In July 2026, Onsite Installer, the North American trade magazine for septic installers and designers, put GroundStone on its cover. The feature, titled “Exclusively Septics” and written by Peter Kenter, follows owner Luis Goncalves and the crew on a residential installation and tells how a small West Kelowna company came to serve septic customers from the Fraser Valley to Fort St. John.
What Onsite Installer Is
Onsite Installer is read by septic contractors, designers and pumpers across the industry, and each issue profiles one installer whose work stands out. A cover story is recognition from the trade itself, not paid advertising.
What the Feature Says
The article traces Luis’s path into the trade, from answering an ad for an excavator operator in 2007 to opening GroundStone in West Kelowna in 2016. From the start he chose to do septic work and nothing else.
I didn’t want to be a jack of all trades or offer anything that distracted me from septic.
Luis Goncalves, Onsite Installer, July 2026
The story covers:
- Province-wide service. GroundStone will quote anywhere in BC. The farthest job so far was in Fort St. John, a drive of up to 15 hours. Crews travel with a trailer, an excavator and supplies, which keeps prices for northern clients comparable to local ones.
- Letting the site decide. Soils, topography and lot size determine the system, starting with the most economical option that meets provincial standards. GroundStone’s work ranges from conventional tanks and drainfields to drip systems, sand mounds and, on large clay properties, lagoons.
- A tough commercial build. To fit a 30-seat restaurant in Chilliwack onto a tight footprint, the team combined primary treatment, grease separators, aeration, an aerobic treatment unit, a moving-bed biofilm reactor and a sand drainfield.
- Credentials. Luis is a Registered Onsite Wastewater Practitioner, Planner and Installer, with ASTTBC. GroundStone is a member of WCOWMA-BC, the Canadian Association for Rainwater Management-BC and the Alberta Onsite Wastewater Management Association.
- BC-built tanks. Tanks come from BC suppliers including Leko Precast in Vernon, Kon Kast Concrete Products in Kelowna and South Okanagan Concrete Products in Osoyoos.
- Any weather. The crew has installed systems at minus 25°C.
What It Means for You
- You’re hiring a specialist. Septic design and installation is all GroundStone does.
- Your system is designed for your property, not copied from a template.
- Distance isn’t a barrier. If you’re in the north or the interior, we come to you with everything the job needs.
- The people on your site are certified, trained and recognized by their peers.
Read the Full Article
The complete feature is below: read it in the viewer or download the PDF. Ready to talk about your property? Contact GroundStone.
