Zuid-Holland · approx. 35 km from Utrecht
Sealant work in Gouda
Gouda's city centre sinks by about three millimetres a year, and many buildings there stand on the peat without foundations. On the other side of the city, new housing lies in the deepest polder in the Netherlands. Whatever is built here moves. The joint has to be sized for that.
Since 1959
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What matters in Gouda
Buildings that settle, joints that stretch
A historic city centre on peat, a working-class district with a pre-war core and post-war additions, extensions from the 1970s through to the 1990s, and new housing in the Zuidplaspolder.
The city centre is almost entirely pre-war and many buildings there stand without foundations: there it is about facade joints, sills and glazing in timber window frames. The oldest part of Korte Akkeren is the pre-war working-class district: two to three storeys with a pitched roof. Alongside it stands post-war construction from the 1950s and new housing from the restructuring of 2007 to 2016, including residential towers. So whoever surveys there can come across three building periods in a single neighbourhood. Bloemendaal and Plaswijck are from the 1970s, Goverwelle is the youngest of the post-war extensions. There the bathrooms and kitchens have by now been renewed once or twice. Westergouwe is new housing on a raised bed of sand.
Elsewhere the year of construction tells you what you will find. Here the ground has a say too. Peat keeps settling, even under a house that has stood there for a hundred years. A new-build district on raised sand has been preloaded, but a building still settles afterwards. That difference ends up in the connection joints. So how wide a joint becomes, we determine here on what the building does and not on what looks neat. If a joint cracks down the middle of the sealant, it was designed too narrow and refilling does not help.
The pedestrian area in the city centre has access windows: daily from 5.00 to 11.00 and from 18.00 to 20.00, and from April to October shorter on Thursdays because of the cheese market. Outside those times you need an exemption. On top of that, the city centre within the ring canals has been a zero-emission zone for vans and lorries since 1 January 2025. If our van cannot drive in there emission-free, we arrange the exemption beforehand or we park it outside the ring canals and walk the last stretch. We plan that in advance, not on the day itself. Along the canal the pavements are uneven; there, scaffolding goes on a level base.
Gouda is 35 kilometres from Utrecht, down the A12, and outside the rush hour you drive that in half an hour. If we have to be in the city centre within the morning access window, we leave well before the rush hour. That means we can come by here to survey without it taking up a whole day. For one single joint we prefer to combine the trip with other work in Gouda or on the way there.
What we do in Gouda
- Bathroom, sanitary & kitchenSealing of sanitary ware, showers, baths, washbasins and kitchens.
- Window frames & glazingNeat, durable sealant work around window frames and glass.
- Facades & structural jointsFacade joints, connection joints and expansion joints in floors and walls.
- Swimming pool & wellnessSealant work in swimming pools, saunas, steam rooms and spas.
- Renovation & maintenanceSealant work during renovation, repairs and periodic maintenance.
- Specialist sealant workFor specific requirements and specialist applications.
You will hear from us within 15 minutes on working days, and the work comes with a 2-year guarantee.
The work here
What we do most often in Gouda
Glazing and window frames in the city centre
Behind the facades of the city centre is painted timber with single glazing. If there is still original glazing sealant or putty from before 1994 in it, it counts as suspected of containing asbestos and we cut nothing out until it is established what is in it. If it is clear, an overpaintable sealant goes in, because you cannot get paint onto silicone.
More about this serviceBathrooms in Bloemendaal and Plaswijck
In the districts from the 1970s the bathrooms have been refurbished once or twice, and then there is often sealant on top of sealant. We take the old layer out completely, because a new one does not adhere to it. Acrylic has no place in a shower room: it disperses under prolonged exposure to water. Silicone goes in, or a hybrid with an anti-mould agent in it.
More about this serviceExpansion joints on Kromme Gouwe
Kromme Gouwe is where the manufacturing industry is, the Goudse Poort is mostly offices. Under both lies concrete on soft ground, and the settlement comes on top of the thermal movement. Both count in the size of the joint. We survey the joints in the cold season, because the building components are then contracted and the joint at its widest. We size it to that measurement.
More about this serviceHow we approach it here
Which sealant on what, and what it costs
The substrate decides the sealant
In the city centre you come across bluestone: sills, kerbs, plinths. No acetoxy silicone may go on that, and no ordinary sealant with free plasticisers either. They migrate into the pores and leave a dark edge that never comes out; polishing does not help. On natural stone, natural stone sealant goes in, with chemically bound plasticisers. The painted timber in those same buildings asks for exactly the opposite: paint has to go over it, so no silicone. In the surrounding districts it is glazed tiling with plastic shower trays, in Westergouwe powder-coated aluminium and concrete. On alkaline concrete acetoxy loses its adhesion. OTTOSEAL S 125 is in the van as standard, but on a single city centre facade with bluestone next to painted timber, two different cartridges simply get opened. Which sealant goes in depends on what it has to adhere to.
