expat-plumber

Toilet Keeps Running? Causes and Fixes in a Dutch Home

Mon, 26 Oct 2026 13:02:01 GMT

A toilet that keeps running almost always has a worn part inside the cistern: either the flush valve at the bottom no longer seals, or the fill valve doesn't shut off when the cistern is full. It's a small repair, but don't leave it: a leaking flush can waste up to 600 litres of water a day, according to Brabant Water.

In most Dutch homes the cistern is hidden in the wall (inbouwreservoir) and all you see is the flush plate. That makes the problem easy to miss and, for many expats, confusing to fix. Your English Plumber (RRD Service & Installatie, 15+ years' experience) repairs it across Amsterdam, Amstelveen, Den Haag and Utrecht, on site within 2 hours.

How do I know if my toilet is leaking?

Water trickling down the back of the bowl, a soft hissing sound, or a cistern that refills by itself means it's leaking. Many leaks are silent. Two quick checks:

Tissue test (NI Water): flush, wait 30 minutes, then wipe a dry piece of toilet paper around the back of the bowl. Wet paper means water is seeping through.
Water meter test (Waternet): close all taps and make sure the washing machine and dishwasher are off, but leave the main valve open. If the red triangle on your water meter still moves after a full minute, water is going somewhere.

How much water does a running toilet waste?

Far more than a dripping tap. Brabant Water puts a leaking flush at up to 600 litres a day, against about 100 litres for a dripping tap. Flemish water company De Watergroep arrives at the same number from the other direction: 25 litres an hour, or 219,000 litres a year.

At Waternet's 2026 Amsterdam rates (€1.18 per 1,000 litres plus €0.437 tap water tax, plus 9% VAT) that's about €386 a year . For scale: CBS measured that the average person in the Netherlands flushes 30.2 litres a day, so a badly leaking toilet uses as much as around 20 people.

Why does my toilet keep running?

Three parts cause almost every running toilet: the flush valve, the fill valve and the flush button.

Flush valve (spoelventiel): the rubber seal at the bottom of the cistern. Worn or dirty, it lets water trickle into the bowl non-stop. Sign: a thin stream down the back of the bowl and a cistern that tops itself up every few minutes.
Fill valve (vlotterkraan): stops the water once the float rises. A worn washer or a float set too high keeps water coming in, and it drains away through the overflow. Sign: constant hissing.
Flush button: dirt or a worn spring can keep it from springing back, holding the valve open. Sign: it started right after flushing, and pressing again stops it.

Guides often blame limescale. In Amsterdam that's less likely: Waternet's water is soft (7.8 °dH) and leaves little limescale, so a worn rubber seal is the usual suspect.

Can a toilet hidden in the wall be fixed without breaking tiles?

Yes. Everything that wears out sits behind the flush plate. Geberit says the flush valve and float valve of its concealed cisterns are reachable through the opening behind the plate, and it keeps spare parts available for up to 50 years. So a running toilet rarely means a new toilet or broken tiles: it means the right seal or valve for your model.

The brand is usually printed on the flush plate. WhatsApp us a photo of it and we bring the matching part.

What should I do if my toilet won't stop running?

Shut off the water to the cistern and book a repair. On a concealed cistern, carefully unclip the flush plate; there's usually a small stop valve behind it. On an exposed cistern, it's the small valve on the supply pipe. Can't find one? Close the main water tap (hoofdkraan) next to your water meter. The toilet will still flush once with the water left in the cistern.

Your English Plumber works in English, 24/7: on site within 2 hours, no hidden call-out fees and a 1-month warranty. Call 06-24356980 or WhatsApp us .

Running toilet: quick answers

Is a running toilet an emergency?

Not if the water goes into the bowl; it costs money, not your floor. It is urgent when water runs onto the floor or through a ceiling. Then close the hoofdkraan and call us straight away. In an apartment, see who pays for a leak to the flat below .

Do I need to replace the whole cistern?

Almost never. A concealed cistern is built into the wall frame and designed to last; the seals and valves inside are the parts that wear, and those are replaced on their own.

Should I call Waternet or a plumber?

A plumber. Waternet is responsible up to the main valve and the water meter. Everything after the meter, including your toilet, is a job for a plumber.

Water in Your Crawl Space? What to Do in a Dutch Home

Mon, 19 Oct 2026 01:14:06 GMT

Standing water in your crawl space has to go, but first you need to know where it comes from. Clear water that your neighbours have too is usually groundwater, while water that turns up in dry weather or smells of sewage points to a leaking pipe that needs a plumber today.

Here's how to tell the difference in five minutes, and how to get it dry for good.

What is a crawl space, and do I have one?

Most Dutch houses, and many ground-floor flats, have a kruipruimte : a low space under the ground floor that's too shallow to stand in. You reach it through a hatch ( luik ), usually in the hallway floor near the front door, sometimes under a mat or inside a cupboard.

Your water pipes and drains run through it, and often the gas pipe too. Many expats only find out it exists when the house starts to smell damp.

Why is there water in my crawl space?

There are three usual sources:

Groundwater that rises after weeks of rain, typically in autumn and winter.
Rainwater running in from outside, for example through a broken downpipe or paving that slopes toward the house.
A leaking pipe : the water supply, or a drain or sewer pipe under your floor.

Whatever the source, the water has to come out before the damp works its way into your floor and walls. And finding out which of the three you're dealing with is the part most people can't do on their own. That's exactly what we do: pump it out, track down the cause and tell you what keeps it dry.

Groundwater or a leaking pipe: how can you tell?

Open the hatch, shine a torch in and check these four things:

The weather. Water after a long wet spell suggests groundwater. Water after a dry week suggests a pipe.
The neighbours. Ask next door. If their crawl space is wet too, it's most likely groundwater.
Colour and smell. Clear and odourless is usually ground or rainwater. Dark, cloudy or smelling of sewage means a drain or sewer pipe is leaking. (A sewage smell in the bathroom has its own causes, see why your bathroom smells like sewer .)
Your water meter. Close every tap and watch the meter. If it keeps turning, water is escaping somewhere. Our guide to spotting a hidden water leak explains this test step by step.

Should you just pump the water out?

Yes, standing water should come out whatever the source, because it's the damp rising into your home that does the damage. But pumping is only half the job. If you don't know why the water got in, it can come back.

That's why every crawl space call-out starts with finding the source. We pump the space dry and watch how the water returns. A fast, even return of clear water points to groundwater. A trickle from one spot points to a pipe. Dirty water points to a drain. You get a clear answer in English on what's causing it and what fixes it.

Is water under the floor dangerous?

Usually not within the hour, but it shouldn't sit there. Moisture rises into your home and causes:

a musty smell
mould on walls and furniture
cold floors
damage to wooden floor beams over time

Call straight away if the water level is rising fast, if it smells of sewage, or if it's near electrical cables. If you smell gas, don't go in. Leave the house and call the national gas emergency number, 0800-9009 (free, 24/7).

What should you do first?

