Common Plumbing Problems During the Thanksgiving Holiday

Thanksgiving may be a time of family, friends, fun, and good food, but what many people don’t realize is that it’s also a time of headaches and stress when your home encounters a plumbing problem. Believe it or not, hosting Thanksgiving at your home can have some serious repercussions in ways you may not have thought. Notably: your plumbing.

It’s a surprising fact but every year one of the busiest days of the year for plumbers is the day after Thanksgiving, more affectionately known as “Black Friday.” Each year, people who encounter problems with their plumbing while hosting Thanksgiving make the call to get the issue fixed. Sometimes the issues are serious, sometimes they’re on the minor side, but in any case many times these issues could have been prevented by using a little bit of extra care and caution.

Here are three of the common problems you may encounter if you host Thanksgiving at your home and what you can do to fix them.

Clogged Toilets

When people come to your home, they’re going to need to use your restroom. When a lot of people come to your home for Thanksgiving, your restroom is going to see a lot of additional use. And that means a lot of added strain on your plumbing, specifically your toilet’s sewer connection lines. If the line is already not in the best of shape, it’s highly possible that you may encounter a clog at some point during the day. And that could present some serious problems.

The easiest way to avoid this from happening is to make sure your toilet flushes with enough water. Not using enough water means your toilet isn’t putting enough force behind the waste it’s flushing away, and that could cause waste to get stuck in plumbing traps and bends in the line. Second, have a professional Barlett plumber come out and inspect the line with a video camera and you can see if there are any potential clogs starting to form and have them taken care of before they start to cause problems.

Garbage Disposal Jams

Thanksgiving is traditionally a huge meal, and the waste from that huge meal traditionally gets thrown out quickly and easily through your garbage disposal. However, your garbage disposal is not a catch-all solution for food waste. In fact, they can really only process certain types of food. Fatty foods like leftover fat or grease from the roast bird, starchy foods like mashed potatoes, stringy foods like asparagus or string beans, or even solid foods like eggshells are not to be disposed of down the disposal. Yes, even if you’re running hot water.

Each of these foods can contribute to a clog, and while they may work their way through the blades, removing a clog out from behind a disposal takes some serious work, including work which many homeowners don’t have the tools or ability to do. Do yourself a favor and be very careful what you put down the drain over the Thanksgiving holiday. Doing so will lead to far fewer headaches and calls for a professional to come unclog your drain.

Sewer Line Clogs

Finally, Thanksgiving is known for causing sewer line clogs as well. The many various types of waste flowing through your main sewer line could contribute to the line becoming clogged and blocked off, leading to clogged drains, extra pressure in your drain lines, overflowing, and could even cause pipe leaks. When a sewer line clogs, you need to call a professional.

In the past, a clogged sewer line took weeks to repair and thousands of dollars, but today a hydro-jetting service can take care of clogs and even proactively prevent new ones with just a few short hours, saving you a ton of time and a lot of money.