Most people don’t automatically associate Thanksgiving with plumbing; but did you know that Black Friday is the busiest day of the year for plumbing companies?
While consumers pile on to shopping, most plumbing technicians are occupied with kitchen and bathroom plumbing incidents rather than jumping on the latest Black Friday deals. However, you can make the Thanksgiving holiday easier for yourself and your local plumber by following these expert plumbing tips.
It certainly helps to find out if something’s wrong before you put your plumbing into overdrive. A plumbing contractor can provide a thorough inspection. If any clogs or leaks are present, they’ll find and fix them. And don’t procrastinate on addressing a running toilet, dripping faucet, or leaky pipe. Elmer’s Air Conditioning and Plumbing can send a technician to your home promptly, but more on that later.
The disposal should always be turned on before food is put into it. Also run the water before you discard food scraps, let the drain fill up, and keep the water running after turning the unit off. Following these steps helps prevent food waste from clogging up the disposal and drain. Also, avoid throwing in potato peels, bones, eggshells, pasta, coffee grounds, fruit pits, or fibrous items like celery.
The sink will be used a lot throughout the day and the drain can easily get clogged by turkey skin, potatoes, bones, and other food scraps. A sink strainer prevents any solids from going down the drain. Waste that collects in the strainer can be dumped in the trash instead of dealing with a clog. Also, throw leftovers in the trash and wipe grease off pots and pans with a paper towel (which you can then throw away).
While grease may seem like a harmless liquid, it hardens when it cools. Unfortunately, this occurs in your pipes, where the hardened grease causes a serious blockage. To play it safe, pour cooking grease into a plastic bag or mason jar and throw it in the garbage.
Family members and guests at your Thanksgiving gathering will use the toilet. A plunger should be available in each guest bathroom, just in case. And make sure everyone knows not to flush paper towels, napkins, facial tissue, hair, wet wipes, cotton balls, Q-tips, cigarette butts, feminine products, and anything other than toilet tissue.
If several people are staying over, frequent shower use can strain your plumbing and lots of hair can enter the drains at once. It can also limit the availability of hot water. To avoid trouble, advise guests to wait at least 10 minutes between showers. This gives your drains and pipes more time to filter hair and other materials. You can also raise the water heater temperature, but don’t go above 125℉ as this can put guests’ safety at risk.
Family and friends often like to help out and converse in the kitchen. But this isn’t the best gathering area. Using the kitchen as a social space can be distracting and lead to accidents. Many Thanksgiving plumbing calls pertain to foreign objects like broken glass, silverware, toys, and jewelry that get stuck in kitchen drains.
If you’ve never fixed your plumbing before, Thanksgiving isn’t the time to start. You could just be inviting disaster, no matter how many of our plumbing tips you’ve followed. Keep an emergency number handy, but as we said earlier, it could be wise to schedule a plumbing inspection ahead of time. At Elmer’s Air Conditioning and Plumbing, we provide high-quality plumbing maintenance and repairs in the San Antonio, TX, area. To request service, schedule online or call 210-570-1717 today.
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