Avoiding a Thanksgiving Plumbing Emergency in Your Maryland Home
Fast forward about two weeks.
It’s about an hour after Thanksgiving dinner, and in your tryptophan haze and rush to catch the end of the game, you do something you probably wouldn’t do any other day of the year: you pour the fat from your turkey or roast down the drain.
Twenty-four hours later, you’re calling a plumber for emergency service because that grease has hardened in the artery of your plumbing pipes, trapping food scraps and making water flow impossible.
We know this scenario well, because it happens every year for a handful (or more) of our customers. Thanksgiving is a holiday tailor-made for plumbing disasters – whether in your sink or in your garbage disposal, where stringy pulp can really gum up the works. Problems can even happen in your bathroom, where unwitting guests can deposit their wipes, cotton balls or hair down the toilet.
Here are six tips to avoid some of these problems:
- Pour any excess grease from turkey or roast pans into a disposable container and let it congeal; then discard the container in the trash. If that’s not possible, clean up oil and grease with paper towels and discard them.
- Be mindful of what you put in your garbage disposal; in particular, avoid putting in the following items:
- Bones
- Celery, pumpkin or potato flesh, or other fibrous foods
- Coffee grounds
- Egg shells
- Fruit pits
- Pasta
- GREASE!
- Always use plenty of water in your disposal, and let it run at least 20-30 seconds.
- Ask your house guests to wait 10-15 minutes between showers to allow drains to clear.
- TP only in your toilet!
- If you have any plumbing issues, take care of them before company arrives.
Avoid Thanksgiving plumbing disasters – if you have a plumbing problem, take care of it before you have a houseful of people and a sinkful of food scraps. Contact us today to schedule a plumbing appointment!
