Drain Unblocking South Holland

South Holland: delta, peat and sand beneath your drains

South Holland is the land of the great rivers. The Rhine and the Maas meet here and run to the sea via the Nieuwe Waterweg; between them lie islands such as IJsselmonde, Voorne-Putten and the Eiland van Dordrecht, with heavy clay and high water. Along the coast runs a broad belt of dunes on which The Hague, Leiden and Katwijk are partly built: sand into which rainwater soaks quickly. Behind it begins the peat of the Groene Hart, with Gouda, Alphen aan den Rijn and the peat-meadow villages, where the ground is soft and sinks slowly. A large share of the housing lies below sea level, so the sewers have little room in heavy rain.

Each of those soils brings its own complaints. On clay and peat the groundwater is high and drains run slowly; on peat the house connections (laterals) also subside, with bends and dips where silt settles. On sand that is less of an issue, but The Hague and Leiden have many houses from around 1900 there, with vitrified clay pipes and long runs to the street. In Rotterdam the post-war rebuilding set the tone: high-rise and walk-up flats on piles, where whole stairwells share a single soil stack. Drain unblocking in South Holland therefore starts with the question of where you live and when the problem occurs.

Sewer unblocking by region in South Holland

Afvoer Ontstoppen works in all 50 municipalities of the province. Three cities have a page of their own; for the other places you call the same number.

Rotterdam and the Rijnmond

Rotterdam built upwards after the war, on piles in clay and peat. In the walk-up flats of Zuid, Alexander and Overschie and in the high-rise around the centre, the kitchens and bathrooms of many households drain into the same soil stack, so a narrowing at the bottom shows up first in the lowest flats. In Delfshaven, Kralingen and the Oude Noorden there are still pre-war buildings with old house connections, and in Schiedam and Vlaardingen we see the same mix. How we tackle this district by district is explained under drain unblocking in Rotterdam.

The Hague and the coast

The Hague sits half on sand and half on peat. The districts from around 1900, such as the Regentessekwartier, the Schilderswijk and the Zeeheldenkwartier, have walk-up flats with long pipes under the floor and clay pipes that have shifted over the years. In Scheveningen and Duindorp wind-blown sand enters the outside drain through gullies and downpipes, and in the post-war districts of Zuidwest the flats share a soil stack. We have a separate page for drain unblocking in The Hague; Rijswijk, Voorburg and Wassenaar are served from the same line.

Zoetermeer and the polders

Zoetermeer grew from village to city in the 1970s and 1980s, with home-zone estates, deck-access blocks and plenty of greenery on low ground. The pipes are plastic and easy to reach through inspection chambers in the front garden, but the polder is low and the sewer fills up quickly in a downpour. Wet wipes, grease and the roots of the many trees are the usual causes here. Our drain unblocking service in Zoetermeer has its own page with the approach per district.

Leiden, Delft and Dordrecht

In the historic centres of Leiden, Delft and Dordrecht stand narrow, deep houses on canals and harbours, with kitchens and bathrooms added later and drains that run outside with almost no fall. Student houses in Leiden and Delft often share one drain between many residents, so hair, grease and food waste soon form a plug. Dordrecht lies on an island between the rivers, with cellars and drains right by the water.

The Groene Hart

Gouda, Alphen aan den Rijn, Bodegraven and Waddinxveen stand on soft peat. The houses are piled, but gardens and streets sink, and with them the house connection that runs from the house to the street sewer. That creates kinks and dips that silt up again every few months. Recurring blockages in the same spot are the signal here to have the pipe looked at with the camera.

Common blockages in South Holland

These are the three calls we get most often in the province, with what you can do yourself and what the engineer does.

A soil stack in a Rotterdam block of flats

If the drain runs badly both at yours and at the neighbours', the plug is in the shared soil stack. Ask the neighbours above to use as little water as possible, put a bucket under the overflowing drain and report it to the owners' association (VvE) or the landlord. The engineer clears the soil stack from the lowest accessible point, usually in the storage room or cellar, and then checks all the connections.

The sewer backs up in the polder

In a cloudburst the sewer in Zoetermeer, Nissewaard or the polder districts of The Hague fills up, and the water looks for the lowest point in the house: a shower gully on the ground floor or a gully in the garden. Use as little water as possible during the downpour. If it does not drain away afterwards, there is a plug in your own pipe as well. The engineer sees with the camera which of the two it is and, if it keeps happening, recommends a non-return valve.

A shower that will not drain in an old house

In houses from around 1900 in The Hague, Leiden and Delft the shower drain often lies almost flat, so hair and soap get stuck. Take out the grate and remove what you can see; the first plug is often right under the trap. If that does not help, the engineer works a thin drain auger through the pipe as far as the soil stack or the house connection, without opening up the floor.

Our services as a drain unblocking company in South Holland

As the drain unblocking service for the whole province we come out for anything to do with blocked drains:

• A shower or bath that will not empty: shower drain unblocking, including removing hair from the gully and the pipe behind it.
• A downpipe that overflows every time it rains: downpipe unblocking, from the leaf guard to the connection with the sewer.
• A blockage that keeps coming back: a drain camera inspection shows whether there is subsidence, a crack or root ingress in the pipe.

Who is responsible for which part of the drain?

As the owner you are responsible for the drains inside the house and for the house connection on your own land, usually up to the inspection chamber or rodding point at the boundary. From that point on, the sewer belongs to the municipality. The water board looks after the ditches, main drainage canals and pumping stations into which the rainwater is eventually discharged, and in a polder province like this one that is no small matter. In a block of flats the soil stack and the collector pipe come under the VvE; in a rented home the landlord deals with the pipes, while a plug in your own trap is often at your expense. Afterwards the engineer tells you where the blockage was, so you know who to report it to.

Drain unblocking in South Holland: calling, price indication and rates

Call 085 333 4698, day or night. Tell us which drain is blocked, which floor you live on, whether the neighbours are affected too and whether it has rained hard in the past few days. That lets us say a good deal about the cause over the phone. You get an assessment and a price indication, and once you agree an engineer is on the way, usually within the hour.

Clearing a blockage costs from €129. The call-out charge is not included in that and is added separately. Outside office hours, at night and at the weekend an emergency rate applies. For a large job, such as cleaning and inspecting a subsided house connection in Gouda, you can ask for a price in advance. Customers give Afvoer Ontstoppen 5/5 based on 48 Google reviews.

Cities in South Holland with their own page

For three large cities in the province we have separate pages with information per district: Rotterdam, The Hague and Zoetermeer. If you live in Leiden, Dordrecht, Delft, Gouda or any of the other places in South Holland, you call the same number and the same drain unblocking service comes to you; we work throughout the Netherlands. You will find an overview of all places with their own page under our service area.

Is the toilet overflowing or the water standing in the shower? Call 085 333 4698 for drain unblocking in South Holland. We can be reached 24/7 and will send an engineer as quickly as possible.