Drain Unblocking Zeeland

Zeeland: islands, dykes and brackish groundwater beneath your drain

Zeeland is made up of islands and peninsulas linked by dams and bridges: Walcheren, Zuid-Beveland, Noord-Beveland, Schouwen-Duiveland, Tholen and, across the Westerschelde, Zeeuws-Vlaanderen. Most homes stand on heavy sea clay behind a dyke, and a good share of the polders lies below sea level. The groundwater is high and in many places brackish. For pipes in the ground that means three things: rainwater soaks away slowly, the sewer has little spare capacity when it rains, and every joint that is not properly sealed lets in salt water and sand.

The building periods vary widely. Middelburg, Zierikzee, Goes and Hulst have listed town centres full of buildings where kitchens and bathrooms were fitted in later. After the flood disaster, whole villages and districts were rebuilt in a short time, with vitrified clay pipes and concrete house connections that are now old. From the 1960s onwards the holiday parks and summer houses were added along the coast. That is why, for drain unblocking in Zeeland, we always ask about the year of construction and the location of the property: a subsided clay pipe in a reconstruction-era estate needs a different approach from a silted-up gully at a beach house.

Sewer unblocking by area in Zeeland

Middelburg and Walcheren

In the centre of Middelburg, drains often run down from an upper floor through a building that was never designed for it, with little fall and plenty of bends. Grease and hair get caught there. The engineer works with a thin drain snake and a camera, so no floor or wall has to be opened up. In the post-war districts around the centre and in villages such as Arnemuiden and Koudekerke, the cause is more likely under the garden: a vitrified clay pipe whose joints have shifted in the clay.

Vlissingen and the coast

Vlissingen looks out over the Westerschelde and catches a lot of wind. Salt in the air and sand carried in from the beach put a strain on inspection chambers and outside pipes. Shower drains in homes close to the boulevard silt up with sand faster than elsewhere. In Domburg, Westkapelle and Zoutelande there are also the summer houses, which often stop draining all at once after a quiet season.

Goes and Zuid-Beveland

Goes is the hub of Zuid-Beveland, with an old centre around the harbour and spacious new-build estates. In the fruit-growing villages of Kapelle and the villages of Borsele and Reimerswaal there are many detached houses and farms with long pipes running through the garden to the street. A pipe like that has more places where something can go wrong: a tree root, a dip in the clay or a bend where silt builds up.

Terneuzen and Zeeuws-Vlaanderen

Zeeuws-Vlaanderen lies on the far side of the Westerschelde, with Terneuzen on the canal as its largest town and Hulst as a fortified town with old buildings. The villages have many homes from the post-war reconstruction and the 1960s and 1970s, on clay with high groundwater. An inspection chamber that empties slowly after you flush is a familiar first sign here of a subsided house connection (lateral).

Zierikzee and Schouwen-Duiveland

Zierikzee has a listed town centre with narrow buildings around the harbour. On the rest of the island, in Renesse, Burgh-Haamstede and Brouwershaven, there are many holiday homes and campsites. These have a pattern of their own: in season a drain is loaded far more heavily than it was designed for, and out of season it stands idle for months. Both are bad for a pipe, which is why drain unblocking in Zeeland is a year-round job here.

Common situations in Zeeland

A holiday home that will not drain after the winter

A summer house that has not been used for months has dry traps, grease set hard in the kitchen pipe and sand at the lowest point of the drain. When you arrive, flush every drain with warm water for a few minutes and flush each toilet a few times. If something still will not clear, the engineer frees the pipe with the drain snake or the high-pressure jetter. If you let the property out, it is wise to have this done before the first guests arrive rather than during their stay.

A sewer backing up after a downpour

On heavy clay rainwater hardly soaks away, and in polders below sea level the sewer has to get rid of everything via pumping stations. In a cloudburst the street sewer quickly fills up and the water comes back up through the lowest point in the house: a ground-floor shower drain, a gully in the utility room or the chamber in the garden. The engineer first checks the inspection chamber by the front wall. If it is full while the street gullies are empty, the blockage is in your own connection; if the chamber is empty, the cause lies beyond your property.

Salt water in an old pipe

A vitrified clay pipe or concrete connection lying below sea level in brackish groundwater has a hard life. Salt attacks joints and rubber seals, groundwater seeps in and brings sand and silt with it. The pipe then keeps blocking again and again, even though you put nothing wrong down the drain. If you run into the same problem a second time, a camera inspection is the next step: it shows where the pipe is leaking or has subsided and whether repairs are needed.

Drain unblocking service across Zeeland

As a drain unblocking company we work on all the Zeeland islands and in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen. The jobs we are asked for most:

• A toilet overflowing in a flat, a summer house or an old town house: toilet unblocking with a toilet auger or a small machine.
• Silt, sand and roots in the outside pipe: sewer cleaning with the high-pressure jetter, so the pipe gets its full bore back.
• Recurring blockages or a sewer smell you cannot get rid of: a drain camera inspection reveals cracks, subsidence and leaking joints.
• A downpipe that overflows every time it rains: downpipe unblocking, including flushing the pipe through to the sewer.

Who is responsible for which part in Zeeland?

As the owner you are responsible for the drains inside your home and for the pipe on your own land, up to the inspection chamber or rodding point at the boundary. Beyond that the sewer is as a rule the municipality's. If you live in a flat in Middelburg or Vlissingen, the soil stack and the shared drain usually come under the owners' association (VvE) or the landlord. At a holiday home on a park it is different again: the park usually manages the pipes between the chalets and the connection to the municipal sewer, while the owner is responsible for the chalet itself. The water board looks after the dykes, the pumping stations and the surface water that the sewer discharges into in heavy rain. Afterwards the engineer tells you where the blockage was, so you can report it to the right party.

Drain unblocking in Zeeland: calling, price indication and rates

You can reach us day and night on 085 333 4698. Tell us the town, the type of property and which drain is blocked; you will get an assessment and a price indication straight away. Once you agree, an engineer comes out to you, usually within the hour, on Tholen or in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen too.

Clearing a blockage costs from €129. The call-out charge is not included in that amount. Outside office hours, at night and at the weekend an emergency rate applies. For bigger jobs, such as cleaning and inspecting a long outside pipe at a farm or on a holiday park, you can ask for a quote. You decide whether the work goes ahead. Customers give us 5/5 based on 48 Google reviews.

Also in the rest of Zeeland

Afvoer Ontstoppen covers every municipality in Zeeland: from Middelburg, Vlissingen and Veere on Walcheren to Goes, Kapelle, Borsele and Reimerswaal on Zuid-Beveland, Noord-Beveland, Schouwen-Duiveland with Zierikzee, Tholen and Sint-Maartensdijk, and Terneuzen, Hulst and Sluis in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen. Zeeland does not have its own city pages yet; an overview of all the places we work is in our service area.

Do you have a blockage right now? Call 085 333 4698 for drain unblocking in Zeeland. We are available 24/7 and will send an engineer as quickly as possible.