Drain unblocking company with a 24/7 service

How your drainage system works

Once you know how waste water flows through a house, it's easier to work out where a blockage is. Every fixture has its own trap with a water seal that keeps sewer smells out. Beyond the traps, narrow branch pipes lead to a soil stack or straight into the underground drain beneath the ground floor. The underground drain runs to the property boundary, where it joins the municipal sewer via the sewer connection. As a drain unblocking company, we begin every call with the same question: which drains are still working? The answer usually tells us which part of the system to look in.

Branch pipes and traps

The pipes from the washbasin, kitchen sink and shower are narrow, often 32, 40 or 50 millimetres in diameter. Hair, soap residue and grease soon get caught in them, especially at bends and in a trap that rarely gets unscrewed. A blockage in a branch pipe affects only one fixture. That's a nuisance, but rarely an emergency.

Soil stacks in blocks of flats

In a block of flats or an upstairs flat, the drains from several floors come together in a vertical soil stack. At the bottom, where the stack turns into the horizontal underground drain, there's a bend, and that's where everything coming down from above collects. If that bend gets blocked, the residents on the ground floor are the first to notice: their shower or toilet fills up with their neighbours' waste water.

Underground drain and sewer connection

In a modern home, the underground drain is often 110 or 125 millimetres in diameter and slopes gently towards the street. If part of the pipe subsides, or roots grow in through a loose joint, waste water sits in the pipe and debris builds up. Defects like these can't be seen from the outside, but they're easy to find with a camera.

Signs the blockage is deeper in the system

A single slow washbasin is often something you can sort out yourself. It's a different story when several drains are playing up at the same time. Look out for these signs:

• the toilet gurgles when the washing machine pumps out or the shower is running;
• water comes up through the shower drain or floor drain on the lowest floor;
• the inspection chamber in the garden or at the front of the house is full;
• you can smell sewage even though all the traps are full of water;
• a blockage you've cleared comes back within a few weeks.

Water coming up at the lowest point in the house is known as backflow. The waste water has nowhere to go, so it escapes through the first opening that sits lower than the water level in the pipe. A blocked underground drain can cause this, but so can an overloaded sewer in the street during a heavy downpour. In the latter case, a non-return valve in the pipe may be the answer, and we're happy to look into that with you.

Trying it yourself first? Here's what's safe

If only one fixture is blocked, by all means have a go yourself. A plunger works well on a washbasin, kitchen sink or toilet; just cover any overflow with a wet cloth so the pressure doesn't escape. Put a bucket under the trap, unscrew it and rinse it clean. Hot but not boiling water with a squirt of washing-up liquid can loosen a grease blockage that's just starting to form.

We advise against harsh caustic or acid-based drain cleaners. They won't dissolve a blockage of wipes or kitchen roll, they can damage rubber seals and older pipes, and they sit in the pipe if the water isn't draining away. If an engineer has to come out after all, they're left working in a pipe full of corrosive liquid. So always let us know if you've already used one.

Stop and call us if several drains are blocked at once, if water is coming up at the lowest point, or if two attempts with a plunger and a clean trap get you nowhere. Carrying on flushing at that point only makes things worse, and at worst you'll end up with water all over the floor.

The equipment our drain unblocking company uses

A good drain unblocking company matches the technique to the pipe, not the other way round. A narrow 32-millimetre branch pipe needs different tools from a 110-millimetre underground drain that runs twenty metres to the street. With a DIY-store drain snake, usually a few metres long, you'll rarely reach the blockage in a drain like that.

Hand-held drain snake and electric drain machine

For short runs and narrow pipes we use a hand-held drain snake: a flexible coil that we turn as we feed it into the pipe until it hits the blockage, which it then breaks up or pulls out. For longer distances and stubborn blockages we bring in an electric drain machine with interchangeable heads that cut through grease and dirt.

High-pressure jetting

A drain snake punches a hole through the blockage but often leaves deposits on the pipe wall. So for grease, silt or root debris, we clean the pipe with a high-pressure jetter. A nozzle with backward-facing jets pulls itself along the pipe and scours the wall clean along its full length. Find out more on our sewer cleaning page.

Camera inspection

If a blockage keeps coming back or we suspect damage, we send a camera through the pipe. You see on screen what the engineer sees: a sagging section, a crack, roots or a displaced joint. A transmitter in the camera head lets us pinpoint the spot from above ground, so there's no unnecessary digging. There's more about this on our drain camera inspection page.

Sewer unblocking: your property or the municipality's?

When a sewer needs unblocking, the question of who is responsible often comes up. Broadly speaking, the owner looks after the drains inside the building and the pipe on their own property, while the municipality (gemeente) is responsible for the sewer under the public road. Exactly where that boundary lies varies from one municipality to another; it's often the property boundary or an inspection chamber located on it.

If you rent, report a blockage in the underground drain to your landlord. In a block of flats, a shared soil stack is usually a matter for the owners' association (VvE). We clear the immediate blockage and record where it was, so you can take it up with the right people. If you're having the sewer unblocked in a rented home, check with your landlord first, where possible, about who pays the bill.

Rates and out-of-hours emergencies

Our engineers unblock drains from €129, call-out charge not included. Outside office hours, which includes weekends and public holidays, we charge an out-of-hours rate. For work that takes longer, such as cleaning a long underground drain or a full inspection with a written report, you can ask for a quote in advance.

Whatever the time, you'll get a price estimate over the phone first, and the engineer only sets off once you've agreed. Our drain unblocking service answers the phone even at three in the morning. The engineer is usually with you within the hour, depending on how busy we are and how far they have to travel. Until they arrive, use as little water as possible and switch off the washing machine and dishwasher.

24/7 drain unblocking doesn't mean every job has to be done in the middle of the night. If the upstairs toilet still works and only the washbasin is slow, it can often wait until the next morning at the normal rate. We'll be straight with you when it's safe to wait.

Preventing repeat blockages

Most blockages are caused by what ends up in the drain. Here's what you can control yourself:

• let frying and cooking fat cool in an old jar or bottle and put it in the general waste instead of pouring it down the kitchen sink;
• only flush toilet paper; wet wipes, even those labelled flushable, barely break down in the pipe;
• put a hair catcher in the shower and empty it regularly;
• unscrew the kitchen and washbasin traps every now and then to clean them;
• if you're unsure about older garden drains with trees nearby, have them inspected.

After every job, the engineer tells you what they found in your pipe. That explanation is often the best prevention there is: once you know it was grease, you'll handle it differently in future. An unblocking service that just removes the blockage and leaves only solves half the problem.

Areas our drain unblocking company covers

We work throughout the Netherlands, from Groningen and Zwolle to Rotterdam and Eindhoven. Our locations page lists a selection of cities, each with its own page. If it's mainly your toilet that's blocked, our page on toilet unblocking explains more.

Dealing with a blockage right now? Call 085 333 4698 and tell us what's going on. We'll help you work out the best way forward straight away.