Noord-Holland · approx. 60 km from Utrecht
Sealant work in Zaanstad
Zaanstad stands on peat and its facades are painted timber. Those are two things that decide the sealant here: the joint width follows from the movement the building makes, and it must take paint. That rules out silicone straight away.
Since 1959
Experience and craftsmanship from Utrecht
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Top-quality materials for a long-lasting result
What matters in Zaanstad
Here the facade is under the paint
Painted timber buildings along the Zaan, flats and terraced family houses from the sixties to the eighties in Zaandam, and Vinex new build in Assendelft from after 2000.
Poelenburg and Peldersveld are post-war reconstruction neighbourhoods from the fifties and sixties: walk-up flats and the fourteen-storey ERA flats, with long concrete expansion joints and bathrooms built in series. Westerkoog was built from 1974 and Westerwatering in the eighties. Both have timber window frames that are due for their second or third round of sealant. On the Lagedijk in Zaandijk, the Zaan timber buildings stand in a protected village conservation area, where the colour of the joint counts too. Saendelft in Assendelft dates from after 2000, with plastic window frames that expand far more than concrete.
Zaanstad has its own foundation map for the older homes, and some buildings have measuring bolts that track their height. A figure like that is useful to us: if a building is measurably subsiding, the joint width follows from that movement and not from what looks good. Below 8 millimetres no elastic sealant holds, and then the joint tears in the middle instead of along the flank.
Ten bridges across fourteen kilometres of the Zaan, and on working days they open for shipping from six in the morning to ten at night. If you are on the wrong side, a forgotten roll of backing rod costs half an hour. So we unload in one go. Along the old dyke roads such as the Lagedijk and the Zuiddijk the street is too narrow for the van at the door; there the materials go on a cart.
Sixty kilometres by road, via the A2 and the Amsterdam ring road. In the morning rush hour the traffic towards the Coentunnel is at a standstill, so we schedule Zaanstad early in the day or just after nine. For a bathroom or a row of window frames we make that trip; Zaanstad falls within the area in which we do work at people's homes.
What we do in Zaanstad
- 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 Zaanstad
Sealant work on painted timber facades
Along the Zaan the facade is under the paint, and that rules out silicone: paint does not adhere to it. We use acrylic or a paintable hybrid and agree the order with the painter: seal, let it cure, and only then the brush over it. Timber also moves more than stone, so the joint must stay wide enough.
More about this serviceExpansion joints in the flats
In the flats of Poelenburg and Peldersveld, long concrete expansion joints run through the facade and the access deck. Concrete expands in heat and shrinks in cold, so that joint is at its widest in January. That is why we inspect here in the cold season: then you see the maximum opening, and that is what the sealant must be designed for.
More about this serviceBathrooms in series-built blocks
In the walk-up and deck-access flats the bathroom was built in series: the same size, the same ventilation, and so worn out at the same time. A small wet room like that calls for silicone or a hybrid with fungicide. Acrylic breaks down under prolonged exposure to water and comes loose within a year. And bleach against the mould makes it worse.
More about this serviceHow we approach it here
Which sealant on what, and what it costs
The substrate decides the sealant
We choose which sealant goes in based on the substrate. In wet rooms OTTOSEAL S 125 is standard in the van, but on the facade it is different. Painted timber along the Zaan calls for acrylic or a paintable hybrid, because paint does not stay on silicone. On concrete, from the flats to the industrial halls on the business parks, no acetoxy silicone: it loses its adhesion on an alkaline substrate like that. Powder-coated aluminium in the renewed centre of Zaandam needs an adhesion test first; the coating decides whether a primer is needed. Glazed tiling in the bathroom only bonds to the glaze layer, so the joint must be bone dry and grease-free. And on a bluestone sill only natural stone sealant: ordinary plasticisers soak into the pores and you never get that edge out again.
Costs and lead time
The price is per linear metre, and the sliding scale depends on the size of the job. In a walk-up block in Poelenburg or Peldersveld you see what that means: the bathrooms were built in series, so the same size and the same joint, home after home. If such a block goes as one job, the price per metre drops; home by home, the work starts over each time. For the window frames of a whole block in Westerkoog it works the same way: they were fitted in the same year, so they usually come up for renewal at the same time too. Replacing costs more than new, because the old sealant must come out completely first, and on a painted timber facade along the Zaan that is by far where most of the time goes: a joint like that has been painted over more often than replaced. We do not put amounts here, because the rates are not yet fixed. What we do say in advance is the curing time, because it affects everyone differently. Sealant cures at about 2 to 3 millimetres per 24 hours, so after a sanitary joint, two days without showering: in an occupied block we therefore plan per stairwell, so that every resident knows which two days those are. If a contractor wants to hand over, that same sealant goes in two days earlier and not the evening before. If we work under a painter or contractor, VAT is reverse-charged. Ask on a working day between 09:00 and 22:00 and you have an answer within 15 minutes. The work carries a 2-year guarantee. That covers our work and not the movement of your building: settlement and movement of the structure are expressly excluded. We would rather say that beforehand than afterwards. If your building is measurably subsiding, we measure the joint against the movement that is there, and you hear in advance what a guarantee does and does not cover.
