How to Avoid Holiday Plumbing Woes
Does it seem like a plumbing emergency mars every big holiday? Backed-up toilet? Clogged drain? When you are hosting guests for the holidays, you don’t want to worry about whether your plumbing is up to the task. Plumbing issues are not caused by the holiday season. Most people put off worrying about small issues with their plumbing by just saying it’s a tiny issue or a minor inconvenience. You don’t want to have a house full of guests and suddenly need to call for plumbing help.
3 Causes of Holiday Season Plumbing Issues
It’s easy to ignore your plumbing when you are thinking of holiday baking and new year celebrations. We’ve compiled a shortlist of the most common plumbing issues that plague holiday get-togethers and what you can do to avoid them.
Clogged Drains
A clogged kitchen sink or shower during the holiday season can lead to significant repairs at the worst possible time. You don’t want to wait if you are already experiencing slow drains. If your drains are already running slowly, adding more visiting guests and more users to your plumbing system is not a solution. More users will exacerbate the issues you are already facing. You can avoid this problem in two ways: by being proactive and being careful. First, you can be proactive and have your drains cleaned before guests arrive. If you know that your shower drains slowly, then get ahead of the problem. Secondly, you can be careful and install hair traps in the shower drain to catch hair and soap scum.
In your kitchen, the culprit causing your problem is rich holiday cuisine. Fats, grease, and oil will clog your sink by congealing in your pipes, preventing water from passing. Your kitchen sink could also be the victim of over-ambitious garbage disposal usage. Garbage disposals are great tools, but it’s not a trash can. It’s not a good idea to put meat skins, eggshells, or vegetable peels down your garbage disposal. During the holiday cooking spree, it’s easy to forget these rules. If you do it once, your sink should be fine. But, if you are continually practicing poor kitchen sink habits, the holiday season will exacerbate those issues and lead to drain backups and massive blockages.
Backed Up Toilet
The backed-up toilet is another chronic holiday season issue. It doesn’t manifest as a clogged drain or blockage immediately, so most homeowners don’t see it as the problem it is. You may first notice your toilet gurgling after usage. Gurgles are the first sign of a blockage. The noise you hear is air moving around a blockage, but it can be challenging to know where the clog is located. The blockage could be in the single toilet drain, the vent stack leading to the roof, or the main sewer line. When you hear gurgling toilets, the problem is typically in the main sewer line. The main line connects all the drains in your home that carry waste to the sewer system or septic tank.
Sewer blockages are not instant problems; they are the result of time and consistency. Most homeowners don’t know there is a problem until it’s too late, and the toilet backs up and causing a huge mess for everyone. It’s easy to see how the holiday season could make an already partially blockage main sewer line worse. Adding additional users to a situation caused by poor toilet drain management will lead to an expensive plumbing emergency.
Preemptive drain cleaning will save you money and time. The next part of the prevention plan is good system care. You want to prevent certain items from going down your toilet drain. Things like dental floss, sanitary napkins, and diapers should never be flushed down your toilet, even if they are labeled as flushable items.
Ignoring Minor Issues
Minor plumbing issues never get better by being ignored. Slow draining showers or a gurgling toilet are not just minor inconveniences. To keep problems from becoming emergencies at the worst possible time, you need to practice preventative maintenance and schedule professional plumbing services for those issues you think are just annoyances. These annoyances are often signs of impending plumbing problems that will only worsen without a change of behaviors or system cleaning. The holiday season can make minor plumbing problems become major issues. During the holidays, home systems see an uptick in traffic, which can cause your small plumbing inconvenience to become a Christmas day nightmare. Choosing regular preventative maintenance can ensure these plumbing emergencies don’t catch you off guard.
Why Customers Choose Dovis Plumbing
At Dovis Plumbing, our team of specialists has many years of experience developing plumbing solutions our customers can trust.
A call to Dovis Plumbing means:
• Clean, Uniformed Technicians
• Fully Stocked Vans Equipped for Every Situation
• Innovative, Industry-Leading Software
Our team is available to help get your home ready for the season. We offer same-day appointments for your convenience. We are proud to serve our customers and find solutions for your plumbing problems, both big and small.
If your sewer or drain needs maintenance and tune-up services before you entertain guest for the holidays, then call us now at (954) 516-1078 for more information about how we can help