In your village
Plumber in Austerlitz
Municipality of Zeist. Somebody is with you in 40 to 80 minutes, counted from your call and not from the moment the van sets off.
Phone answered
07:00 to 22:00, every day
Travel time to Austerlitz
usually 40 to 80 minutes
Call-out charge (voorrijkosten)
€ 25 on top before 08:00, after 18:00 and on Sundays
What we run into here
The faults Austerlitz produces
Long private outside drains with many joints, vulnerable to root ingress.
The deepest water table in the municipality: damp under a floor here is almost never ground water.
Freezing in unheated outbuildings and outside taps that were not drained down.
Detached houses with separate branches feeding outbuildings and utility rooms.
Greater distance to the public sewer than in the rest of the municipality.
Generously sized heating systems, where one fault leaves the whole house cold.
Austerlitz is the smallest village in the municipality of Zeist and the highest: right on top of the Utrechtse Heuvelrug, surrounded by forest and heath. It grew in 1804 and 1805 around a French army camp, of which the Pyramide van Austerlitz remains, an earth pyramid built by the troops and still the local landmark. The housing is largely twentieth century and mostly detached or semi-detached, along the Oude Postweg and the Schooldwarsweg.
Being high on the ridge means two things for the work. First, the water table here is the deepest in the municipality, so damp in a crawl space comes from above or from a pipe and practically never from below. Second, the distance to the public sewer is greater and the private drain runs are longer, with more joints for roots to find. The forest here reaches the garden fence.
The houses are roomy, generally with their own central heating and sometimes a separate utility room or outbuilding on its own branch. In a frost that is the first thing to freeze: a pipe in an unheated outbuilding, or an outside tap that was never drained down. In Austerlitz that is the most predictable winter callout and at the same time the easiest one to avoid, by closing the indoor isolating valve in autumn and leaving the outside tap open.
We cover all of Austerlitz. It is the furthest village in this service area; travel time is usually 40 to 80 minutes, and we say so before you decide to wait.
Can this wait until tomorrow?
Then there is no reason to sit in a queue. Put your number in the form with a line about what is going on, and the call back comes at an hour you name yourself. Write it in English.
Problems
What we come to Austerlitz for
Leak repairA patch that keeps growing, a puddle by the meter cupboard, or a bill that does not add up.
Blocked drains and sewerWater standing still, a gully overflowing, or the same blockage for the second time.
Boiler and central heatingA code on the display, radiators that stay cold, or hot water that never arrives.
Taps and toiletsSmall work that grows expensive while it waits: dripping, running, smelling.
Amounts
What it costs in Austerlitz
One set of figures across the whole area. The travel time changes from village to village; the invoice does not.
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Call-out charge | € 45 |
| Hourly rate | € 65 to € 85 |
| Out-of-hours surcharge | € 25 |
| After the first hour | per 15 min |
| Parts | separate |
One call-out charge covers the visit. Tap and sanitary work bill at the lower hourly figure; jetting, camera work and boilers at the higher one. A flat amount joins the bill before 08:00, after 18:00 and on Sundays, never a percentage of anything. Quarter hours are counted after the first hour, and every part gets its own line.
If the job takes longer than estimated. On the doorstep you are told what looks necessary and roughly what that comes to. Should the job turn out bigger, you hear it while the panel is still off, not two weeks later on paper. Nothing past € 400 happens until you have said yes to it.
Not sure whether this counts as an emergency?
Water standing on a floor, nothing working at all, a drain backing up over the rim: ring. Anything that can stay as it is until tomorrow can go through the form, and it will be at the top of the list early in the morning.
What does the distance to Austerlitz cost in time?
Usually within 40 to 80 minutes. Austerlitz is the furthest point in the service area and that makes the drive longer; we give that time on the phone before you decide to wait.
My outside tap has frozen. What can I do myself?
Close the indoor valve feeding that pipe and open the outside tap, so melt water has somewhere to go. Never thaw with a flame and never with boiling water: the temperature shock can split the pipe or the tap body. A hairdryer or a warm cloth works more slowly but safely. If you can already see a split or a drip at the wall, leave it alone and call, because more than the tap has gone.
The drain in my garden runs slowly. Is that mine or the municipality’s?
Up to the property line it is yours, beyond it the municipality of Zeist is responsible. In Austerlitz that line sits further from the house than average, so the private section is longer and the odds that the problem is on your own land are higher. A camera shows exactly at which metre the obstruction sits, and that immediately settles who clears it.
The other places in the area
Not urgent
Leave us your number
This is for anything that can keep until tomorrow. Standing water, or nothing working at all, belongs on the phone instead: nobody watches this form all evening. English is fine.