Step by Step

A Advanced Septic Services uses sequential installation methods to build systems on challenging sites while reducing impact on the property

Andrew Gunia knows the answer will almost always be: Yes. He knows it even before the phone rings at his company, A Advanced Septic Services Inc., and he hears the start of the question: Does your company ...

Faced with a tough economy, a changing business mix and a commitment to keep his employees on as close to a full-time work schedule as possible, Gunia sees an opportunity in every call. “The first question we ask ourselves is: How will we do it?” says Gunia, who started the company in 2007.

A Advanced Septic, based in Puyallup, Wash., thrives on installing systems on challenging sites, where space is limited or where soils and topography create constraints. To deal with such sites, Gunia uses an approach he calls sequential installation — a method of building the system in a logical way that minimizes impact on the property.

Valuable assets

A Advanced Septic installs, services, maintains and repairs all types of onsite systems. “Twelve months ago, our work load was 80 percent new installation and 20 percent repair,” says Gunia. “Now it is 10 percent new installation and 90 percent repair.”

The company has expanded its service menu to include general excavation, land clearing, and other tasks that Gunia’s equipment and skilled workers can handle with little or no additional training.

Gunia’s daughter-in-law, Michelle, in her role as office manager, determines the skills needed to address each caller’s concerns and evaluates the immediacy of the need. She then routes the call to the appropriate person in the company.

Gunia has been in the onsite industry since 1984. Starting out as a vacuum truck operator, he moved through the ranks of a large and diversified onsite services company. His life-long desire to be an entrepreneur guided his early years in the industry, when he broadened his knowledge and sharpened his skills in all areas.

Change in the climate

Today, the nature of the onsite business in his area has changed. “People are digging in and fixing what they have rather than choosing to move to a new home or replace what they have,” Gunia says. The crews previously assigned to new construction are idle, and Gunia feels an urgency to keep them busy.

“Our work and our workforce are specialized; every employee is a valuable asset,” he says. “The cost of laying an employee off is far greater than the cost of unemployment compensation, and there is no assurance that when work resumes, the laid-off employee will be available to re-employ.”

Add to this the personal relationships and the decisions about layoffs are extremely difficult. It is easy to see why Gunia does all he can to keep people working.

Serving a three-county area, the company works mainly within a 60-mile radius of the office. Gunia invests about $4,000 per year in license costs in one county alone. The county licenses the business itself, the individual vacuum truck operators, the installation business, and system installers. Operations and maintenance technicians and maintenance specialists are also licensed, and each license comes with basic and continuing education requirements.

Gunia willingly invests in licenses for his people. He also believes in paying them well, keeping them properly trained, making sure they have professional-looking outfits to wear, and ensuring that they understand and reflect the company’s values. Retirement, medical benefits and paid vacation all fit into the company’s compensation plan.

People business

Gunia does not believe in excessive emphasis on volume production. In the 1980s, as a crew chief, Gunia directed installation of as many as three complete systems a day. Today, he still gets called back to repair systems he helped install years ago.

As a business owner, he now takes a different approach. “When my crew leaves a job, I never want to be called back,” he says. “All of our efforts are directed to meet the customer’s expectations.”

Helping customers understand their needs and their solution options is Gunia’s starting point for the relationship. “We are, first and foremost, in the people business,” he says. “We show up with clean equipment. Each crew person is well-dressed. Everyone does their job in a professional manner.”

Gunia learned a great deal about new installations while installing replacement systems on properties with limited maneuvering space and site constraints. Narrow access paths, fences, uncooperative neighbors, nearby buildings, and vegetation all present challenges that led Gunia to develop his sequential installation approach.

Sequential installation usually begins at the most distant or most difficult-to-reach system component. The process sees the crew working its way out of the project. Space-conserving techniques also play a role.

“When we install a chamber system, we leave both ends of the chamber runs exposed,” Gunia says. “But as the work advances, we backfill directly onto the already-placed chambers. This avoids the need for large stockpiles of excavated soil.”

Sequential installations also enable sequential inspections. For example, inspectors can look through the entire chamber run to assure complete and proper placement and check grades.

Careful planning

On one project, the company had the entire site work contract, including all earth moving and system installation. Before moving a shovel of soil, Gunia and his crew analyzed the development plan and the architectural details of the house. The house was to have only 5-foot side yard setbacks, so all work in the backyard had to be done before the basement was excavated.

Precise elevation control was needed to ensure that the tank’s inlet allowed gravity connection of the building sewer. Likewise, the tank’s discharge elevation had to enable gravity flow to the absorption area. All these points had to be correlated to the elevation of the building sewer.

Elevation control for tank placement and final grade at the tanks and other buried features was critical. “We knew that if we missed and the tank was too high, it would be a manual job to make any adjustments after the basement was dug out,” Gunia says.

He typically checks architectural plans to make sure that a deck or patio will not be built over the tanks he installs. He considers everything, even the location of sliding glass doors. “People do not want to step out back and onto a septic tank lid,” he says.

A recent repair job required the use of a crane to lift a small tracked excavator over a 6-foot retaining wall. The crane was staged in a parking lot next door. Other challenges on the site included steep slopes, a backyard that ended at the edge of a body of water, and a narrow property.