Take photos of the water level and, if you can see it, where it's coming from.
Do the water meter test above.
If you're renting, tell your landlord or VvE straight away and send them the photos.
Call a plumber. Don't wait for it to dry by itself.

What does a crawl space pump-out cost in Amsterdam?

Call-outs start from €129 incl. VAT, with no hidden call-out fees. We're available 24/7, usually on site within 2 hours, and our work comes with a 1-month warranty.

The final price depends on how much water there is and what's causing it. Ask us on the phone and we'll explain in English what to expect.

Frequently asked questions

Is a bit of water in the crawl space normal?

In low-lying areas a few puddles after a long wet spell are common. A rising water level, standing water in dry weather or a sewage smell is not normal and needs checking.

Can I pump out my crawl space myself?

For a small amount of clear water you can use a submersible pump. If the water is dirty, smells, or comes back within days, the cause needs finding first, otherwise you're only moving the problem around.

Why does my house smell musty after rain?

Damp from a wet crawl space rises through the floor into your home. A musty smell that gets worse after rain is a good reason to open the hatch and look.

Where is the crawl space hatch in a Dutch home?

Usually in the hallway floor near the front door, sometimes under a mat or inside a cupboard. In a flat, there may be one shared hatch for the building.

Water under your floor right now?

Call 06-24356980 or message us on WhatsApp . We'll tell you in plain English whether it's urgent, find the source and pump it out, day or night. If your drains are also slow, read blocked drain or blocked sewer: how to tell .

Why Does My Bathroom Smell Like Sewer? Causes in Dutch Homes

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 14:54:30 GMT

A bathroom that smells like sewer is most often a dry water seal in a drain you rarely use, and the fix is to pour water down it. But if the smell returns, only shows up after rain, or comes with gurgling drains, the trap is not the problem. It is air pressure in the drain system, and water will not fix that.

Where and when you smell it tells you the cause:

Smell from one drain you rarely use (guest shower, floor drain, spare sink): the water seal has dried out. Refill it.
Smell after heavy rain, or gurgling when you flush or empty the bath: a venting or pressure problem in the drain system.
Smell at the base of the toilet: the seal between the toilet and the drain pipe has failed.
Smell plus slow-draining water: a partial blockage, or a sagging pipe holding standing water.

Why does an unused drain smell like sewer?

Every drain has a bend in the pipe that holds a small plug of water. That plug is the only thing between your bathroom and the sewer. If a drain is not used for several weeks, the water evaporates and sewer air comes straight up.

Floor drains, walk-in shower channels, guest bathrooms and any flat you have been away from are the usual suspects.

The fix: pour a full jug of water into every drain in the bathroom, including the floor drain, and let the tap run for a minute. If the smell goes, that was it. Bleach and drain cleaner do not help here. They do not refill the seal, water does.

Why does my bathroom smell of sewer after heavy rain?

In the Netherlands the sewer in the street usually has no ventilation of its own. Street gullies have water seals so the street does not stink, so the air leaves the system through the rainwater pipes and roof vents of the buildings connected to it, according to a municipal sewer guide from Geldrop-Mierlo.

When it rains hard, the sewer fills with water and pushes that air back out. If the air cannot escape through the roof, it takes the weakest route, which is a water seal in your bathroom. That is why drains gurgle in a downpour, and why you can smell sewer on a day when nothing else has changed.

The same thing happens in reverse inside your home. A strong flush can pull water out of a nearby trap, and the smell appears right after you flush. A blocked roof vent makes both problems worse. An air valve (beluchter) on the affected drain lets air in at the right moment and stops the trap from being emptied. This is a plumber's job, because the valve has to match the problem.

When is it more than a dry trap?

If the smell stays after you have refilled every drain, look for these signs:

Gurgling and slow drains: start with our guide on how to tell a blocked drain from a blocked sewer .
Standing water in the pipe: in old buildings on soft ground, drain pipes sag and hold a pool of water. That pool blocks the air flow the system needs. Amsterdam's old canal houses are a classic case.
Smell in several rooms at once: points to the main drain or the roof vent, not to one trap.

A strong rotten-egg smell that does not clear after refilling the traps is worth tracing quickly. Open a window while you do.

Frequently asked questions

Why does my bathroom only smell like sewer sometimes?

Usually because the cause depends on conditions. A dry trap smells after long gaps between uses. A pressure or venting problem smells after heavy rain or a strong flush.

How long does it take for a drain to dry out?

If a drain is not used for several weeks, the water seal can evaporate completely. Warm, dry rooms speed it up.

Does a sewer smell mean my pipe is broken?

Not usually. A dry trap or a venting problem is far more common. A damaged pipe tends to show up as a smell together with slow drains, damp patches or standing water.

Is sewer smell harmful?

Sewer air contains hydrogen sulfide, which causes the rotten-egg smell. A short whiff from a dry trap is not an emergency, but a smell that keeps coming back means there is a source to find.

Smell won't go away?

We are English-speaking plumbers in Amsterdam, Amstelveen, Den Haag and Utrecht. We trace the source, on site within 2 hours, 24/7. Drain and sewer jobs start at €129 incl. VAT. Call or WhatsApp 06-24356980 .

Last updated: October 2026.

Plumber in Amstelveen: Who to Call for Heating and Drain Problems

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 10:35:22 GMT

Looking for an English-speaking plumber in Amstelveen? First check what heats your home. A large part of Amstelveen has no gas boiler: whole neighbourhoods run on Eneco district heating or on a heat pump linked to an underground heat store (WKO). When the heating and hot water both fail on those systems, the heat supplier fixes it at no charge. For everything behind that unit — radiators, pipes, leaks — and for drains, you need a plumber. Here's how to tell in 30 seconds.

1. Many Amstelveen homes have no boiler

The research behind Amstelveen's heat transition plan (CE Delft, 2020) shows how mixed the town is. About half of the buildings in the Stadshart are on Eneco's heat network, and Kronenburg is almost entirely connected (Eneco and DUWO, which also runs the network at Uilenstede). In Westwijk, 64% of the Kastelenbuurt is on a WKO network, and in Langerhuize it's 52%. Smaller pockets of district heating sit in Elsrijk, Randwijck, Bankras-Kostverloren and Middenhoven.

Not sure what you have? Look in the meter cupboard and the utility room:

Gas boiler (CV-ketel): a white wall unit with a gas pipe going into it, usually in a cupboard or the attic.
District heating (stadswarmte): no gas pipe. Instead, a compact heat delivery unit ( warmte-afleverset ) with a heat meter, usually in the meter cupboard.
WKO heat pump: a large indoor unit with a hot-water tank, usually combined with underfloor heating.

2. Who to call: the 30-second test

On district heating, the delivery unit belongs to the supplier. Eneco runs a free 24/7 fault line (0800-0072) and repairs or replaces the unit itself. A plumber isn't allowed to work on it — so calling one first only costs you a callout.

