5 Tips to Avoid a Holiday Plumbing Emergency

There’s so much to do during the holiday season, from shopping for gifts to stringing up lights and baking cookies. It can be easy to forget about your home’s plumbing system with your busy schedule. However, when you invite friends and family over to your home, you may find yourself needing an emergency plumber to fix a wide array of unexpected plumbing problems.

Fortunately, there are ways to avoid a holiday plumbing emergency. Follow these five plumbing tips to keep your home’s plumbing system merry this season!

Clean Your Drains

First and foremost, it’s crucial to ensure that your drains are clog-free before guests arrive for a holiday feast. Clogged drains in your bathroom and kitchen can lead to additional plumbing system problems, and during the holidays, the last thing you want is to call for an emergency plumbing service.

Over time, sink and tub drains can become blocked with items such as:

• Hair
• Soap
• Grease
• Starches
• Coffee grounds
• Other food items
• And more

There are DIY drain cleaning methods you can try to remove blockages. However, with professional drain cleaning services, experienced plumbers will clean your tub and sink drains to ensure the clogs are completely gone. 

Our professional drain cleaning services in Houston, TX, will go above and beyond to help you avoid a holiday plumbing emergency.

Dispose of Food Properly

When family and friends arrive at your home for the holidays, chaos can ensue. As a result, food scraps and other items that shouldn’t go in your bathroom and kitchen sinks may find their way down your drains.

To prevent a holiday plumbing disaster, make sure your guests dispose of their food scraps and trash in a trash bin. If you have plates and pans with grease, dispose of the grease with a paper towel or collect it in a throwaway container. Keeping unwanted items out of your sinks can be an easy way to avoid calling for an emergency plumber.

Safeguard Your Garbage Disposal

While your garbage disposal can handle a lot, there are some foods items you should keep away from the disposal. You can read your garbage disposal user manual to better understand which foods to keep away from it. When you know how to properly care for your disposal, you can prevent an encounter with an emergency plumber.

It’s a good idea to clean your disposal every two weeks to keep it in peak condition. Filling your disposal with ice and a cup of rock salt and running it for a minute can clean away any gunk inside the disposal.

Protect Your Toilets

The only item you should flush down the toilet is toilet paper. Diapers, dental floss, and “flushable” wipes should all be disposed of in the trash. These items can cause clogged toilets, leading to you unexpectedly calling for emergency plumbing services.

Avoid a holiday plumbing emergency by making sure your guests know which items they should and shouldn’t be flushing down the toilet. You can keep a clean trash can in the bathroom for these items.

Create a Shower Schedule

You might be welcoming guests into your home this holiday season. As a result, all that hot water use may risk overwhelming your water heater—and treating your guests to ice-cold showers. Most conventional water heaters aren’t able to handle frequent back-to-back showers.

We recommend asking your guests to wait 15 to 20 minutes between showers to prevent overwhelming your water heater and your drains. When you establish a shower schedule, you can avoid a holiday plumbing emergency and ensure hot water for all. 

Additionally, you may want to consider investing in a tankless water heater, which will allow you to have hot water on demand.

Conclusion

This time of the year, it’s common for homeowners to forget about their plumbing systems—until they need an emergency plumber to fix a clogged sink and other plumbing issues. These five tips will help you avoid a holiday plumbing emergency, so you can spend more time enjoying the holidays with your loved ones.

If you find yourself needing emergency plumbing services, Aberle is only a call away. As your neighborly plumbers, we’re proud to provide dependable plumbing services, including drain maintenance and sewer cleaning in Houston, TX, and the surrounding areas. Contact us today!