Let me tell you something the majority of septic companies will not: there are two categories of people in this life. Those who believe septic systems are just “underground boxes for waste,” and those that have had raw sewage gurgling into their yard at the dead of night. I understood this distinction the hard way in 2005—standing in mud, trembling in a Washington deluge, as my family and I aided a veteran installer fix our family’s broken system. I was fourteen. My hands ached. My pants were ruined. But that night, something crystallized: This ain’t just digging. It’s folks’ lives that we’re preserving.

Nearly all companies start by maintaining tanks. We began by building them—from scratch. Back in the early 2000s, homepage when regular kids were playing Xbox, Art Nikolin (our ops manager) and his siblings were carving out trenches under the experienced eye of a septic expert their old man hired. Day after day, that installer recognized something in us. Maybe it was our relentless refusal to walk away when a PVC pipe failed at 9 PM. Or how we’d sit and argue about soil absorption rates like kids debate pizza toppings. By 2008, we were no longer just assistants—we were licensed installers. But here’s the secret: we learned this business backward.

See, 90% of septic businesses start with service. They understand how to service a tank but could not tell you why the drain field failed three years after construction. We got our hands dirty from the foundation. Actually. I think back to this one brutal summer—2006, I believe—when we installed 17 systems across Snohomish County. One client’s yard had soil like bedrock. The “pro” crew before us gave up. But our teacher taught us a technique: saturate the ground overnight, dig at sunrise. We finished by noon. That system? Still working perfectly 18 years later.

Fast forward to 2023. We get a frantic call from a terrified homeowner in Woodinville. Their recently installed septic system—put in by a “discount” crew—failed during Thanksgiving dinner. Raw sewage seeped into their yard. The company ghosted them. We showed up at 10 PM. Art took one glance at the tank placement and sighed. “They put it higher than the house? Gravity does not work that way, folks.” By morning, we redesigned the entire layout. Spared them $20K in landscaping restoration too.

This is what sets Septic Solutions LLC unique: we build systems like we’re gonna maintain them. Because in a way, we did. That original tank we built as kids? Our family used it for a long time. Every pipe we installed, every tank we positioned, had skin in the game. When you’ve actually eaten dinner 10 feet above a septic field you installed, you do not cut corners.

Let’s get straight with you—septic work ain’t appealing. But there’s an craft to it. In 2015, we accepted a disaster job near Lake Stevens. Boulder-filled terrain. Tight budget. Three other companies claimed it could not be done without explosives. We invested a week carefully digging around stones, fine-tuning the drain field millimeter by millimeter. The client cried when we completed. Not because it was budget-friendly—but because we had saved her century-old oak tree.

Our advantage? We are not just installers. We’re historians of soil. We recognize which brands of PVC fail in Washington’s freeze-thaw cycles (skip the blue-striped material). We memorized which counties have clay that will choke a drain field in 5 years. Hell, we even improved our tank baffles in 2019 after observing how grease buildup ruins pumps. Tiny tweak. Major impact. Maintenance guys appreciate us for it.

You need stats? Okay. Since 2010, 92% of our systems have gone 10+ years without serious issues. But numbers won’t stink when things go south. Ask Mrs. Henderson from Monroe. Her last installer used substandard aggregate that converted her leach line into a solid tomb. We spent New Year’s Day 2021 breaking it out. She sent us cookies for a year.

This is the harsh truth: nearly all septic failures occur because someone skipped a step. Did not test the soil correctly. Used substandard tanks. Misjudged the water table. We’ve personally fixed hundreds of these failures. And each and every time, we file away another lesson. Like in 2022, when we started adding double risers to all install. Why? Because Randy, our head tech, got frustrated of watching homeowners ruin their lawns during inspections. Now maintenance is a brief job.

I can’t lie—this work wears on you. Art’s got a photo from our first commercial job in 2009. We appear like kids playing in Tonka trucks. Now, we’ve wrinkles from studying at soil reports and laugh lines from clients who became friends. Like the elderly couple in Bothell who require we stay for lemonade after each service calls. Or the brewery in Everett whose tank we improved last fall—they branded a beer “Septic Solutions Sour.” (It’s… an unique taste.)

So absolutely, we aren’t not the most affordable. Or the flashiest. But when a storm cuts power and your tank’s backing up? You won’t care about deals. You’ll want the team who have been there, done that, and still smell like slight regret. The team that picks up at 2 AM because we’ve personally all been that homeowner trapped ankle-deep in crisis.

In retrospect, it’s funny. That installer who taught us as kids? He retired years ago. But his lessons still ring in our heads every single time we break ground. “Go deeper,” he would say. “Future you will thank past you.” Turns out, he hadn’t been just talking about septic tanks.