The holidays are a time for households to welcome friends, family and loved ones into the home and share in the festivities together. Of course, these extra gatherings and visitors from abroad can put added pressure on your house’s plumbing system, and no one wants to deal with plumbing emergencies over Christmas.
So to keep plungers and faucet keys out of your Christmas celebrations, here are a few helpful tips for ensuring your pipes and drains stay clear and fully functional over the holiday season.
#1 – Make sure everyone’s leftovers end up in the trash, not down the drain
After a hearty Christmas lunch that’s left everyone feeling tired and lazy, it’s all too tempting to simply scrape the remnants of food on your plate down the sink. However, this is inevitably going to leave you with a clogged drain – sometimes immediately, sometimes over the course of a few weeks or months even.
A sink strainer costs no more than a couple bucks, and will stop large chunks of food from finding their way down the sink drain. Be sure to scrape leftovers into the trash before putting dishes in the sink, and regularly scoop up the scraps that collect on the strainer and throw them in the bin.
If you have a garbage disposal unit, it’s important to know what foods should NOT be fed into it. The main culprits are egg shells, animal bones, rice, pasta, stringy foods (like celery) plus fat, oil and grease of any kind. By keeping these things out of your garbage disposal, you can keep it running efficiently all through the holidays.
#2 – Keep grease out of your plumbing
Have you ever noticed how grease congeals into a thick, slimy white residue once it cools down? This is something you definitely don’t want happening inside your plumbing, as it will solidify within your pipes and prevent water from passing freely.
We all tend to indulge in a few greasier meals than usual over the holidays, and this means you need to be extra vigilant to make sure grease gets disposed of via the garbage, not your drains.
#3 – Give your shower a rest between visits
The holiday season often means house guests, which also means more showers. If your shower is going to be working harder this Christmas, be sure to give it time to drain properly between each person.
By doing this, you’ll often find small clumps of hair or other build-ups on the shower drain, which can be removed between showers. This drastically reduces the likelihood that your shower drain will become clogged; saving you and your houseguests from showering in ankle-deep water and flooding the bathroom every morning.
As for your toilet, it may be worth having the awkward conversation with houseguests to remind them not to flush sanitary napkins, cleansing wipes, facial pads, cotton balls/swabs, paper towels and other “cloggable” materials down the toilet. This is especially true if you have more kids in the house than usual!
#4 – Avoid the “too many cooks” situation
It’s nice to have everyone help out in the kitchen when lots of meals are being served, but the trouble with this is that you end up with dishes being dumped in the dishwasher without being cleared properly first, inappropriate items going down the garbage disposal or sink drain, or the dishwasher being run over and over again despite it only being half full.
By managing the kitchen to reduce the number of people coming in and out of there, you minimise the risk of kitchen plumbing mishaps.
#5 – Get your plumbing ready for the holidays in advance
And finally, the best way to go about your Christmas plumbing services is to adopt a preventative approach. Consider having your home’s plumbing serviced by a licensed professional ahead of the holiday season, to ensure there are no cracks, clogs or other issues which will no doubt cause issues as soon as the house gets livelier.
Generally, you should have your plumbing inspected by a professional once a year anyway. The beginning of the Christmas holidays is as good a time as any! It also prepares you for the hot summer ahead, which is typically when our plumbing gets worked the hardest with heavier water usage.
Don’t wait until you’re in a post-Christmas lunch food coma to deal with a plumbing emergency. Schedule an appointment to have your pipes inspected by an experienced professional today.
Plumbform is your reliable local plumbing service during Christmas
Whether you’re planning in advance or you’ve found yourself stuck dealing with an emergency plumbing issue on Christmas, we’re here to help. Plumbform can assist with anything from blocked drains and leak detection, to roofing/guttering, excavation and more.
Call us on 0424 794 641 for 24/7 emergency plumbing services anywhere in Brisbane, and one of our friendly plumbers will provide immediate assistance.
