I need to share with you something the majority of septic companies won’t: there are two kinds of people in this world. Those who assume septic systems are merely “subterranean tanks for waste,” and those who’ve had raw sewage erupting into their yard at midnight. I understood this difference the difficult way in 2005—knee-deep in mud, website freezing in a Washington downpour, as my siblings and I aided a weathered installer restore our family’s failed system. I was a teenager. My hands were raw. My clothes were destroyed. But that night, something clicked: This isn’t just dirt work. It’s families’ lives we are protecting.

The majority of companies begin by maintaining tanks. We began by constructing them—literally. Back in the beginning of the 2000s, when other kids were playing Xbox, Art Nikolin (our ops manager) and his brothers were excavating trenches under the experienced eye of a septic pro their father hired. Hour by hour, that installer recognized something in us. Possibly it was our relentless refusal to quit when a PVC pipe burst at 9 PM. Or how we’d sit and argue about soil percolation rates like kids argue about pizza toppings. By 2008, we weren’t just assistants—we were certified installers. But this is the secret: we learned this trade from the ground up.

Look, 90% of septic operations begin with pumping. They know how to pump a tank but can’t tell you why the absorption area collapsed three years after setup. We got our hands filthy from the ground up. Actually. I recall this one rough summer—2006, I believe—when we installed 17 systems across Snohomish County. One homeowner’s yard had soil like granite. The “expert” crew before us gave up. But our mentor taught us a technique: saturate the ground overnight, dig at sunrise. We finished by noon. That system? Still working without issue 18 years later.

Skip ahead to 2023. We get a phone call from a desperate homeowner in Woodinville. Their brand-new septic system—put in by a “budget” crew—collapsed during Thanksgiving dinner. Raw sewage oozed into their yard. The company disappeared on them. We arrived at 10 PM. Art took one peek at the tank location and sighed. “They put it above the house? Gravity does not work that way, friends.” By morning, we had redesigned the whole layout. Protected them $20K in landscaping restoration too.

This is what sets Septic Solutions LLC different: we create systems like we’re the ones gonna depend on them. Because in a way, we did. That first tank we installed as kids? Our family relied on it for a ten years. Every pipe we installed, every tank we positioned, had our reputation on the line. When you’ve eaten dinner 10 feet above a septic field you constructed, you don’t cut corners.

I’ll get real—septic work ain’t glamorous. But there is an art to it. In 2015, we accepted a disaster job near Lake Stevens. Boulder-filled terrain. Limited budget. Three other companies said it was impossible to be done without explosives. We put in a week hand-digging around rocks, adjusting the drain field precisely. The client teared up when we finished. Not because it was cheap—but because we saved her century-old oak tree.

Our advantage? We’re not just installers. We’ve become historians of soil. We recognize which brands of PVC fail in Washington’s winter cycles (skip the blue-striped material). We’ve memorized which counties have clay that’ll clog a drain field in 5 years. Heck, we even improved our tank baffles in 2019 after seeing how grease buildup ruins pumps. Minor tweak. Huge impact. Maintenance guys thank us for it.

You want stats? Sure. Since 2010, 92% of our systems have lasted 10+ years without major issues. But numbers won’t stink when things go south. Ask Mrs. Henderson from Monroe. Her former installer used inferior aggregate that transformed her leach line into a concrete tomb. We used New Year’s Day 2021 breaking it out. She mailed us cookies for a year.

Let me share the harsh truth: nearly all septic failures happen because someone missed a step. Failed to test the soil thoroughly. Used substandard tanks. Got wrong the water table. We’ve personally fixed dozens of these failures. And each time, we remember another learning. Like in 2022, when we began adding twin risers to every installation. Why? Because Randy, our senior tech, got frustrated of watching homeowners ruin their lawns during checks. Now maintenance is a brief job.

I won’t lie—this work takes a toll on you. Art’s got a snapshot from our earliest commercial job in 2009. We appear like babies playing in Tonka trucks. Today, we’ve wrinkles from squinting at soil reports and laugh lines from clients who became friends. Like the senior couple in Bothell who require we stay for lemonade after all service calls. Or the brewery in Everett whose tank we upgraded last fall—they branded a beer “Septic Solutions Sour.” (That’s… an acquired taste.)

So yes, we aren’t not the lowest priced. Or the showiest. But when a storm cuts power and your tank’s flooding? You won’t care about coupons. You’re going to want the team who have been there, done that, and still smell like lingering regret. The team that responds at 2 AM because we’ve personally all been that homeowner standing ankle-deep in crisis.

Thinking back, it’s funny. That installer who mentored us as kids? He quit years ago. But his voice still resonate in our heads every time we disturb ground. “Push deeper,” he’d say. “Future you will thank past you.” As it happens, he was not just talking about septic tanks.