Two routes
Business or homeowner in Zaanstad
Zaanstad has a lot of painted timber, and so a lot of painting work. Sealant work there runs ahead of the brush: the connection joints on window frames and fascia boards must be paintable and cure first, otherwise the painter stands idle. If you work as a painter or contractor, we plan to your order of work. In the walk-up and deck-access flats from the sixties, sealant work goes per block and not per home: the same window frames, the same bathrooms. For a homeowners' association (VvE) or a housing association that means one site survey for the whole block instead of separate appointments per home. On the business parks Achtersluispolder, Zuiderhout, Molletjesveer and HoogTij there are halls with concrete expansion joints and connections to sandwich panels. There, production determines the working hours, and we adapt our work to that.
For businesses
Contractors, painters, homeowners' associations, property managers and interior fit-out.
See what we do for businessesAlso near Zaanstad
As the crow flies from the centre. By road it is further.
- Oostzaan 4 km
- Wormer 6 km
- Landsmeer 7 km
- Amsterdam 10 km
- Purmerend 12 km
- Beverwijk 11 km
- Haarlem 14 km
- Alkmaar 22 km
Is your town or city not listed? See the whole service area.
Questions from Zaanstad
What people in Zaanstad ask most often
Our facade is timber and gets painted. Which sealant can go on it?
No silicone. Paint does not adhere to it and comes off again in flakes. Timberwork that gets painted calls for acrylic or a paintable hybrid. Also agree the order with your painter: we seal first, then the sealant must cure, and only then does the brush go over it. Sealant cures at about 2 to 3 millimetres per 24 hours. If the painter goes first, you are sealing onto paint and not onto timber, and then the whole joint comes away as soon as the paint lets go.
My house has subsided unevenly and the sealant keeps tearing. What now?
Here that is almost always down to the joint and not the sealant. If the tear runs along the flank, the sealant is coming away from the substrate: adhesive failure. If it tears through the middle of the joint, the joint is too narrow for the movement: cohesive failure. On peat soil the second is the most likely. If your building is on the foundation map and has a measuring bolt, bring those figures along. With those figures the joint width follows from the movement that is really there, and not from an estimate. After that it is arithmetic: make it wider, at least 8 and at most 30 millimetres, and the depth is the width divided by three plus 6 millimetres.
The walk-up flat of our homeowners' association (VvE) in Peldersveld dates from 1965 and the windows still sit in the sealant from that time. Can you simply get started there?
Not straight away. In a block of that age the glazing sealant is suspected of containing asbestos, as is the putty around it: everything from before 1994 falls into risk class 2 by default. As long as there is nothing on paper saying what is in it, we do not put a knife in it: it is precisely the cutting out that releases the fibres. The order is: have it tested to find out what it is, notify the municipality, and have it removed by a licensed removal company. For a block in which all the window frames come from the same construction run, it helps that this happens once and not per home. As soon as the glass is back clean, we simply seal it. We do not do that removal ourselves, and we say so in advance.
Our timber house on the Lagedijk is a listed building and the joints at the windows are open. Are we allowed to have them sealed?
Check with the municipality first. The Zaan timber buildings on the Lagedijk stand in a protected village conservation area, and then the colour, the width and even the type of joint may require a permit. Often no sealant joint is intended there at all but a painted overlap; sealing it up where the timber needs to breathe actually traps moisture in. There we start with one window opening as a trial, so you see what you get before the whole facade is done.
In our flat in Poelenburg the sealant in the shower turns black every year, even after it has been replaced. Was the wrong sealant used?
Usually not. Black is mould on the joint, and it grows on soap and skin residue in a room that stays wet too long. In a new-build bathroom the extraction must reach 14 dm³/s; in the flats from the sixties there is often only a vent that has never been checked. New sealant without solving that is black again within a year. And do not scrub it with bleach: that rinses the fungicide out and makes the edge porous.
