Drain Unblocking Zoetermeer

Drain unblocking in Zoetermeer: building on soft ground

In just a few decades, Zoetermeer grew from a village into a city of more than a hundred thousand people. From the 1960s onwards, new districts went up at a rapid pace, from the flats in Meerzicht and Palenstein to the home zones of Seghwaert and, later, Oosterheem. All those homes stand on polder soil: peat and clay that hold water and slowly compact.

Sinking gardens, sagging pipes

That has a direct effect on the drainage. The houses themselves stand on piles and stay put, while the garden, the pavement and the street slowly sink. The pipe between the house and the main sewer sinks with them and starts to sag. Water collects in the dip, and paper, grease and dirt settle there. After a few years the toilet drains more and more slowly, until one day the pipe is completely blocked.

It's a pattern we see regularly when we're called out for drain unblocking in Zoetermeer. Flushing the pipe through solves the immediate problem. If the blockage soon comes back, a camera inspection shows how far the pipe has sunk.

Pumping stations and an overloaded system in a downpour

The land around Zoetermeer is flat and partly below sea level. As a result, the sewer can't drain by gravity everywhere, so sewage pumping stations push the wastewater onwards. If a lot of rain falls in a short time, the whole system fills up and water can come back up through a low shower drain or an inspection chamber in the garden. That isn't a blockage in your home, even if it feels like one.

During a downpour like that, hold off on running the washing machine and dishwasher, and wait a while before taking a shower. That way you're not adding even more water just when the sewer is already struggling. If the water doesn't go down after the rain has stopped, give us a call, because there's probably more going on.

Sewer unblocking in Zoetermeer, district by district

Each district in Zoetermeer was built in its own era, and each has its own weak spots.

The old centre around the Dorpsstraat

Long before the first flats went up, there was the village. Zoetermeer's oldest buildings are around the Dorpsstraat, much older than the rest of the city. Some still have vitrified clay pipes and brick-built chambers in the ground. When houses were converted into shops, offices or flats, the drains were often rerouted as well, adding extra bends. That's why the engineer starts with the camera before using high pressure.

Growth-town flats in Palenstein and Meerzicht

In the flats built when Zoetermeer was a designated growth town, households living above one another share a single soil stack. Grease from the kitchens, and soap residue and hair from the bathrooms, all end up in the same pipe. At the bottom of the building, where the soil stack joins the collector pipe, the pipe then starts to narrow. The residents on the ground floor notice first: the water comes up in their shower or kitchen sink. The taller the block, the more water presses down on that single blockage. So ask the neighbours upstairs to use as little water as possible for the time being, and let the VvE (owners' association) or the landlord know as well.

Terraced houses in Seghwaert, Buytenwegh and Driemanspolder

Here it's mainly the subsidence described above that causes trouble. In these homes, the inspection chamber is often in the front garden or under the driveway. Sometimes it has been paved over or is overgrown. If you don't know where it is, the engineer will find it before starting work. A telltale sign of subsidence is a front garden that now sits lower than the front-door threshold, with a step up that wasn't there when the house was built. If your garden looks like that, there's a good chance the pipe underneath has a kink in it too.

Noordhove and Rokkeveen: strain where the pipe leaves the house

In these 1980s and 1990s residential districts, the plastic waste pipes themselves are usually still in fine condition. The weak spot is where the pipe passes through the front wall. There, the pipe leaves a house that stands on piles and carries on through ground that is slowly sinking. At that point the pipe comes under strain, and after a number of years a joint can come loose or the pipe can crack. Water and dirt then seep away into the ground, and the pipe keeps blocking in the same spot.

Oosterheem and the Stadshart

In Oosterheem, one of the city's newest districts, the pipes are modern and easy to get at. Blockages here come down to how the drains are used: wet wipes, sanitary pads or grease. Newer bathrooms often have a shower channel instead of a standard shower drain, and in a narrow channel like that, hair gets caught behind the grate more quickly.

Around the Stadshart, there are flats above shops, restaurants and cafés. Here we see more grease build-up in shared pipes. Residents usually notice it first in a kitchen sink that gurgles or drains slowly, long before the pipe is completely blocked.

Drain unblocking in Zoetermeer: three familiar problems

Three problems come up so often in Zoetermeer that we recognise them as soon as you describe them on the phone.

