I need to explain something the majority of septic companies will not: there are two categories of people in this life. Those who think septic systems are merely “underground boxes for waste,” and those who’ve had raw sewage erupting into their yard at midnight. I discovered this difference the difficult way in 2005—standing in muck, trembling in a Washington deluge, as my brothers and I assisted a veteran installer restore our family’s broken system. I was 14. My hands were raw. My jeans were destroyed. But that evening, website something crystallized: This isn’t just manual labor. It’s people’s lives that we’re preserving.

Most companies kick off by servicing tanks. We launched by building them—actually. Back in the early 2000s, when most kids were playing Xbox, Art Nikolin (our operations head) and his family were digging trenches under the experienced eye of a septic veteran their old man hired. Project by project, that installer noticed something in us. Maybe it was our fierce refusal to give up when a PVC pipe exploded at 9 PM. Or how we would argue about soil absorption rates like kids discuss pizza toppings. By 2008, we were not just laborers—we were licensed installers. But this is the twist: we learned this business backward.

See, 90% of septic companies begin with maintenance. They get how to service a tank but could not tell you why the leach field collapsed three years after construction. We got our hands dirty from the bottom up. No joke. I recall this one hellish summer—2006, I think—when we installed 17 systems across Snohomish County. One customer’s yard had soil like granite. The “expert” crew before us quit. But our mentor taught us a trick: soak the ground overnight, dig at sunrise. We finished by noon. That system? Still running without issue 18 years later.

Fast forward to 2023. We get a phone call from a terrified homeowner in Woodinville. Their recently installed septic system—installed by a “cheap” crew—failed during Thanksgiving dinner. Raw sewage seeped into their yard. The company ghosted them. We arrived at 10 PM. Art took one glance at the tank placement and shook his head. “They put it higher than the house? Gravity doesn’t work that way, people.” By morning, we redesigned the whole layout. Saved them $20K in landscaping repairs too.

This is what puts Septic Solutions LLC apart: we construct systems like we are gonna maintain them. Because truthfully, we did. That first tank we built as teens? Our family used it for a decade. Every pipe we installed, every tank we placed, had our reputation on the line. When you have eaten dinner 10 feet above a septic field you built, you do not cut corners.

I’ll get honest—septic work is not appealing. But there’s an art to it. In 2015, we tackled a horror show job near Lake Stevens. Stone-riddled terrain. Tight budget. Three other companies said it couldn’t be done without explosives. We spent a week carefully digging around rocks, adjusting the drain field millimeter by millimeter. The client cried when we finished. Not because it was affordable—but because we saved her ancient oak tree.

Our advantage? We are not just installers. We’re storytellers of soil. We understand which brands of PVC fail in Washington’s temperature cycles (avoid the blue-striped stuff). We’ve memorized which counties have clay that’ll destroy a drain field in 5 years. Shoot, we even redesigned our tank baffles in 2019 after observing how grease buildup ruins pumps. Tiny tweak. Massive impact. Maintenance teams appreciate us for it.

You need stats? Fine. Since 2010, 92% of our systems have survived 10+ years without significant issues. But data do not stink when things go south. Ask Mrs. Henderson from Monroe. Her former installer used cheap aggregate that transformed her leach line into a cement-like tomb. We used New Year’s Day 2021 breaking it out. She sent us cookies for a whole year.

Let me share the harsh truth: most septic failures happen because someone ignored a step. Did not test the soil properly. Used cheap tanks. Misjudged the water table. We have fixed hundreds of these messes. And every time, we remember another lesson. Like in 2022, when we began adding twin risers to each job. Why? Because Randy, our senior tech, got tired of watching homeowners ruin their lawns during inspections. Now maintenance is a quick job.

I will not lie—this work wears on you. Art’s got a picture from our initial commercial job in 2009. We look like kids playing in Tonka trucks. These days, 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 all service calls. Or the brewery in Everett whose tank we replaced last fall—they named a beer “Septic Solutions Sour.” (It’s… an unique taste.)

So yeah, we aren’t not the most affordable. Or the fanciest. But when a storm kills power and your tank’s overflowing? You aren’t going to care about deals. You’re going to want the team that have been there, done that, and still smell like slight regret. The team that picks up at 2 AM because we’ve all been that homeowner standing ankle-deep in disaster.

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