When a holiday rolls around, there’s enough to worry about without having to think about your plumbing. However, your holiday feasts are liable to cause you severe issues if you haven’t been taking care of your home plumbing. The extra grease, food scraps, and other objects that wash down your drain during the holidays are enough to strain even the cleanest of systems. That’s why you should take care of any problems you have with your plumbing before the festivities roll around.
Thankfully, you have the team of experienced plumbers from Done Plumbing, Heating, Cooling, and Electric to help you get through these trying times! We can help you ensure that you make it through the holidays in one piece with these tips and tricks.
Holiday Advice for Your Plumbing Systems
Be Judicious With Your Waste
Your sink drains can only handle so much waste, so separating your food waste helps before washing dishes. Start by cleaning compostables off your plates and into a compost bin or other proper container. It would help if you placed any other scraps in the trash to minimize the amount of work your disposal system needs to perform. While this goes without saying, don’t let plastic or other inorganic waste wash down your sink. Otherwise, you’re sure to have a clog form in your lines.
Don’t Overload Your Disposal System
When it comes time to run your garbage disposal system, avoid overloading the feed. No matter how robust your disposal is, it’ll never be able to cope with an entire sink’s worth of waste. Avoid jamming your disposal by only feeding it scraps with warm water flowing through it. This method will allow your system to perform more efficiently.
Avoid Performance Reducing Wastes
Certain foods produce waste that is never fit for your garbage disposal. These include but are not limited to:
- Eggs: Eggs contain membranes that wrap around some of your disposal’s components, potentially rendering them useless. Once ground down, the shells are difficult to get rid of and often result in serious clogs.
- Fats: Fats and greases coat your system’s blades, thereby reducing their effectiveness. This same grease can also cause clogs to form in your lines, and you should avoid it at all costs.
- Vegetable or Fruit Skins: While they may seem harmless, vegetable and fruit skins tend to get caught underneath your disposal system’s blades, reducing their effectiveness.
- Bones, Shells, Pits, and Seeds: These tough byproducts can dull your system’s blades, slow operation, and even result in a burnt-out motor! Avoid byproducts at all costs.
- Stringy Vegetables: Stringy vegetables, such as celery, often congest your system similarly to fruit and vegetable skins.
- Rice, Pasta, or Tea Leaves: These soft foods can gum up your blades and even eventually form serious clogs.
Inspect Your System For Issues
Don’t let existing issues sneak up on you during the holidays. Before you have any of your family gatherings, inspect any areas you may suspect of having leaks or other issues. If you’re not sure how to identify problem areas, keep these signs in mind:
- Wet Spots: Areas of unusual wetness are often the result of a leaking or burst pipe on your property.
- Mold: Mold and mildew often occur in areas where building materials have come in contact with moisture.
- Flooded or Sagging Lawns: When sewer lines leak onto your property, you’ll often find that pools of water will form on your lawn.
- Foundation Cracks: Slab or sewer line leaks can damage your home’s foundation and even make your home unlivable!
If you’re experiencing any of these issues, call the professionals from Done Plumbing before it’s too late and a minor problem becomes a catastrophe.
A Professional Inspection Will Help You Stay On Top Of Issues
The best way to ensure the integrity of your plumbing during the holiday season is to call a plumber to do a regular inspection. This examination will give you an overview of your system’s health and alert you to any existing issues that may worsen during the holidays. That means you won’t have to worry about your disposal system shutting down on you in the middle of your celebration. Better yet, you’ll avoid any potential back-ups and the embarrassment that comes with them.
Call Done Plumbing & Heating and Avoid Extra Hassle On the Holidays
Hopefully, these few tips are enough to help you avoid the most common plumbing issues people encounter during the holiday season. However, accidents happen, but thankfully, you have us help you whenever you run into problems. When you need help preparing for the holiday season, let Done help you with our comprehensive plumbing, drains, and sewer services. We’ll help ensure that your plumbing system is in top form so that you can tackle this holiday season with confidence.