An inspection chamber nobody can find any more

At many terraced houses, the driveway or front garden has been re-paved over the years, and the inspection chamber has disappeared under the paving. As long as everything works, nobody misses it. When there's a blockage, they do. The engineer tracks the chamber down by working out the route of the pipe from the point where it leaves the house. If that doesn't work, they go in from an access point indoors, such as the toilet or a rodding eye in the crawl space. If you know roughly where the chamber is, move planters or paving slabs out of the way beforehand.

A toilet that's slow to flush again after a few weeks

You managed to clear the toilet with a plunger, but a few weeks later it's draining slowly again. That almost always points to a cause further along the pipe: a dip, a joint that has slipped at the front wall, or a ridge that paper catches on. Unblocking it again and again ends up costing more than taking one proper look. With the camera, you can see on the screen where the problem is and how big it is.

A downpipe that overflows in a downpour

If water spills over the edge of the gutter in a heavy shower, or bubbles out at the foot of the downpipe, there are usually leaves, moss or sand in the leaf guard or the bend at the bottom. In districts with lots of greenery, such as those around the lakes and parks, this mainly happens in autumn. The engineer clears the pipe and flushes out the drain that runs to the sewer or the ditch.

How we deal with a blockage

For drain unblocking in Zoetermeer, call 085 333 4698, whatever the hour. We ask which drain is blocked, whether more than one drain is affected and what you've already tried yourself. You get an assessment and a price estimate straight away. The engineer only comes out once you've agreed, and is usually with you within the hour.

On site, they start by finding the cause. For a trap or a toilet, a hand snake is often enough. If the blockage is further down, they bring in an electric drain machine or the high-pressure jetter. Afterwards, they test all the drains and tell you what the problem was.

If you live in a block of flats with a shared cellar or storage corridor, keep the key handy, as the collector pipe can often only be reached from there. In a house, it helps if the inspection chamber is clear: move planters, bikes or the wheelie bin out of the way in advance. Then the engineer can get straight to work.

What drain unblocking in Zoetermeer costs

Unblocking starts from €129, call-out charge not included. In the evening, at night and at weekends, an out-of-hours rate applies. For work that's hard to estimate beforehand, such as cleaning and inspecting a sagging sewer connection, ask for a quote. The decision is always yours, based on the price estimate we give you up front. Customers rate us 5/5 based on 48 Google reviews.

Property boundary, VvE and municipality: who's responsible for your drain?

As an owner, you're responsible for the drains in and under your home and on your own property. Beyond the property boundary, under the pavement and the street, the sewer generally belongs to the municipality, although the arrangements can differ slightly from one municipality to the next. In blocks of flats, the soil stack and the collector pipe usually belong to the VvE or, if you rent, the landlord. If the camera shows that the blockage is on the street side, you can use the footage when you report it.

Services for homes in Zoetermeer

As a drain unblocking company in Zoetermeer, we focus entirely on blockages. The jobs we help with include:

• kitchen blockages: kitchen sink unblocking with a drain snake or high-pressure jetter;
• bathroom blockages: shower drain unblocking, including a thorough clean of the drain itself;
• a sagging or dirty outside pipe: sewer cleaning;
• unsure what state your sewer connection is in: camera inspection of the sewer;
• an overflowing gutter or downpipe: downpipe unblocking.

What you can do yourself, and how to prevent blockages

While you wait for the engineer, don't flush the toilet again and don't use a chemical drain cleaner. These products rarely dissolve a blockage of grease or wipes, but they do damage rubber seals and old pipes. Have a bucket ready and put towels down if water is coming up.

To prevent new blockages, don't pour fat or oil down the sink, and only flush toilet paper. If you notice your garden or driveway visibly sinking, have the sewer connection checked every few years. A pipe that's only slightly sagging is cheaper to repair than one that's already blocked.

Look out for early warning signs too. A sink that takes a few seconds longer to empty, a toilet that gurgles after flushing or a faint sewer smell in the bathroom often point to a blockage in the making. Call us at that stage, and you'll avoid a full-blown blockage on a Sunday evening.

Around Zoetermeer

Afvoer Ontstoppen works throughout the Netherlands, and a number of cities in the Randstad, the urban west of the country, have their own page. Right next door to Zoetermeer, we cover The Hague, and a little further south in Rotterdam. To the north, we cover Hoofddorp, and to the east Utrecht. See all the places with their own page for the full overview.

For a blocked drain in Zoetermeer, from Palenstein to Oosterheem, call 085 333 4698. We answer the phone day and night.