Most of this long neighbourhood on the right bank of the Daugava is taken up by Soviet-era apartment estates connected to the city networks. Here a vacuum tanker is mainly useful to property managers, retail and catering outlets and owners of pre-war buildings: for basement pumping, grease trap cleaning, pump stations and the occasional tank. Pumping of up to 4 m³ costs from €75.
Where you need a pumping contractor in Ķengarags and where you don't
A blocked soil stack or kitchen pipe in an apartment building is a job for a plumber and the property manager, and it does not need a vacuum tanker. A pumping contractor is needed when water or wastewater has to be pumped out and taken away: a flooded basement, a full pump station tank, a grease separator, or a tank at a building that is not connected to the network.
| Situation | What helps |
|---|---|
| Wastewater in the basement after a backflow | Basement pumping and a non-return valve |
| Basement toilet or floor drains below the level of the street network | A pump station and its servicing |
| Café or shop with a kitchen | Grease trap cleaning |
| Pre-war house with its own tank | Pumping or connection to the network |
For property managers: basements after a backflow
If a blockage forms in the street sewer or a heavy downpour overloads the network, wastewater can come up through the basement floor drains. Before the basement can be cleaned and dried, it has to be cleared of water and mud. Contaminated water must not simply be pumped out onto a lawn or the street, so we pump it out with a vacuum tanker and take it to a reception point.
In your request, give the floor area of the basement and the depth of the water, because the number of trips depends on it. More: basement pumping in Ķengarags.
To stop it happening again, the basement floor drains need a non-return valve, and rooms lower than the street network need a sewage pump station. Basement drainage must not simply be connected to the foul sewer: Riga's rules prohibit discharging groundwater into the mains sewer without the agreement of Rīgas ūdens (Riga's water utility).
After pumping: what to check in the basement
- Floor drains and non-return valves: whether they are in place, clean and closing.
- The basement pump station, if there is one: whether the float is stuck and the alarm works.
- Ventilation: after sewage water, the basement has to be aired and dried before anything is stored there again.
- The document: keep the certificate showing the volume pumped out and the date, as it may be useful for your insurer.
If water appears in the basement again after every downpour, the cause is usually in the network or the non-return valve, and it has to be dealt with together with Rīgas ūdens or a plumber.
Retail and catering outlets: grease traps
In Ķengarags' everyday service outlets (shops with a deli counter, cafés, school and kindergarten kitchens), the grease separator is the only barrier between frying oil and the building's outlet pipe. If it is not cleaned in time, the fat sets hard in the pipes, and the whole building feels the consequences, not just the kitchen.
We clean both underground and indoor separators. Grease trap cleaning costs from €90; the price depends on the volume and how far the separator is from the tanker.
Pockets of pre-war buildings
Pockets of pre-war buildings survive between the estates, and their sewerage history is not always known. If a house has an old cesspit or holding tank, in Riga it is a decentralised system: it must be registered with the Riga Housing and Environment Department and emptied as often as water consumption and volume require.
If there is a city network in the street, connecting may be the better option. For a residential house, for a connection built after 8 July 2023, the municipality covers €1,000–2,000 depending on the length of the connection pipe. The steps: connecting to the mains sewer.
Sources: Riga City Council Binding Regulations No. 17, sub-points 63.9 and 63.11.7 (likumi.lv/ta/id/296134); Riga City Council Binding Regulations No. 66, points 4, 22 and 23 (likumi.lv/ta/id/304471); Riga City Council Binding Regulations No. RD-23-207-sn, point 11 (likumi.lv/ta/id/343520). Checked 30 October 2026.
Access: Maskavas iela, the tram and the promenade
Ķengarags is linked to the centre by Maskavas iela, the tram and the railway, but the Daugava promenade, the tracks and the main road decide which way a particular building can be reached. The neighbourhood is long and linear, so give the address and the nearest entrance precisely.
For buildings set further back from the street, we run the hose across the yard. In your request, give the distance from the nearest place where a lorry can stand to the lid or the basement entrance. Ķengarags is in Riga, so the price list applies with no travel surcharge.
Nearest neighbourhoods
On the right bank of the Daugava we also work in Krasta rajons, Rumbula, Dārziņi and Šķirotava. All places: where we work.