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 simply “underground boxes for waste,” and those who have had raw sewage erupting into their property at midnight. I understood this reality the tough way in 2005—standing in muck, shivering in a Washington downpour, as my brothers and I helped a grizzled installer fix our family’s collapsed system. I was fourteen. My hands were raw. My clothes were wrecked. But that night, something crystallized: This is not just dirt work. It’s folks’ lives that we’re safeguarding.

Most companies start by maintaining tanks. We began by building them—from scratch. Back in the early 2000s, website when most kids were glued to Xbox, Art Nikolin (our lead guy) and his brothers 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 stubborn refusal to walk away when a PVC pipe failed at 9 PM. Or how we’d sit and argue about soil percolation rates like kids argue about pizza toppings. By 2008, we were not just assistants—we were qualified installers. But this is the kicker: we learned this craft from the ground up.

Understand, 90% of septic businesses begin with service. They understand how to clean a tank but could not tell you why the absorption area went bad three years after installation. We got our hands muddy from the foundation. Literally. I remember this one hellish summer—2006, I think—when we put in 17 systems across Snohomish County. One customer’s yard had soil like bedrock. The “pro” crew before us quit. But our mentor taught us a trick: saturate the ground overnight, dig at first light. We wrapped up by noon. That system? Still operating perfectly 18 years later.

Fast forward to 2023. We get a frantic call from a panicked homeowner in Woodinville. Their fresh septic system—installed by a “discount” crew—went belly-up during Thanksgiving dinner. Raw sewage leaked into their garden. The company disappeared on them. We got there at 10 PM. Art took one glance at the tank location and shook his head. “They put it above the house? Gravity does not work that way, friends.” 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 depend on them. Because truthfully, we did. That first tank we built as kids? Our family used it for a decade. Every pipe we installed, every tank we positioned, had personal stakes. When you’ve eaten dinner 10 feet above a septic field you installed, you do not cut corners.

Let’s get real—septic work isn’t glamorous. But there is an art to it. In 2015, we tackled a horror show job near Lake Stevens. Boulder-filled terrain. Shoestring budget. Three other companies said it could not be done without blasting. We invested a week manually excavating around boulders, adjusting the drain field inch by inch. The client got emotional when we finished. Not because it was budget-friendly—but because we had saved her century-old oak tree.

Our advantage? We’re not just installers. We are historians of soil. We know which brands of PVC crack in Washington’s temperature cycles (stay away from the blue-striped brand). We memorized which counties have clay that’s gonna destroy a drain field in 5 years. Hell, we even reworked our tank baffles in 2019 after seeing how grease buildup cripples pumps. Tiny tweak. Massive impact. Maintenance crews love us for it.

You looking for stats? Okay. Since 2010, 92% of our systems have gone 10+ years without significant issues. But data do not stink when things go wrong. Ask Mrs. Henderson from Monroe. Her former installer used substandard aggregate that converted her leach line into a concrete tomb. We used New Year’s Day 2021 breaking it out. She delivered us cookies for a whole year.

Let me share the brutal truth: nearly all septic failures take place because someone skipped a step. Didn’t test the soil correctly. Used cheap tanks. Got wrong the water table. We have fixed countless of these disasters. And each and every time, we file away another learning. Like in 2022, when we began adding double risers to each installation. Why? Because Randy, our lead tech, got frustrated of watching homeowners destroy their lawns during maintenance. Now maintenance is a quick job.

I will not lie—this work ages you. Art’s got a photo from our initial commercial job in 2009. We appear like youngsters playing in Tonka trucks. Today, we’ve wrinkles from studying at soil reports and laugh lines from clients who are now friends. Like the retired couple in Bothell who insist we stay for lemonade after every service calls. Or the brewery in Everett whose tank we replaced last fall—they branded a beer “Septic Solutions Sour.” (It’s… an unique taste.)

So yes, we’re not the cheapest. Or the flashiest. But when a storm knocks out power and your tank’s overflowing? You will not care about discounts. You’ll want the crew who have been there, done that, and still smell like faint regret. The team that responds at 2 AM because we’ve personally all been that homeowner standing ankle-deep in catastrophe.

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