No hot water and no radiator gets warm: call the heat supplier.
Hot water works but the heating doesn't, one radiator stays cold, or a pipe leaks after the unit: that's the indoor installation — your landlord or a plumber.
Water leaking from the delivery unit itself: call the heat supplier.

WKO homes split the same way. With operators such as Eteck, the heat pump belongs to the operator, while the underfloor heating and pipes outside its casing are the owner's or landlord's. That dividing line is exactly where Amstelveen residents get stuck: in August 2026 NH Nieuws reported on WKO flats in Amstelveen with recurring heating failures going back to 2012, with the companies involved pointing at each other. A plumber who tells you — in writing — which side of the line the fault is on breaks that loop.

3. Drain keeps blocking? Check whose side it's on

Amstelveen's sewer bylaw ( Aansluitverordening Riolering Amstelveen 2023 , in force since 5 March 2024) splits your sewer connection at the property boundary — or half a metre into the street if your façade stands right on the boundary. Open the inspection cap ( ontstoppingsstuk ) near that line: dry means the blockage is on your side; full of water means it's probably the municipality's.

Three rules in article 11 of that bylaw decide who pays:

Their side, not your fault: the municipality fixes it and even reimburses your investigation costs.
No permission, no refund: any work done without the municipality's explicit permission beforehand is at your own expense. Nobody should dig towards the street before the municipality has been called.
Your pipe sagged: if a sagging private pipe caused the problem on their side, they can bill you. Sagging is common on Amstelveen's soft peat soil — and it's why a blockage comes back weeks after it was cleared.

The bylaw also requires the inspection cap to be reachable without digging. If yours is under paving or a planter, uncover it before you need it.

4. A pump unit in your garden? It's the municipality's

Homes that sit too low for a gravity sewer are on a pressure sewer, with a small pump unit ( minigemaal ) on their own land. Under article 10 of the same bylaw, the municipality maintains that pump and its pressure pipe at its own cost — even though it's in your garden. The exception is misuse, and the bylaw names one example specifically: draining rainwater or groundwater onto the pump. Pump alarm going off? Call the municipality first.

Renting? Tell your landlord first. Repairs to the sewer pipe fall on the owner — or on the VvE (owners' association) where a building shares one connection.

What we do in Amstelveen

We're English-speaking plumbers covering Amstelveen and the wider Amsterdam area, 24/7. On the phone we'll tell you whether your problem is ours, your heat supplier's or the municipality's — so you don't pay for the wrong callout. For drains we clear the blockage, run a camera through the pipe and explain in plain English where the problem sits and on whose side, with a report you can forward to your landlord, VvE or the municipality.

On site within 2 hours
Drain and sewer work from €129 incl. VAT; boiler work from €145 incl. VAT
1-month warranty on our work

Call 06-24356980 or WhatsApp us — day or night.

FAQ

Is there an English-speaking plumber in Amstelveen?

Yes. Your English Plumber serves all of Amstelveen 24/7, with the whole job — from the phone call to the written report — in English.

My Amstelveen flat has no boiler. Who fixes the heating?

On district heating, the heat supplier (in most of Amstelveen that's Eneco, 0800-0072) fixes the delivery unit. On a WKO system, the operator fixes the heat pump. Radiators, underfloor heating and pipes after that unit are for a plumber or your landlord.

Who pays for a blocked sewer in Amstelveen?

On your side of the property boundary, the owner pays. On the municipality's side, Gemeente Amstelveen pays — unless the cause is misuse or your own sagging pipe, or someone worked on the municipal pipe without permission.

How much does a plumber in Amstelveen cost?

Our drain and sewer work starts at €129 incl. VAT; boiler work from €145 incl. VAT. You hear the price before we start.

Blocked drain? See also Blocked Drain or Blocked Sewer? Here's How to Tell . Radiators cold? Read Radiator Not Heating Up? How to Bleed It .

Is Your Apartment's Hot Water Safe? Legionella Risk in the Netherlands

Mon, 21 Sep 2026 04:53:55 GMT

Yes, but only if your boiler is set correctly. Legionella bacteria grow fastest between 25°C and 50°C — so a water heater turned down "to save energy" is often more dangerous than one turned up. Most Amsterdam apartments never have a problem, but the risk climbs fast in exactly the temperature range some landlords pick without realising it.

The temperature window that matters

Legionella bacteria multiply best in water between 25°C and 50°C, with growth peaking around 30-40°C, according to Dutch water-safety body Kiwa. Below 20°C or above 60°C, the bacteria barely survive. That's why the standard advice for home installations is simple: keep your boiler or combi-ketel set to at least 60°C, always.

Why this catches expats out

Some landlords lower the storage temperature to cut gas use, or to stop children scalding themselves at the tap — both understandable reasons, but both can land the water squarely in the danger zone. If you've moved into a Dutch apartment and the shower never quite gets properly hot, that's not just an inconvenience. It's worth checking.

Who's actually responsible

For a normal rental apartment, there's no legal requirement for a formal legionella risk assessment — that only applies to "priority" buildings such as hospitals, care homes, and places offering overnight accommodation. But under the Drinkwaterbesluit and NEN 1006, the building owner or VvE still has a general duty of care to keep the water supply safe. In practice, that means a tenant can reasonably ask a landlord to have the boiler temperature checked.

What you can do yourself

Run every tap, including ones you rarely use, for at least a minute once a week — including a second bathroom or guest shower.
Ask your landlord, or a plumber, to confirm the boiler is set to at least 60°C at the source.
Clean showerheads regularly. Limescale and biofilm inside them are what actually aerosolises the bacteria.

If a tap hasn't been used for more than a week, for example after a holiday, run it hot for a few minutes before showering under it, and avoid standing directly in the spray while you do.

When to call a plumber

Checking and correctly setting a boiler's storage temperature takes a licensed plumber under half an hour. Your English Plumber does boiler checks and adjustments from €145 incl. VAT, on-site within two hours, in English.

Frequently Asked Questions

What temperature should my boiler be set to?

At least 60°C at the source, per Dutch guidance — hot enough that the tap itself may need a thermostatic mixer to prevent scalding.

Can I get sick from drinking legionella-contaminated water?

No. The risk comes from inhaling fine water droplets, typically from showers, not from drinking the water.

Is this a bigger risk in old Amsterdam canal houses?

Not because of the building's age directly, but older systems with long, rarely-used pipe runs — common in canal houses split into multiple units — give the bacteria more stagnant water to grow in.

Who pays if the boiler needs adjusting?

Boiler settings and maintenance are typically a landlord responsibility under Dutch rental law, the same as with heating and hot water supply generally.

Radiator Not Heating Up? How to Bleed It in a Dutch Home

Mon, 31 Aug 2026 04:23:56 GMT

If your radiator is warm at the bottom and cold at the top, there is air trapped inside it. Bleeding it takes about five minutes and you can do it yourself. If it is cold at the bottom and warm at the top, that is not air — bleeding will not fix it, and the system needs flushing.

