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8 Plumbing Tricks to Avoid a Holiday Emergency

Plumbing Tricks to Avoid a Holiday Emergency

Do you have a company gathering for Thanksgiving dinner? Will your family and friends visit you around Christmas time? Do you always host events or entertain visitors this time of year? If yes, you might fear that something will go wrong and make a tremendous holiday emergency or disaster. I understand it. We all fear that the sudden incident will happen and bite us in the butt because we all know we have experienced it before. 

But this year, you can relax and take easy on your plumbing system. 

Here are EIGHT plumbing tricks by plumbers in Frisco to avoid a holiday emergency that may look like an apocalyptic event if you have guests at home. 

Leftovers in the Trash Can, Not In The Drain

When it is time to tidy up, fight the urge to scrape the leftovers down your sink. There is food that should never go down the garbage disposal, and if you do not have it, you may want to be careful what you pour down the garbage disposal.

One of the easiest ways to avoid uncoveted leftovers from going down the drain is to use a simple, cheap sink strainer. Once you are done washing your dishes, you can throw the extra waste in the compost or garbage can. 

Wait 10-15 Minutes Between Showers

If you host guests overnight during the holidays, the last you want to deal with is a chilly shower in the morning. Using spacing in the use of the shower every 10-15 minutes not only lets you take a bath with a warm shower but allows the water supply to replenish and drain the clear out.

Every additional person showering implies more hair that could potentially pile up in your drains. A usual shower drain can handle hair, but a few additional showers could quickly make a backup. Again, using drain strainers can be beneficial in keeping your drains clean. 

Only Cooks in the Kitchen

Minimum kitchen traffic not only makes the food preparation easier and tidies up afterward but also helps you prevent expensive plumbing accidents. perhaps your cousin leaves a plate of food into your sink, not recognizing you do not have a garbage disposal.

Or maybe your aunt loses a necklace or bracelet down the drain, or one of the children does not know that grease-filled pans should not go into the dishwasher. Taking a few steps to manage your kitchen environment can help guarantee that the holiday is worth remembering and not the one that overflowed.

Be attentive to what you pour down your garbage disposal.

Christmas and Thanksgiving are the holidays when we cook the most. All kinds of food bits get swarmed down the garbage disposal when well-meaning family members help you do the dishes and tidy up the table. 

Coffee grounds, pasta eggshells, and potato feeling; all these daily remains for cooking can clog your drain up. And roast or cook a whole turkey; look how much grease you could move down the train. Never do it. Those are harmful to your plumbing system. If you do not want to experience a holiday disaster with stinky stinks and clogged drains, be careful what you pour down the garbage disposal. 

Use sink strainers to help stop clogged drains. 

It is so simple. Keep your sink strainer over the drain. When it accumulates bits of food, throw them in the trash bin. Do not let the extra waste from getting into the drain line. Anything you can do to keep those harmful things from entering your drain will help avoid plumbing problems in the future. 

Never flush “flushable” wipes and other things in the toilet. 

No matter what the labels say, flushable wipes and other things are the nightmares of plumbers. They may liquify eventually, but in the meantime, they may block the elbow joint of your plumbing before finally sludging down the sewer. Yet, these flushable wipes slow down everything coming out of the sewers.

I have nothing against using flushable wipes. But if you use them, make sure you throw them in the trash bin, not into the toilet bowl. This simple step can drastically remove the chance of a home holiday emergency. A step that will help you when you have many people using your toilet and other facilities. 

Learn where the location of your main water shut-off valve 

If the worst should occur, and you would have a clogged toilet while running or burst pipe, or an unexpected leak that splashed water, you must know the location of your main shut-off valve so that you can stop the flow and minimize the potential damage. 

Be Assertive with Professionals

Hosting Christmas dinner can put pressure on your plumbing system. Your bathroom and kitchen will likely get more use than usual, so minor issues and clogs that you endure the rest of the year can suddenly become a big problem when guests arrive.

Making scheduled appointments with a professional plumbing service to inspect your drain for clogs and ensure everything is in good working condition can help avoid unexpected headaches and expenditures when you would rather be sleeping off food.