Thanksgiving is a food oriented holiday! Nothing says Thanksgiving, like bowls of gravy and fatty comfort food. Unfortunately, the hallmarks of the holiday can spell trouble for your plumbing system. Thanksgiving has a longstanding reputation for being the idealized picture of an American family holiday, but behind the scenes, there’s a lot of work and planning that goes into hosting a family holiday. You may be asking, what does that have to do with your plumbing system?
3 Ways Thanksgiving Affects Your Plumbing
Hosting your loved ones during the holidays means putting your plumbing to the test. Most of us aren’t sure of the condition of our plumbing and sewer system until there’s a problem. If your system is on the brink of failure, a family holiday could be the stressful event that pushes your plumbing and sewer system over the edge into breakdown and failure.
If you’re planning a holiday gathering, the following plumbing and sewer issues are the most common failures experienced during Thanksgiving and Christmas each year:
Clogged Kitchen Sink: If you’re not a chef, it’s likely you’re not cooking large-scale meals for your family during the remaining 50 weeks each year. Most people cram a lot of cooking and kitchen activity into the weeks of Thanksgiving and Christmas, leaving your kitchen sink struggling to keep up. Your kitchen sink can become clogged by the fats, oils, and greasy residue left behind from the delicious comfort foods we all love to eat during Thanksgiving. Food preparation like chopping and peeling can be dangerous for your plumbing if allowed to go down the drain. It’s not uncommon to find eggshells, potato peels, and bones blocking drains and causing backups. You can try a few home DIY remedies in a pinch, like boiling water, vinegar, and baking soda solution to break up the oils and grease that can coat the lining of your pipes.
Loss of Hot Water: Whether your guests are staying overnight or you’re only hosting Thanksgiving Day, losing hot water is a serious problem that can ruin your holiday. No one wants to take cold showers or spend the day boiling water for various tasks around their home. All the dishes and laundry used over the week will also need to be washed, which can be difficult, if not impossible, without hot water. The holiday season may be too taxing on your hot water supply if you have a traditional tank water heater. Depending on the size of your water heater, it can be difficult to supply enough hot water to meet the elevated needs during Thanksgiving. Just because your water heater is running out of hot water doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with it. Your needs are simply outpacing your production. You can fix this problem by creating a hot water usage schedule or consider upgrading to a tankless system before the holiday season.
Backed Up Toilets: Thanksgiving is all about eating and drinking with friends and family, which means you will have more traffic through your bathrooms during the day or week. Even a well-maintained toilet can fail under heavy usage, but toilet no-nos usually cause most of the problems experienced during the holidays. There are several issues that can lead to toilet problems during the holiday season, including:
· Too much toilet paper
· A failure to flush
· Flushing undrainable items
If too many people use the toilet without flushing, it can lead to clogs. Another common culprit is toilet paper, which can cause clogging – especially when used too liberally. Remind guests that some items, like diapers, cotton balls, or sanitary items, should never be flushed. Your septic system and drains may also respond negatively to flushable items like wipes. It’s important to be mindful of what you flush when your system is being pushed to capacity with heavy guest usage.
Contact Mallick Plumbing Today!
Thanksgiving is a busy time, and if you’re hosting the festivities this year, don’t let plumbing mistakes ruin your holiday. You can avoid holiday plumbing problems this Thanksgiving with a few changes and smart planning. If you’re experiencing plumbing problems this Thanksgiving, call the professionals at Mallick Plumbing today at (301) 804-6759 for immediate help.