This is the most common heating call we get in September and October, when people in Amsterdam turn the heating on for the first time since spring. Most of them do not need us. Here is how to tell which one you are.

Cold at the top or cold at the bottom?

Run the heating for ten minutes, then put your hand flat on the radiator, top and bottom.

Cold top, warm bottom — trapped air. Air rises to the highest point of the radiator and pushes the hot water down. Bleed it.
Cold bottom, warm top — sludge. Rust and magnetite settle at the base of the radiator and block the flow. Boiler manufacturers are clear that bleeding does nothing here; the system needs a professional flush.
Completely cold while other radiators are fine — usually a stuck thermostatic valve. Pull the white knob off and press the metal pin underneath. If it does not spring back, the valve is seized.
Every radiator cold — check the boiler pressure first. Below 1 bar most boilers stop circulating and go into fault.

How to bleed a radiator: the correct order

Most guides tell you to switch the heating off and start bleeding. That skips the step that makes it work.

Open every radiator in the house fully and put the thermostat up. Let the system run for 10 to 15 minutes. This drives the air up to the bleed valves.
Turn the thermostat right down and wait until the boiler stops and the water settles — around 10 to 20 minutes. Never bleed a hot system.
Start on the ground floor , at the radiator furthest from the boiler. Air collects at the highest point, so you work upwards and finish with the highest radiator in the house.
Close the valve of the radiator you are about to bleed. This is the step almost everyone skips, and it is the difference between actually removing the air and just letting water out.
Open the bleed valve a quarter turn anticlockwise with a radiator key ( ontluchtingssleutel , a few euro at any Gamma or Praxis). Hold a cloth and a cup underneath. You will hear a hiss.
Close it as soon as steady water appears — a clean dribble with no spitting. Then reopen the radiator valve and move to the next one.
Check the boiler pressure at the end , once all radiators are done, and top up in one go if needed.

The pressure rule that is wrong for Amsterdam flats

Everyone tells you the gauge should read 1.5 to 2 bar. That is correct for a house with the boiler downstairs. If your CV ketel hangs in the attic or in a top-floor cupboard, it is not.

Pressure changes with height: roughly 0.1 bar for every metre. A boiler mounted at the highest point of the system sits where the pressure is lowest, so around 1 bar on that gauge is already enough to run the whole flat — Bosch says so in its own guidance. Chasing 2 bar on a top-floor boiler means the rest of the system is running higher than it needs to.

The same physics works against you when refilling. Mains pressure also drops about 1 bar per 10 metres of height, so four floors up there is not much left to fill with. If your pressure sits near 1 bar and will not climb, that is often the building, not a fault. Our guide to topping up a CV ketel walks through it.

One more thing for attic boilers: the most important bleed point is not a radiator at all, it is the automatic air vent on the boiler itself, plus any vent at the highest point of the pipework. If that vent is faulty, air keeps coming back no matter how many radiators you bleed.

When to stop and call a plumber

Water comes out of the bleed valve but the radiator stays cold
The radiator is cold at the bottom
Banging or gurgling in the pipes while the heating runs
Pressure keeps dropping every week after you top up
The bleed valve is seized, or drips and will not seal again
Air is back in the radiators a few weeks later

A sealed system should not keep taking in air. If it does, air is getting in somewhere, and repeatedly topping up adds fresh oxygenated water that corrodes the pipes faster. That is a diagnosis job.

Common questions

How often should I bleed my radiators?

Once a year is plenty for most homes, ideally at the start of the heating season in September or October. If you need to do it more often, something else is wrong.

Do I have to turn the heating off first?

Yes, but only after running it. Heat the system first so the air gathers at the vents, then switch off and let it cool. Bleeding a hot system sprays scalding water.

Why does only water come out, and the radiator is still cold?

Then there was no air to remove. Look at sludge, a seized valve, low pressure or a failing circulation pump instead.

Do I need a radiator key?

Usually. Some valves take a flathead screwdriver. A key costs a few euro at any DIY shop and is worth having in a Dutch flat.

Can I bleed radiators in a rented apartment?

Yes — bleeding is normal maintenance and does not involve opening anything sealed. Anything beyond that, including topping up a boiler you were never shown how to use, is worth reporting to your landlord first.

English-speaking plumber in Amsterdam

Your English Plumber covers Amsterdam, Amstelveen, Utrecht and Den Haag. Boiler and central heating work starts at €145 incl. VAT , we are usually on site within 2 hours , available 24/7, with a one-month warranty. No Dutch required, and you will understand every word of the invoice.

Call 06-24356980 or message us on WhatsApp .

Water Leaking From the Flat Above? Who Pays in the Netherlands

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 12:06:59 GMT

Short answer: in almost every case, the side the leak came from pays — or their insurer does. The argument is rarely about who pays. It's about proving where the water started.

It usually begins the same way. A dark patch on the ceiling that wasn't there yesterday. Then a drip. Then the light fitting starts filling up.

First: where did it start?

A Dutch apartment building is legally divided into private parts and communal parts. That line decides who is on the hook.

Communal — the roof, the main risers, the vertical soil stack, the shared sewer connection. This is the VvE's responsibility, meaning all the owners together.
Private — a washing machine hose, a tap, a shower tray, pipework serving only that one flat. This is that owner's responsibility.

The flat directly above you is a suspect, not a verdict. Water runs along joists and reappears metres from where it entered. We've traced leaks that showed up in a second-floor bedroom and started at a roof detail two floors higher.

Then: which insurance

Three policies are usually in play, held by three different parties.

Building insurance (opstalverzekering) — held by the VvE, covers the fabric of the building: walls, ceilings, sanitary ware, fixed heating.
Contents insurance (inboedelverzekering) — yours alone, covers your possessions.
Personal liability insurance (AVP) — the upstairs owner's, if the cause sat in his flat.

Two things here cost people real money. Insurance covers the consequence, not the cause — the water damage to your ceiling is generally covered, replacing the pipe that failed generally isn't. And gradual damage is usually excluded : mould from a slow seep running behind a wall for eight months tends to fall outside cover entirely. That's the case for chasing a small stain early rather than watching it for a season, which is also the point of our piece on spotting a hidden leak .

The First Hour

Stop the water if you can reach it. If the source is above you and nobody's home, this becomes an emergency for the VvE or the landlord fast.
Photograph everything before you clean up. Wet ceiling, wet floor, wet possessions. Once you've mopped, the insurer only has your word for it.
Report it in writing to the neighbour and to the VvE or landlord. A message, not just a knock on the door. The date you reported it matters if the damage keeps spreading.
Don't settle anything on the spot. Nobody knows the cause yet, including the person above you.

The cause report is the whole thing

Every insurer, VvE board and landlord in this chain asks the same question in writing: what caused it?

That answer comes from whoever opens the ceiling, runs the camera or traces the moisture. "Leak in bathroom" settles nothing. A report naming which pipe, at which point, and whether it sat on a communal riser or a private branch settles the argument in an afternoon.

