The weeks from Thanksgiving to New Year’s ask more of a home’s plumbing than any other stretch of the year. Kitchens run all day and bathrooms serve twice their usual traffic. In Durham, those same weeks bring the first hard freezes and the winter storms that cut power. We know November is busy, so this list is short. Handle it while the schedule is open, and the season can be about the company rather than the plumbing.
In the kitchen
The day after Thanksgiving is the busiest day of the year for plumbers, and the calls are almost always kitchen drains and garbage disposals. Grease is the usual cause. Fat from a roasting pan goes down the drain as a liquid and hardens into a plug as it cools inside the pipe. A few habits prevent nearly all of it, though.
- Pour grease into a can and throw it away. Wipe pans with a paper towel before rinsing.
- Keep potato peels, celery, onion skins, pasta, rice, coffee grounds, and bones out of the disposal.
- Run cold water for fifteen seconds before and after using the disposal so waste travels to the main line instead of settling in the trap.
- If the kitchen drain is already a little slow, have it cleared before the holiday! A partial blockage in November becomes a full one on the day itself, and professional drain clearing opens the whole line rather than punching a hole through the clog the way a plunger does.
In the guest bathrooms
Guest bathrooms tend to fail for two reasons: a toilet that was already a little tired, and items flushed that should not have been. Before guests arrive, give each toilet a look. One that needs a second flush, runs on its own, or rocks on the floor is easier to repair now than during the visit. Put a covered trash can and a plunger in every bathroom, since guests will flush wipes, cotton pads, and paper towels if the alternative is asking where the trash goes. Products labeled flushable still clog drain lines; the label refers to whether the product fits through the toilet, not whether it breaks down in the pipe. Our bathroom plumbing page covers the repairs that come up around this time of year.
Hot water for a full house
A tank heater sized for two people runs short when six are showering in the same hour, and nobody enjoys being the one who gets the cold one. Staggering showers and running the dishwasher and laundry after dinner helps. Before the season, flush the sediment from the bottom of the tank, since sediment is what slows the heater’s recovery between showers. Then check the manufacture date on the label. A tank past ten years is most likely to give out under the added load of holiday week, and a heater in a crawl space or an attic, as many Durham water heaters are, does not fail quietly. If yours is in that range, a water heater repair or maintenance visit before the season will tell you whether it will make it through and what replacing it would involve.
When a cold snap arrives
Durham’s first hard freezes tend to land in the same weeks as the holidays. Before guests come, disconnect the hoses, cover the outdoor spigots, and wrap any exposed pipe in the crawl space or garage. When a freeze is in the forecast, open the cabinet doors under sinks on exterior walls and let a faucet drip at the far end of the house. A guest bathroom over the crawl space or on an outside wall is the room most likely to lose water in a freeze, so check its pipes first.
If the power goes out
Winter storms cut power in the Triangle in many winters, and an ice storm can keep it off for days. Plumbing depends on electricity more than people expect. An electric water heater stops heating, and so does a gas water heater with electronic ignition. A well pump stops, which means no water at all for homes outside the municipal systems. A sump pump stops while the same storm is pushing water into the crawl space. Two preparations make a difference. Know where the main water shutoff is, so a frozen pipe during an outage can be isolated quickly. And if the house has a sump pump, consider a battery backup pump, which takes over when the primary loses power and runs for hours on its own. Our sump pump service includes installing and testing backups.
Let us take the rest off your list
Happy Home Services has served Durham and the Triangle since 1955, and the weeks before Thanksgiving are the last open window on our service schedule. If you need a drain cleared, a water heater flushed or replaced, or a sump pump backup installed before the holidays, schedule online or reach us 24/7 by phone or website chat. Every repair comes with honest, upfront pricing with a 100% money-back guarantee.