Costs and lead time
What you pay here depends mainly on how many metres can be done in one go. We charge per linear metre and there is a sliding scale based on the size of the order. A housing association that has the window frame joints of a whole housing block in Korte Akkeren done therefore sits lower per metre than someone with one sill on the canal. You see the same difference between all the bathrooms of one homeowners' association (VvE) complex in Bloemendaal and that one single shower edge. We are not naming an amount yet: the rates have not been fixed and a price that is different next month is no use to you. Replacement costs more than new work, because the old sealant has to come out completely first, and precisely in those refurbished bathrooms there is often sealant on top of sealant, which makes the cutting out the longest job of the day. After that the sealant cures at 2 to 3 millimetres per 24 hours. If you have one bathroom in the house, that is two days without showering; tell us, and we will look together at when those two days get in the way least. If you are working towards a handover date on the Goudse Poort, you count them back from the end instead. An enquiry on working days between 09:00 and 22:00 gets a reply within 15 minutes, so you quickly know whether it fits your schedule. On a building that keeps settling you notice within a few winters whether the joint has been sized correctly. That is why we determine the joint size on the movement and not by eye. What the guarantee covers is set out in the terms and conditions; settlement of the building itself falls outside it. If we do the work for you as a subcontractor, the VAT is reverse-charged.
Two routes
Business or homeowner in Gouda
Almost a third of the jobs in Gouda are on the business parks, and that determines what business work looks like here. Sealing that a contractor or painter outsources, facade and sanitary work in the post-war flats that a homeowners' association (VvE) or a housing association is responsible for, and the joints in offices and halls. In a production area that is cleaned daily, the connection joint between wall and floor is the work. Chlorine-based agents wash the anti-mould agent out of the sealant, so there we choose a sealant that can withstand that and include the cleaning instructions.
For businesses
Contractors, painters, homeowners' associations, property managers and interior fit-out.
See what we do for businessesAlso near Gouda
As the crow flies from the centre. By road it is further.
- Reeuwijk 4 km
- Waddinxveen 5 km
- Moordrecht 4 km
- Gouderak 4 km
- Haastrecht 6 km
- Nieuwerkerk aan den IJssel 8 km
- Boskoop 8 km
- Bodegraven 9 km
Is your town or city not listed? See the whole service area.
Questions from Gouda
What people in Gouda ask most often
My building in the city centre leans and is still sinking. Is new sealant work worth it then?
Yes, provided the joint can cope with the movement. That is precisely what sealant is for: accommodating movement. What does not work is smearing a narrow joint tightly shut. The minimum width for elastic sealant is 8 millimetres, and the depth follows from the width: divided by three, plus 6 millimetres. If there is no backing rod behind the sealant, it adheres on three sides and the middle cannot stretch. Then it cracks anyway. What the settlement of the building itself does falls outside the guarantee; that is why we measure the joint against the movement that is there.
Our home is a listed building with old window frames. Can you tackle the glazing?
First find out what is in it. Anything fitted in the frame before 1994 counts as suspected of containing asbestos until a survey says otherwise. That is risk class 2. We cut nothing out there as long as that has not been established; removal is then done according to protocol by a licensed company. If it is clear, we finish with a sealant that paint can go over, because silicone cannot be painted over. For a listed building or a protected townscape, you agree colour and profile with the municipality beforehand.
Our house on the canal has bluestone sills and a bluestone plinth. Do you need to bring something different for that?
Yes, and it cannot be undone. Ordinary sealant contains free plasticisers and silicone oil. They migrate into the pores of natural stone and leave a dark edge along the joint, often only visible after weeks. Polishing does nothing against that. On bluestone, therefore, natural stone sealant with chemically bound plasticisers goes in, and certainly no acetoxy silicone. If in doubt, show it to us before anyone starts applying.
We have a new-build home in Westergouwe. When can the bathroom be sealed?
As soon as the tiling is dry and load-bearing. After that, allow two days before you shower again: sealant cures at roughly 2 to 3 millimetres per 24 hours, and a sanitary joint is at least 8 millimetres wide and 6 millimetres deep. Get the ventilation working properly straight away. For a new-build bathroom 14 dm³/s applies; without moisture extraction the edge of the joint stays wet and mould starts to grow on it.
We have an industrial hall on the Goudse Poort. The floor joints keep cracking.
Then the question is where it cracks. Coming away along the flank and cracking down the middle of the sealant have different causes. A crack in the middle means that the joint is too narrow for the movement it has to take; refilling does not solve that, widening does. On soft ground, settlement of the floor comes on top of the thermal movement. We survey in the cold season, because the joint is then at its widest.