We write ours in English, with photographs, and we're explicit about communal versus private — because that one sentence is what the money hangs on. We also write it when the answer isn't in your favour. If your dishwasher hose let go and soaked the flat below, that goes in too. That's what makes a report worth anything to an insurer.

If you rent

The building and its installations are the landlord's problem, your possessions are yours. Report the leak in writing straight away, and don't commission major investigation work yourself expecting to be reimbursed later without agreeing it first.

What we do

Leak tracing and camera inspection — finding the actual source, not the wettest spot
Drain and sewer work — from €129 incl. VAT
Boiler and heating — from €145 incl. VAT
Emergency pump-out — flooded cellars and crawl spaces, 24/7

One-month warranty, prices always including VAT, typically on site within two hours across Amsterdam, Amstelveen, Haarlem, Leiden, The Hague, Utrecht, Hoofddorp, Diemen and Schiphol.

If the water is coming up rather than down, read blocked drain or blocked sewer instead. And if you're in an older building, what old canal houses do to your plumbing is worth five minutes.

Ceiling dripping right now? Call 06-24356980, 24/7 — or message us on WhatsApp .

Plumber in Amsterdam: What Old Canal Houses Do to Your Plumbing

Sun, 16 Aug 2026 20:12:22 GMT

You moved into a beautiful apartment on a canal, or a 1920s upstairs flat in De Pijp, and within six months something went wrong with the water. A shower that trickles. A drain that gurgles in the flat below. A boiler that loses pressure every fortnight. It feels like bad luck. It usually isn't.

Amsterdam's housing stock behaves differently from almost anywhere else you've lived. The city is built on soft peat and clay, most of the old centre sits on timber piles, and a large part of the plumbing was retrofitted into buildings that were finished long before anyone thought about bathrooms. As an English-speaking plumber working across Amsterdam, we see the same handful of problems over and over — and they are nearly all Amsterdam-specific.

Here's what actually goes wrong in this city, why, and who is responsible for fixing it.

1. The city is settling, and your drains settle with it

Amsterdam's subsoil is a soft layer of peat and clay. To build on it, timber piles were driven down into the sand layer beneath — a technique used here since the seventeenth century. Timber survives indefinitely as long as it stays under the groundwater. When the groundwater drops, oxygen reaches the pile heads and fungi go to work. That's paalrot , pile rot, and it is the single biggest structural issue in the older parts of the city. The municipality runs a dedicated Funderingsloket (foundations desk) for exactly this reason, and Waternet monitors groundwater levels through roughly 2,500 measuring wells across the city.

You don't need a foundation problem to feel the effect in your plumbing. A few millimetres of settlement is enough to change the fall on a waste pipe. Wastewater needs a consistent downward gradient to carry solids away; take that gradient away and you get a flat run where waste sits, dries and builds up. The result is a drain that blocks every few months and unblocks easily each time — the classic sign that the pipe itself is the problem, not what you're putting down it.

It's most common in pre-war neighbourhoods: the Jordaan, De Pijp, Oud-West, De Baarsjes, parts of Oud-Zuid and the streets around the canals. Buildings with a mixed foundation — part timber, part concrete after a later repair — are worse, because the two halves settle at different rates and the pipework spanning them takes the strain.

What to do: if a drain blocks repeatedly in the same place, stop paying for repeat unblocking and get a camera inspection. Ten minutes with a CCTV camera tells you whether you have a fat build-up or a collapsed, dropped or back-falling section. We include camera inspection in our drain work from €129 incl. VAT.

2. Your building may be listed — and that changes what's allowed

Amsterdam's seventeenth-century canal ring has been on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 2010, and the city centre alone contains thousands of national monuments. If you live inside the Singelgracht, there is a decent chance your building is protected — and protection extends to the inside, not just the façade.

Under Dutch heritage rules the general position is that almost any alteration to a listed building requires a permit. There are two useful exceptions. Ordinary maintenance is permit-free, as long as the detailing, profile, shape, material and colour don't change — repairing a leaking pipe, replacing a length of copper with copper. And internal changes to parts of the building with no heritage value are also permit-free, which typically covers a bathroom or kitchen fitted in the 1970s or later.

In practice: a repair is a repair, and we can get on with it. A full bathroom relocation, cutting new chases into original walls or moving a soil stack is a different conversation, and worth checking with the gemeente before anyone lifts a floorboard. Discovering the permit question halfway through a renovation is expensive.

3. Lead pipes still exist in pre-1960 buildings

This one surprises most international residents. In Dutch buildings constructed before 1960, lead drinking water pipes may still be present in the private installation inside the property. Lead leaches into the water sitting in the pipe, and the legal limit for lead in drinking water at the tap is 5 micrograms per litre. Babies, young children and pregnant women are the groups most at risk.

Lead pipe is dull grey, soft enough to mark with a fingernail, and makes a flat, dead sound when you tap it with something metal — unlike copper, which rings. If water that has stood in the pipe overnight tastes different from water that has run for a minute, that's worth investigating too.

If you rent: this is your landlord's responsibility, not yours. Amsterdam tenants can get free, independent advice from Stichting !WOON, and the government has legislated a ban on lead pipes in rental homes and childcare locations through the building decree, with the commencement date being phased in. If you own: replacement is on you, and it is usually a straightforward job — the awkward part is access, not the plumbing.

4. Water pressure drops with every floor you climb

Amsterdam is a city of upstairs flats, and this is the physics nobody explains when you sign the lease. Water pressure falls by roughly 0.1 bar for every metre of height. Dutch guidance expects around 2 bar available at the connection, which is comfortable at street level — but a fourth-floor flat in a tall old building can be sitting near the bottom of the usable range before you've even turned a tap.

Add a narrow, scaled or partly restricted old riser and a thermostatic shower valve that needs a decent flow to hold temperature, and you get the two complaints we hear most: a weak shower, and a shower that swings hot and cold whenever someone else opens a tap. Taller buildings normally solve this with a booster set; in a converted canal house there often isn't one, and there's a limit to how much pressure can be conjured out of the mains.

One important distinction: your central heating pressure is a separate, closed circuit and has nothing to do with mains pressure. If your boiler gauge keeps dropping, that's a different fault with a different fix — we've covered that in how to top up your CV ketel , and the common warning codes in boiler error codes explained .

5. Limescale is probably not your problem here

If you've come from London, the south of England, or much of Germany, you'll have spent years fighting limescale. Amsterdam is different. Waternet supplies water with an average hardness of about 7.8 °dH, which counts as soft water, and the same water goes to Amstelveen, Diemen, Ouder-Amstel and Heemstede. Waternet's own position is that a water softener isn't needed here.

That matters diagnostically. When a shower head in a hard-water city runs badly, limescale is the first suspect. In Amsterdam it usually isn't. A poor shower here is far more likely to be height and pressure, a partly closed isolation valve, a failing thermostatic cartridge, or corrosion and debris from old galvanised pipework. Descaling the head won't fix any of those — and if someone in Amsterdam tries to sell you a water softener to solve a pressure complaint, be sceptical.

