish summer—2006, I believe—when we put in 17 systems across Snohomish County. One client’s yard had soil like granite. The “expert” crew before us walked away. But our guide taught us a method: soak the ground overnight, dig at sunrise. We completed by noon. That system? Still operating perfectly 18 years later.

Jump to 2023. We get a frantic call from a panicked homeowner in Woodinville. Their fresh septic system—put in by a “discount” crew—failed during Thanksgiving dinner. Raw sewage oozed into their landscaping. The company ghosted them. We arrived at 10 PM. Art took one glance at the tank positioning and shook his head. “They put it above the house? Gravity does not work that way, folks.” By morning, we had redesigned the complete layout. Protected them $20K in landscaping restoration too.

This is what makes Septic Solutions LLC apart: we create systems like we are gonna maintain them. Because in a way, we did. That initial tank we installed as teens? Our family relied on it for a long time. Every pipe we laid, every tank we placed, had our reputation on the line. When you’ve eaten dinner 10 feet above a septic field you built, you never cut corners.

I’ll get real—septic work isn’t pretty. But there is an craft to it. In 2015, we accepted a nightmare job near Lake Stevens. Boulder-filled terrain. Limited budget. Three other companies claimed it could not be done without dynamite. We put in a week carefully digging around boulders, adjusting the drain field millimeter by millimeter. The client teared up when we finished. Not because it was budget-friendly—but because we had saved her ancient oak tree.

Our edge? We’re not just installers. We’re experts of soil. We recognize which brands of PVC break in Washington’s freeze-thaw cycles (avoid the blue-striped material). We’ve memorized which counties have clay that’ll clog a drain field in 5 years. Hell, we even reworked our tank baffles in 2019 after seeing how grease buildup ruins pumps. Small tweak. Massive impact. Maintenance teams appreciate us for it.

You need stats? Fine. Since 2010, 92% of our systems have gone 10+ years without significant issues. But data don’t stink when things go bad. Ask Mrs. Henderson from Monroe. Her last installer used inferior aggregate that converted her leach line into a solid tomb. We spent New Year’s Day 2021 jackhammering it out. She delivered us cookies for a year.

Let me share the harsh truth: most septic failures happen because someone ignored a step. Didn’t test the soil properly. Used inferior tanks. Misjudged the water table. We’ve personally fixed dozens of these failures. And each time, we record another lesson. Like in 2022, when we began adding twin risers to all install. Why? Because Randy, our senior tech, got tired of watching homeowners ruin their lawns during maintenance. Now maintenance is a brief job.

I will not lie—this work wears on you. Art’s got a picture from our earliest commercial job in 2009. We appear like youngsters playing in Tonka trucks. Today, we’ve developed crow’s feet from studying at soil reports and laugh lines from clients who are now friends. Like the senior couple in Bothell who insist we stay for lemonade after each service calls. Or the brewery in Everett whose tank we upgraded last fall—they branded a beer “Septic Solutions Sour.” (That’s… an interesting taste.)

So absolutely, we are not the cheapest. Or the fanciest. But when a storm knocks out power and your tank’s flooding? You aren’t going to care about discounts. You’re going to want the crew that have been there, done that, and still smell like lingering regret. The team that picks up at 2 AM because we have all been that homeowner trapped ankle-deep in disaster.

Thinking back, it is funny. That installer who taught us as kids? He quit years ago. But his words still resonate in our heads every time we break ground. “Dig deeper,” he would say. “Future you will thank past you.” Turns out, he was not just talking about septic tanks.