Drain Unblocking Utrecht Province

Sand, peat and river clay: the ground beneath the province of Utrecht

The province of Utrecht is small, but its soil varies a great deal. Right through the middle runs the Utrecht Ridge (Utrechtse Heuvelrug), a ridge of sand stretching from Rhenen via Doorn, Zeist and Soest as far as Amersfoort and the Gooi. West of it, around Woerden, Vinkeveen and the villages along the Vecht, lie the peat meadows of the Green Heart. In the south the Lek and the Kromme Rijn flow through a band of river clay, and in the east lies the Gelderse Vallei, a low-lying area between the Ridge and the Veluwe where Veenendaal grew up on the boundary of peat and sand.

For your drains that ground makes a difference. On the sand of the Ridge rainwater soaks away quickly; blockages there almost always start indoors, with grease, hair or wet wipes. On the peat of Woerden and the Vecht region the house connection sinks with the ground over the years, creating dips where waste settles. On the clay along the Lek the groundwater is high and the sewer fills up fast after a downpour. Add the building history, from wharf cellars to cul-de-sac estates and Vinex new-build districts, and it is clear that drain unblocking in the province of Utrecht is no standard job.

Drain unblocking by region in Utrecht Province

Afvoer Ontstoppen works in every municipality of the province. Below you can read what we come across in each area and what the engineer looks out for.

Utrecht: wharf cellars, pre-war neighbourhoods and Leidsche Rijn

In Utrecht city centre the wharf cellars lie below street level along the Oudegracht. Restaurants and cafés there discharge into pipes that run under the wharf to the sewer, and in those cool pipes grease sets into a hard crust. Around the centre lie Lombok, Wittevrouwen and Oog in Al, with pre-war terraced houses and vitrified clay pipes under the back garden. In Overvecht and Kanaleneiland whole stairwells share a single soil stack, and in Leidsche Rijn plastic pipes lie in a polder of clay and peat, where the connection at the property boundary can subside. We have a separate page on drain unblocking in Utrecht.

Amersfoort: from the Muurhuizen to Vathorst

Amersfoort has a medieval core inside the Muurhuizen, with the Koppelpoort at the point where the Eem leaves the city. Old buildings there have drains that were rerouted a little with every renovation. The Soesterkwartier dates from the pre-war expansion, while Schothorst, Kattenbroek, Nieuwland and Vathorst lie in the Eemland polders, low-lying and full of water. From there we mostly get calls about wet wipes in the toilet and gullies that stay full after rain. Everything about drain unblocking in Amersfoort is on the city page.

Zeist, Soest, De Bilt and Doorn: the Utrecht Ridge

On the sandy soil of the Ridge stand villas, country houses and detached homes on generous plots. The drain to the sewer here sometimes runs dozens of metres through the garden, between the roots of beeches and oaks, and roots find a leaking joint without fail. On top of that, the downpipes catch needles and leaves every autumn, and often discharge not into the sewer but into a soakaway in the garden that silts up over the years. The engineer brings the camera here as standard.

Woerden, Stichtse Vecht and the Green Heart: building on peat

Woerden, Kamerik, Maarssen, Breukelen and Loenen aan de Vecht sit on soft peat. The houses stand on piles, but the drainage around them slowly sinks with the ground, so a kink or dip forms where house meets street and waste settles there. The country estates and village houses along the Vecht also have long, old drains running to the water or the sewer. Sewer unblocking here is often only the first step; afterwards the camera shows whether the pipe has subsided.

Nieuwegein, Houten and IJsselstein: new towns on clay

Nieuwegein was built as a new town in the 1970s, with cul-de-sac estates and blocks of flats; Houten followed with mostly post-1980 homes, and IJsselstein expanded in the 1980s and 1990s. The pipes here are plastic and the inspection chambers sit by the front wall. But the ground is river clay with high groundwater, and in a downpour the sewer in the street fills quickly and the water looks for the lowest point in the house.

Veenendaal and the Gelderse Vallei

Veenendaal grew fast on the boundary of peat and sand, with neighbourhoods from every post-war decade. On one side of town rainwater soaks away, on the other the groundwater is high. We see the same picture in Leusden and Woudenberg, so the engineer always asks first which part of town you live in.

Blockages that are common in the province of Utrecht

An overflowing toilet in a subdivided building

In Utrecht city centre and around the Amersfoort canals many buildings have been split into student rooms and upstairs flats. The drain from a toilet on the second floor then runs down with bends and little fall. If the pan overflows, do not flush again, close the little valve on the cistern and put towels down, because water quickly seeps through a wooden floor to the neighbours below. The engineer works with a toilet auger or a small machine.

A drain that stays slow in dry weather

If the kitchen sink or shower drains badly even in dry weather, the cause is indoors or in your own house connection. First unscrew the trap under the basin over a bucket; often there is already a plug of waste there. If that does not help, the engineer clears the pipe mechanically with an auger or a drain-cleaning machine. On peat we then check with the camera whether the pipe has subsided, otherwise the blockage comes back.

Water rising after a downpour

If water comes up out of the shower drain or the garden gully after heavy rain, the sewer in the street is full and the water is flowing back into your connection. Use no water for a while and wait until the downpour has passed. If it happens more often, a non-return valve in the house connection can be the answer; in polder districts such as Vathorst and Leidsche Rijn this call comes in every summer.

Our drain unblocking services in the province of Utrecht

As a drain unblocking company for the whole province we tackle every blocked drain. Most often it comes down to:

• Toilet unblocking in upstairs flats, blocks of flats and family homes.
• A drain camera inspection for recurring blockages on peat or clay, so you know whether the pipe has subsided or broken.
• Downpipe unblocking in the wooded villages on the Utrecht Ridge.
• Sewer cleaning with the high-pressure jetter for outdoor drains full of roots, silt or grease.

Who is responsible for which part of the drain?

As the owner of a house you look after the drains inside and the pipe on your own land, usually up to the inspection chamber at the property boundary. Beyond that lies the municipal sewer; exactly where the boundary falls differs from one municipality to the next. In a block of flats in Overvecht or Nieuwegein the soil stack and the collector pipe usually fall under the owners' association (VvE) or the landlord. If you rent, a blockage caused by your own use is often at your expense, but a subsided pipe is the landlord's. Ditches and pumping stations are a matter for the water board. Afterwards the engineer tells you where the cause lay, so you can report it to the right party.

Calling, price indication and rates

Call 085 333 4698, at night and at the weekend too. Tell us which drain is blocked, which town you live in and what you have already tried. You get a price indication straight away, and once you agree an engineer comes out, usually within the hour, with auger, machine, high-pressure jetter and camera.

Clearing a blockage costs from €129. The call-out charge is not included in that price and is added separately. Outside office hours, so in the evening, at night, at the weekend and on public holidays, an emergency rate applies. For bigger jobs, such as cleaning and inspecting a long outdoor drain on an estate in Zeist, you can ask for a quote first. Customers rate Afvoer Ontstoppen 5/5 based on 48 Google reviews.

Cities in Utrecht Province with their own page

For the two largest cities in the province we have a separate page with their neighbourhoods and what sets them apart: drain unblocking in Utrecht and drain unblocking in Amersfoort. If you live elsewhere, in Zeist, Woerden, Veenendaal or one of the Vecht villages, we come out just the same. All places with their own page are listed under our service area.

Do you have a blockage right now? Call 085 333 4698. Our drain unblocking service is on call 24/7 throughout the province of Utrecht and sends an engineer to you as quickly as possible.