I need to explain something nearly all septic companies will not: there are two categories of people in this reality. Those who assume septic systems are just “subterranean tanks for waste,” and those who have had raw sewage bubbling into their yard at 2 AM. I learned this reality the difficult way in 2005—knee-deep in sludge, freezing in a Washington rainstorm, as my family and I assisted a weathered installer repair our family’s broken system. I was a teenager. My hands ached. My pants were wrecked. But that night, something crystallized: This isn’t just digging. It’s folks’ lives that we’re safeguarding.

Nearly all companies kick off by servicing tanks. We launched by creating them—from scratch. Back in the early 2000s, when most kids were playing Xbox, Art Nikolin (our operations head) and his siblings were excavating trenches under the careful eye of a septic pro their father hired. Project by project, that installer noticed something in us. Perhaps it was our fierce refusal to quit when a PVC pipe failed at 9 PM. Or how we’d argue about soil percolation rates like kids discuss pizza toppings. By 2008, we weren’t just laborers—we were licensed installers. But this is the twist: we learned this craft backward.

Look, 90% of septic operations begin with maintenance. They get how to service a tank but couldn’t tell you why the drain field collapsed three years after installation. We got our hands filthy from the foundation. No joke. I recall this one brutal summer—2006, I believe—when we put in 17 systems across Snohomish County. One customer’s yard had soil like bedrock. The “expert” crew before us walked away. But our teacher taught us a trick: hydrate the ground overnight, dig at first light. We completed by noon. That system? Still working flawlessly 18 years later.

Jump to 2023. We get a call from a terrified homeowner in Woodinville. Their brand-new septic system—constructed by a “discount” crew—failed during Thanksgiving dinner. Raw sewage oozed into their garden. The company ghosted them. We showed up at 10 PM. Art took one look at the tank positioning and shook his head. “They put it uphill the house? Gravity does not work that way, friends.” By morning, we redesigned the complete layout. Saved them $20K in landscaping repairs too.

This is what makes Septic Solutions LLC different: we build systems like we’re gonna live with them. Because actually, we did. That first tank we put in as kids? Our family depended on it for a long time. Every pipe we placed, every tank we placed, had personal stakes. When you have eaten dinner 10 feet above a septic field you built, you never cut corners.

Let me get real—septic work ain’t pretty. But there is an craft to it. In 2015, we tackled a nightmare job near Lake Stevens. Rocky terrain. Tight budget. Three other companies insisted it could not be done without blasting. We invested a week hand-digging around rocks, adjusting the drain field millimeter by millimeter. 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’re not just installers. We are experts of soil. We understand which brands of PVC fail in Washington’s winter cycles (stay away from the blue-striped stuff). We memorized which counties have clay that’ll choke a drain field in 5 years. Hell, we even improved our tank baffles in 2019 after noticing how grease buildup ruins pumps. Minor tweak. Massive impact. Maintenance guys appreciate us for it.

You want stats? Okay. Since 2010, 92% of our systems have survived 10+ years without major issues. But statistics won’t stink when things go bad. Ask Mrs. Henderson from Monroe. Her former installer used substandard aggregate that turned her leach line into a solid tomb. We dedicated New Year’s Day 2021 jackhammering it out. She sent us cookies for a year.

Let me share the brutal truth: most septic failures occur because someone ignored a step. Didn’t test the soil thoroughly. Used inferior tanks. Got wrong the water table. We’ve personally fixed countless of these failures. And each and every time, we record another lesson. Like in 2022, when we began adding twin risers to all install. Why? Because Randy, our senior tech, got frustrated of watching homeowners wreck their lawns during inspections. Now maintenance is a quick job.

I will not lie—this work wears on you. Art’s got a snapshot from our earliest commercial job in 2009. We seem like kids playing in Tonka trucks. Today, we’ve developed crow’s feet from squinting at soil reports and laugh lines from clients who turned into friends. Like the retired couple in Bothell who require we stay for website lemonade after each service calls. Or the brewery in Everett whose tank we improved last fall—they called a beer “Septic Solutions Sour.” (It is… an unique taste.)

So yes, we are not the cheapest. Or the fanciest. But when a storm kills power and your tank’s flooding? You won’t care about discounts. You’re going to want the team that have been there, done that, and still smell like faint regret. The team that responds at 2 AM because we have all been that homeowner trapped ankle-deep in catastrophe.

Thinking back, it’s funny. That installer who taught us as kids? He quit years ago. But his voice still resonate in our heads each time we disturb ground. “Dig deeper,” he used to say. “Future you will thank past you.” As it happens, he hadn’t been just talking about septic tanks.