Preventing Holiday Drain Horror Stories Starts With These Easy Tips!

Clogged drains, standing water, and plugged up toilets can turn any holiday celebration into a horror show. When the family celebrations includes scores of visiting relatives, friends, and neighbors, the situation can become even worse. In many cases, the extra pressure placed on a home plumbing system when entertaining this type of large group can be instrumental in causing these problems to surface, especially if the home is already experiencing slow drains or toilet-flushing issues. If your home will be hosting holiday celebrations this season and you would like to make sure they are not interrupted by an inconvenient or embarrassing plumbing emergency, the following tips can help. 

Prevent grease and oil from entering home drains

Coined "fatbergs" by the press, accumulations of hardened fat and grease in plumbing systems have been shown in many recent news articles from around the world. These deposits of grease cool, congeal, and adhere to the inside of large pipes used by municipal sewer systems. As they harden, other debris becomes trapped in the fat, helping to make the clog even worse. Home drains, while much smaller than those of a municipal system, can also become clogged by grease and oil in this same manner. 

Preventing grease and oil from entering home drains is the best way to prevent buildup that could form a miniature fatberg in your home's plumbing system and result in an inconvient clog. This is especially true during times of heavier usage, such as during a holiday celebration. To help prevent this from happening, homeowners should be careful to prevent grease and oil from entering their drains by: 

  • never pouring cooking liquids, salad dressings, cooking oils, grease, or melted fats down the kitchen sink 
  • using dish washing liquids that have a degreasing action capable of dissolving grease and oil 
  • using a degreasing laundry detergent or pre-treating aids to treat oily stains and residue in clothing before laundering

When cooking, homeowners should also be sure to drain cooled oils, grease, and cooking liquids into a disposable container, such as and empty paper milk carton, metal soup can, or disposable glass bottle. These containers can then be capped or securely wrapped inside a plastic bag and placed into the garbage, instead of allowing these liquids to go down the drain. 

Start with clean drains before the celebration begins

Another excellent way to prevent home holiday celebrations from turning into a nightmare of clogged pipes is to start with clean, clog-free drains. To do this, homeowners can contact a reputable drain cleaning service in their area. Many of these services now use high-tech equipment and remote cameras to diagnose problems and then clear them away, without invasive digging or unsightly messes. 

Contact a company, like HELP Plumbing, Heating, Cooling and Electric, for more help.


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