A time to say no

Even with an “always say yes” attitude, Gunia knows when to say no. He was called about an installation for a brand new house where the only backyard access was through the 8-foot-wide side yards. The permitted design called for two oversized concrete septic tanks.

The drip system was located more than 150 feet farther down a steep slope near the rear property line. More than 140 cubic yards of sandy aggregate had to be delivered. Given those conditions, the builder’s budget was $15,000 to $20,000 short, and Gunia was not willing to accept the risks. He politely declined.

All of Gunia’s work is customer-driven. “We want to minimize site disturbance so the homeowner must deal with the least amount of site restoration,” he says. One of his equipment trailers carries sheets of 5/8-inch plywood. They are deployed to create a pathway for the equipment, reducing damage to lawns. They also protect vegetation under soil stockpiles.

“We find that if they are in place for no more than two to three days, the impact on grass is minimal and the recovery swift,” Gunia says. Homeowners count on Gunia to plan, anticipate site challenges, avoid problems and minimize site disturbance.

Right-sizing

Gunia’s eldest son, Josh, a company co-owner, preplans all aspects of the work and prepares the sequencing schedule. Every equipment move is orchestrated. Suppliers must meet a precise materials delivery sequence. Material stockpile locations are defined and protected. If necessary, equipment may be positioned by a crane. The company’s crews work hard to minimize the area subject to site disturbance.

In line with that, the company is consciously downsizing its equipment fleet. Smaller equipment, especially tracked equipment, has a lighter step and causes less soil compaction. It is also significantly less expensive to fuel and maintain and it is easier to maneuver on constrained jobsites.

When the company does not own the best piece of equipment for a job, it turns to a rental supplier. “We will not force-fit our equipment to a job,” Gunia says. “If rented equipment is the right way to go, we will go there.”

Recent equipment acquisitions include a Terex Model TX 760 extended backhoe, the company’s only wheeled, off-street vehicle. A Kubota U-15 mini-excavator and a 10,000-pound-capacity Kubota KX-121 are key machines. Both are small enough to be pulled by an Inter-national 18-cubic-foot dump truck or one of two new Dodge extended-cab pickups. “These big pickups give us versatility to fill an estimator and customer contact role in the morning and haul a big machine in the afternoon,” says Gunia.

Supporting the septic tank pumping department is a vacuum truck with a 3,600-gallon aluminum tank on a Freightliner chassis. The company also regularly uses a Terralift soil fracturing machine.

Opening new markets

The company’s skills inventory is being reviewed, too. As more advanced technologies become available, Gunia considers the advantages of each based on experience resolving existing problems and overcoming obstacles on new sites.

The Washington Onsite Sewage Association (WOSSA) presents a wide variety of training sessions that also help Gunia determine which technologies are worth adding to the company’s menu. Manufacturers’ training programs are also helpful, he observes.

“We like the ‘plug-and-play’ aspect of many of the new technologies where the unit comes fully assembled in a box,” Gunia says. “Our crew’s job is to properly place the box, plumb and wire it, and build out the rest of the system. The preassembled units save time, cut costs and are popular with our crews. Management opportunities will grow exponentially as more ATUs come into use.”

The company’s operations, management and inspection services division is managed by Gunia’s other son, Jeremiah. “He is our first responder on trouble calls,” Gunia says. The company services FAST systems from Bio-Microbics Inc., AdvanTex units from Orenco Systems Inc., and WhiteWater systems from Delta Environmental.

The firm has about 400 O&M contracts in place, many using drip dispersal. In recent years, about 60 percent of the company’s complete system installations have included aerobic treatment units. “Newly installed systems, like any machine, need service,” Gunia says. “This is a natural and logical market for us.”

System inspections for home sales have gone from raging to trickling, but that does not diminish the quality of the company’s inspection service. “A long time ago, we came to the conclusion that an inspection must be comprehensive in nature, looking at all components,” Gunia says. That means the tank must be pumped as part of the process.

Beyond self-interest

Gunia learned a great deal about delivering quality — and about new opportunities in the onsite business — through his involvement with WOSSA. Association events helped him develop relationships with “friendly competitors” who together work to raise the bar for the industry.

“Together, we have a louder voice and achieve greater successes for the industry,” Gunia says. He believes involvement in his professional community pays dividends to the industry, to the regulating community and to customers. He has strong positive feelings for state and national industry tradeshows, each one “an opportunity to learn and grow.”

There are personal benefits, too. As he gets more involved in WOSSA, doors open for him to influence the industry’s future. He has appeared frequently on a WOSSA-supported live call-in radio program that airs every Sunday at noon. All this adds credibility to his message when he testifies before legislative committees or speaks in regulatory forums.

Gunia favors refocusing the licensure process by moving away from certification test preparation and subsequent examination to an on-the-job training period that brings hands-on work experience, followed by the certification exam.

Measuring success

Gunia believes that as the technology available to the industry becomes more sophisticated, “the big pipe’s threat to onsite systems diminishes.” Always focused on the customer, he notes, “Our job is not done until those that must rely upon the system and its technology understand it. If the customer cannot successfully use his system, we have failed in our mission.”



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