Well, lo and behold, the joyous holiday season is here. A time when family and friends gather together to enjoy food, drinks, gift giving and memory making. But unfortunately having a house full of family and friends can put quite a damper on your home’s plumbing system. All that partying, eating and drinking can surely lead to typical holiday winter plumbing problems such as a lack of hot water, clogged toilets and drains and even an over worked garbage disposal. With that said, the folks here at Steve Mull Plumbing are on hand to handle your every plumbing need.
The average party host puts a great deal of time and effort into their party planning. From menu items, the perfect cocktails and gift giving ideas, to a joyous décor and lots of Christmas music and carols. However, they often forget about some of the most common plumbing issues that can catch you by surprise during the busy holiday party hosting season.
In the kitchen, typically the busiest room in the house, you have excessive amounts of food that often result in all sorts of things finding their way down the garbage disposal. If you are like most party hosts, you want to take whatever steps you can to avoid any disruption to your party with a clogged or broken garbage disposal. In order to accomplish this necessary task, we tell all our clients never to put any grease or oils down the drain but rather find a way to properly dispose of them before those dishes and pans end up in your sink or dishwasher.
We also tell our clients to not overload their garbage disposal, but rather use it in small quantities since they are not designed to handle massive amounts of unwanted food. You should also avoid putting banana peels, chicken skin, bones, egg shells and even pastas and potatoes down the garbage disposal because they can create ongoing problems including clogs and serious pipe damage. When all the disposing is done, take a moment to add lemon peels and hot water to give it a fresh clean smell.
In the bathroom you can experience a variety of winter plumbing problems as well. If you have guests staying in your home during the holiday season or are hosting a magnificent Christmas or New Year’s gathering, there are apt to be a lot of people using the shower, bath and toilets. In order to avoid any serious problems from occurring, we suggest you have a garbage pail in hand, which will encourage your guests to not flush harmful items down the toilet. You should advise your guests in advance of any concerns you may have and ask that they give extra care and attention to whatever they attempt to flush.
If you have guests staying with you, you may want to set up some type of a shower schedule so that everyone is not showering at the same time and causing the hot water to run out. You want to ensure that your water heater is not over worked or over active during the holidays as well, so consider turning the heater up a slight bit in order to accommodate the extra work load. When the holiday season and all the partying comes to an end, make certain to adjust your water heater and lower your temperature again.
Taking advantage of these helpful tips will ensure you are not burdened or surprised by unwanted winter plumbing problems. When hosting a party, you want everyone to be comfortable and have a great time. If unsuspecting plumbing issues occur, this can certainly put a damper on everyone’s fun. With that said, our professional team also suggests you perform a bit of preventative maintenance and service in advance of your holiday parties to ensure that your plumbing system is up for the seasonal challenge.
Surely the holiday season has arrived and the folks here at Steve Mull Plumbing want to help make your holiday parties every bit comfortable and fun. If you have any concerns at all, simply give a shout out to our team and schedule your preventative maintenance today. We look forward to serving you and send along wishes for a safe and happy holiday season ahead!!