6. Blocked drain: is it yours, or the city's?

This is worth knowing before you spend money. Broadly, the sewer under the street is the municipality's responsibility, and everything from your property boundary inwards is the owner's. The dividing point is usually the boundary or the inspection chamber, and the exact line can vary by municipality.

The quick test is which drains are affected. One sink, one shower or one toilet misbehaving means the blockage is in your own pipework. Everything backing up at once — and the ground floor worst of all — points further downstream. In Amsterdam and Weesp, problems with the public sewer can be reported to the municipality on 14 020, and persistent sewer smells to Waternet. If you call a commercial company for something that turns out to be the city's section, you will almost certainly not get that money back.

Most of what we're called out to, though, sits firmly inside the property — and in old buildings with shared soil stacks it's often a communal riser serving several flats, which makes it a VvE matter rather than a personal one. We've broken the symptoms down in blocked drain or blocked sewer: how to tell , and the usual culprits in 5 things quietly blocking your drains .

7. Souterrains, cellars and crawl spaces flood

Amsterdam has a high groundwater table and a lot of half-sunken ground floors. A souterrain apartment, a cellar under a canal house or a crawl space under a ground-floor flat can take on water after heavy rain, after a burst pipe upstairs, or simply because groundwater found a route in through settled brickwork.

The damage compounds fast: standing water under a floor raises humidity through the whole building, and by the time you can smell it in the living room it has usually been there a while. If water is rising rather than falling, that's a same-night job — we run an emergency pump-out service 24/7 across the city. And if you suspect a slow leak rather than an obvious flood, the early warning signs are in how to spot a hidden water leak .

Where we work in Amsterdam

We're based in Amsterdam and cover the whole city and the surrounding area, including:

Centrum — Grachtengordel, Jordaan, Haarlemmerbuurt, Nieuwmarkt, Plantage
Zuid — De Pijp, Oud-Zuid, Rivierenbuurt, Buitenveldert, Zuidas
West — Oud-West, De Baarsjes, Westerpark, Bos en Lommer
Oost — Indische Buurt, Watergraafsmeer, Oostpoort, IJburg
Noord and Nieuw-West
Around the city — Amstelveen, Diemen, Weesp, Hoofddorp and Schiphol

When to call

Amsterdam's buildings are wonderful to live in and unforgiving to plumb. A settling foundation, a listed interior, a pre-1960 pipe run and four floors of height loss are not problems you'll find in a modern apartment anywhere else — and they change both the diagnosis and the fix. The mistake we see most often is treating a symptom repeatedly instead of finding out what the building is actually doing.

If something in your Amsterdam home isn't draining, isn't heating or isn't holding pressure, we'll tell you in plain English what's wrong and what it costs before we start. Drain work from €129 incl. VAT, boiler work from €145 incl. VAT, no hidden call-out fees, one-month warranty, and typically on site within two hours.

Call 06-24356980, available 24/7 — or message us on WhatsApp .

Low Boiler Pressure? How to Top Up Your CV Ketel

Mon, 13 Jul 2026 09:15:56 GMT

You go to take a shower and there's no hot water. Or the radiators won't warm up and there's a warning light on the boiler. Nine times out of ten in a Dutch home, the culprit is the same: low water pressure in your CV ketel .

The good news? This is one of the few plumbing problems you can usually fix yourself in about five minutes. Here's exactly how — and when it's a sign to call someone instead.

How to tell it's a pressure problem

Every CV ketel has a pressure gauge — either a round dial or a digital reading on the front panel. Check the number when the system is cold:

Below 1.0 bar — too low. This is why you've lost heat or hot water.
1.0–2.0 bar — the healthy range. Aim for around 1.5 bar cold.
Above 2.5 bar — too high. Don't top up (see below).

Many boilers also flash a low-pressure warning or an error code when the pressure drops too far.

How to top up your boiler: the filling loop

Under or beside the boiler you'll find the vulkraan — the filling loop. It's usually a grey or silver braided hose with a tap or valve at each end, connected to your cold water supply.

Make sure the boiler is switched off and cold .
Open both valves slowly. You'll hear water flowing in.
Watch the gauge climb. When it reaches 1.5 bar, close both valves .
Turn the boiler back on. Your heat and hot water should return within a few minutes.

Go slowly — it's easy to overshoot. If you do, there's usually a small bleed valve on a radiator you can use to let a little pressure back out.

Living on an upper floor? Why your boiler won't fill past a certain point

Here's something that catches a lot of people out in Amsterdam's apartments. The filling loop is fed by your cold mains water — and mains pressure drops the higher up you go. As a rule of thumb, you lose roughly 1 bar of pressure for every 10 metres of height above the street.

That matters because you can't fill a sealed heating system any higher than the mains pressure available at your tap. On the third or fourth floor, the incoming pressure may only be a little above your target. So the gauge fills slowly, and it may simply stall at around 1.2–1.5 bar and refuse to climb any further, no matter how long you leave the loop open.

If that's happening to you, you're not doing anything wrong — you've just hit the ceiling of what the mains can deliver at that height. If the system won't hold or reach a safe working pressure, that's the point to stop and get it checked properly.

When topping up isn't enough

Topping up once or twice a year is completely normal. But if you're refilling every week, something else is going on — usually a small leak in the system, a failing expansion vessel, or a faulty pressure valve. That's not a DIY job.

The same applies if the pressure is stuck too high and won't come down, if you can't find the filling loop at all, or if it won't reach a safe pressure because of low mains supply on an upper floor.

When to call Your English Plumber

If topping up doesn't hold, or you'd rather not touch the boiler yourself, we'll sort it — in plain English, no translation app required. We cover Amsterdam and the surrounding area for boiler pressure faults, leaks, and full CV ketel servicing, with call-outs from €129 incl. VAT .

Not sure whether it's a pressure issue or something else? Read our guide to common CV ketel error codes and what they mean.

How to Spot a Hidden Water Leak Before It Wrecks Your Home

Fri, 26 Jun 2026 13:23:52 GMT

Most water leaks don't announce themselves with a dramatic burst and a flooded floor. The expensive ones are quiet. They run for weeks or months behind a wall, under a floor, or inside a ceiling void — slowly soaking plaster, feeding mould, and quietly inflating your water bill. By the time the damage is visible, the repair is rarely just a plumbing job anymore; it's plumbing plus plastering plus paint.

The good news is that hidden leaks almost always leave clues before they cause real harm. If you know what to look for, you can catch one early and keep a €129 call-out from turning into a four-figure renovation. Here's what every household in the Netherlands should keep an eye on.

1. Your Water Bill Climbs for No Reason

Your usage habits don't change much month to month, so your water bill shouldn't either. A sudden, unexplained jump is one of the clearest signs that water is escaping somewhere you can't see. Even a leak you could cover with a fingertip can waste hundreds of litres a day when it runs around the clock.

There's a simple test you can do yourself. Turn off every tap and water-using appliance in the house, then check your water meter. Note the reading, wait an hour without using any water, and check again. If the numbers have moved, water is flowing somewhere — and that somewhere is almost always a leak.

2. Damp Patches, Stains, and That Musty Smell

Discolouration on a wall or ceiling — a yellowish ring, a darker patch, paint that bubbles or peels — is water finding its way out of where it belongs. These stains often appear some distance from the actual leak, because water travels along beams and pipes before it surfaces, which is exactly why tracing a leak is harder than it looks.

Your nose is a good early detector too. A persistent musty or earthy smell in a room, a cupboard, or near the floor usually means moisture has been sitting somewhere long enough for mould to take hold. If a space smells damp even after you've aired it out, treat that as a warning rather than a quirk.

3. Low Pressure, Running Sounds, and Warm Spots

If your shower or taps have lost their usual force, a leak upstream could be bleeding off pressure before the water reaches you. It's not always the cause of low pressure, but combined with any of the other signs here, it's worth taking seriously.

Sound is another giveaway. If you can hear running or trickling water when every tap is closed — especially in the quiet of the evening — pay attention to where it's loudest. And on heating pipes, an unusually warm patch on a floor or wall can point to a hot-water leak hiding underneath the surface.

4. What to Do the Moment You Suspect a Leak

First, find your main shut-off valve and know how to close it — it's usually near your water meter, by the front door, or in a utility cupboard. Shutting off the supply stops the damage spreading while you sort out the next step, and it's the single most useful thing you can do in the first five minutes.

Next, resist the urge to start opening up walls. Pinpointing a hidden leak without the right equipment usually means tearing out far more than necessary and still missing the source. We use camera inspection (CCTV) to trace leaks and blockages inside pipes and cavities, so we find the exact problem before anything gets opened up — which keeps both the repair and the mess to a minimum.

Have you noticed any of these signs in your home recently? Catching a leak in week one instead of month three is the difference between a quick fix and a renovation.

Don't Wait for the Ceiling to Give Way

Hidden leaks reward people who act early and punish people who hope it'll sort itself out. If your bill has crept up, a wall feels damp, or something just smells off, it's worth getting it checked before the damage becomes the expensive part. A short inspection now is always cheaper than the plastering and painting later.

Your English Plumber is an English-speaking team serving expats across the Randstad — Amsterdam, Amstelveen, Den Haag, Utrecht and beyond. We respond within two hours, charge from €129 incl. VAT, and back our work with a one-month guarantee. Spotted something? Call us on 06-24356980 and we'll take a look before it gets worse.

5 Things That Are Quietly Blocking Your Drains Right Now

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 17:06:39 GMT

Most people blame hair or cooking grease when a drain starts running slow. And sure — those don't help. But the calls we get most often involve something the homeowner genuinely didn't see coming. Here are five things that cause blocked drains far more often than people realise, and what to do about each of them.

1. Coffee Grounds

This surprises almost everyone. Coffee grounds feel small and fine, so rinsing them down the kitchen sink seems harmless. It isn't.

Unlike most organic matter, coffee grounds don't dissolve in water. They're heavy, they clump together when wet, and they settle at the lowest point in your pipe — typically inside the U-bend beneath your sink. Once they're sitting there, they act like a net: every bit of grease, soap scum and food debris that follows sticks to them, and the blockage grows quickly from there.

Plumbers consistently rank coffee grounds among the top causes of kitchen sink blockages. The fix is simple: tip them into the bin or compost. Takes five seconds. Saves you a call-out.

2. "Flushable" Wipes

The label says flushable. The label is wrong.

Unlike toilet paper, which is specifically designed to break down rapidly in water, wet wipes — even ones marketed as flushable — are reinforced with fibres that don't disintegrate in your pipes or the sewer system. Water UK reports 300,000 sewer blockages per year in the United Kingdom alone, with wipes named as a leading cause. The pattern is the same across Europe.

What actually happens when you flush a wipe: it travels through your pipes, snags on any rough spot or existing debris, and starts collecting everything that comes after it. Combined with fats and grease, they form what engineers call "fatbergs" — solid masses that can block an entire pipe. Thames Water alone clears over 75,000 blockages annually at a cost of around £40 million, with wipes a major contributing factor.

Bin them. All of them. Regardless of what the packaging says.

3. Rice and Pasta

You'd think a few stray grains of rice down the plughole would be no big deal. The problem is what happens next.

Rice, pasta and other starchy foods expand with water, creating a glue-like substance that clings to the inside of pipes. Raw rice absorbs moisture and swells. Cooked pasta continues to absorb water long after it's been plated. Both sink to the bottom of your drain pipe and stay there, building up over time into a dense, sticky mass that narrows the pipe and slows everything behind it.

This is one of the reasons kitchen drains in homes with a lot of cooking tend to block more frequently than others. Use a sink strainer to catch food scraps before they make it into the pipe, and scrape plates into the bin rather than rinsing them straight under the tap.

4. Liquid Soap in Large Amounts

This one genuinely catches people off guard. Soap is supposed to clean things, including your pipes. So how does it cause a blockage?

On its own, liquid soap draining away is fine. The issue is volume and what it combines with. When used in large amounts, liquid soap goes down the drain and clumps together with hair and other debris, forming a thick, gooey mass that builds up inside the pipe. In hard water areas — which includes most of the Netherlands — soap also reacts with the calcium in the water to form soap scum: a chalky residue that sticks to pipe walls and accumulates over time.

This shows up most often in bathroom sinks and showers. If your bathroom sink is running slow and you can't see a hair blockage, soap scum build-up is a very likely culprit.

5. Eggshells

Eggshells seem too light and brittle to cause real trouble. They're not.

Eggshells don't decompose quickly and can stick to the sides of pipes, creating a layer that traps everything else passing through. Crushed eggshell creates a granular, gritty waste that combines with grease and coffee grounds to form a particularly stubborn type of blockage — harder to shift than a simple hair clog and often requiring professional equipment to clear properly.

The bin is the right destination for eggshells. Every time.

When It's Already Blocked

If your drain is running slow, that's an early warning — a partial blockage that's growing. Don't wait until it stops entirely.

Avoid chemical drain cleaners. They're harsh on older pipes and rarely solve the underlying problem; they typically just dissolve the surface layer of a blockage and let it reform further along. A professional drain clear uses mechanical equipment to remove the blockage completely, not just push it down the line.

Your English Plumber covers drain unblocking across the Netherlands — Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Den Haag, Haarlem, Leiden and more — from €129 including VAT , available 24/7, on-site within 2 hours.

Drain running slow? Call 06-24356980 or WhatsApp us before it stops completely.

Boiler Error Codes Explained: What to Do When Your CV Ketel Shows an Error

Mon, 25 May 2026 13:16:33 GMT

Your boiler has stopped and there's a code flashing on the display. It could be E1, F7, A-03 — something that means nothing to you at 7am on a cold morning. The good news: most boiler error codes in the Netherlands are not serious. Many can be resolved in minutes without calling anyone. This guide explains what the most common codes mean, what you can safely try yourself, and when it's time to call a plumber.

How Boiler Error Codes Work

Modern CV ketels (central heating boilers) have built-in diagnostics that detect faults and lock the boiler to prevent damage. When something goes wrong, the boiler displays a code and shuts down — a safety feature, not a failure. The most common brands in Dutch homes are Intergas, Nefit, Remeha, Vaillant, and HR Kombi. Each brand uses its own code system, so the same problem might show as "E3" on one brand and "F22" on another.

Before calling a plumber, it's always worth doing a basic reset. On most boilers, you hold the reset button for 3–5 seconds. If the boiler fires up and runs normally, you're done. If it locks out again within the hour, the underlying cause needs to be found.

The Most Common Error Codes — and What They Mean

No hot water or heating / boiler won't fire
Brands: Intergas E1, Nefit E2, Vaillant F22, Remeha E118
This usually means low water pressure. Check the pressure gauge on the front of your boiler — it should sit between 1.5 and 2 bar when cold. If it's below 1 bar, you need to top up the system. There's a filling loop (a small silver or grey handle) connected to your boiler. Open it slowly until the pressure reaches 1.5 bar, then close it again. Reset the boiler. This is one of the most common calls we get — and the easiest fix.

Ignition failure / boiler clicks but won't light
Brands: Intergas E2, Nefit E3, Vaillant F28, Remeha E117
The boiler is trying to ignite but failing. This can happen after the gas has been off (roadworks, meter work), or if there's air in the gas line. Try resetting 2–3 times. If it still won't light, check that other gas appliances in your home work — if your hob has no gas either, the problem is with the supply, not the boiler. Call your gas provider. If the hob works fine but the boiler won't ignite, call a plumber.

Flue or ventilation fault
Brands: Vaillant F61, Remeha E110, Nefit E9
This means the boiler can't safely exhaust combustion gases. The flue pipe (usually going through an outside wall) may be blocked — by a bird's nest, debris, or ice in very cold weather. Check if anything is blocking the external vent. Never attempt to clean or modify the flue yourself. If it looks clear but the code persists, call a certified engineer.

Overheating / high temperature fault
Brands: Intergas E5, Vaillant F75, Nefit E5, Remeha E119
The boiler has detected unusually high temperatures and shut down to protect itself. This often points to a circulation problem — a pump that isn't moving water properly, or a radiator system with a lot of air in it. Try bleeding your radiators (use a radiator key to open the bleed valve slightly until water comes out steadily, then close). If the error returns, the pump may need to be checked by a plumber.

Sensor or circuit board fault
Brands: Various — typically shown as F3, E6, A-04, or similar
If the error code doesn't match any of the above and a reset doesn't help, it's likely an internal sensor or electronic fault. These can't be diagnosed or fixed without the right equipment. Call a plumber — don't keep resetting, as repeated lockouts on a faulty sensor can mask a more serious problem.

What You Can Safely Do Yourself

Top up the water pressure, bleed your radiators, check the gas supply, and reset the boiler once or twice. That covers the majority of error codes that come up in everyday use. Beyond that — anything involving the gas connection, the flue, the pump, or internal components — needs a certified professional. In the Netherlands, gas work must be carried out by a recognised installer (erkend installateur). Your English Plumber's engineers are fully certified and work across Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Den Haag, and surrounding areas.

Still Seeing an Error Code? We Can Help.

Tell us the brand of your boiler and the code on the display, and we'll tell you straight away whether it's something you can fix or whether we need to come out. We're available 24/7 — including evenings and weekends — and typically on-site within 2 hours.

�� Call 06-24356980 — available 24/7
�� WhatsApp: wa.me/31624356980

Blocked Drain or Blocked Sewer? Here's How to Tell

Tue, 05 May 2026 13:29:05 GMT

If something isn't draining in your home, the first question is simple: is it one drain, or everything at once? The answer tells you whether you have a blocked drain or a blocked sewer — and that determines what the fix involves, how urgent it is, and what it will cost.

What's the difference between a drain and a sewer?

A drain is the pipe connected to a single fixture, your kitchen sink, shower, toilet or bathtub. A sewer line is the main pipe that collects wastewater from all of those drains and carries it out to the municipal connection under the street.

If one drain is slow or blocked, the problem is in that specific pipe. If multiple drains are affected at the same time, the blockage is almost certainly deeper in the main sewer line running out of your home.

Signs you have a blocked drain

One sink, shower or toilet is slow or not draining at all
The problem is isolated to a single room
No bad smell coming from other fixtures in the house
A plunger gives temporary relief

Common causes: hair and soap build-up in shower drains, grease in kitchen drains, or something flushed down the toilet that shouldn't be there. A blocked drain is the simpler fix — usually cleared within the hour using a drain snake or high-pressure jet.

From €129 incl. VAT · On-site within 2 hours

Signs you have a blocked sewer

Multiple drains backing up at the same time
Flushing the toilet causes water to rise in the shower or bathtub
Gurgling sounds from the toilet when you run the kitchen tap
Sewage smell coming from more than one point in the house
Water pooling outside near the drain well in the garden

A blocked sewer is more serious and will not fix itself. The longer you leave it, the worse and more expensive the damage gets.

What causes a blocked sewer in the Netherlands?

Dutch sewer systems particularly in older homes and apartments are prone to a few specific problems:

Grease and fat built up over years of cooking and washing
Tree root ingress — roots grow into older clay or concrete pipes and cause blockages or cracks
Foreign objects — wipes, sanitary products, paper towels
Collapsed or cracked pipe sections — common in pre-1980s properties across the Netherlands

Can you fix it yourself?

A blocked drain: sometimes. A plunger or basic drain snake from the hardware store can clear minor blockages.

A blocked sewer: no. You need professional high-pressure jetting equipment to properly clear a main sewer line. Trying to force a blockage without knowing what's causing it or where it is can make things significantly worse and potentially damage the pipe.

What does a professional fix involve?

For a blocked drain : we clear it with a drain snake or high-pressure jet, then check water flow afterwards to confirm the blockage is fully resolved not just temporarily shifted.

For a blocked sewer : we locate the blockage, clear it with high-pressure jetting, and use a camera inspection if there's any sign of root ingress or structural damage. We show you the footage and explain what we found before recommending any further work.

All work comes with a 1-month warranty — if the blockage returns within 30 days, we fix it for free.

How much does it cost?

Drain unblocking starts from €129 incl. VAT . Sewer line clearing is quoted on-site after diagnosis — we never start work without giving you a clear price first. No call-out fee surprises.

Not sure what you're dealing with? Call us.

Your English Plumber is operated by RRD Service & Installatie, based in Amsterdam with local technicians across the Netherlands. With 20+ years of experience, we're on-site within 2 hours — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Describe what you're seeing and we'll tell you what it sounds like before we even arrive.

�� Call 06-24356980 — available 24/7
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