Two of the nation's largest plumbing repair companies said they expect to be quite busy after Thanksgiving on a day it calls "Brown Friday."
Roto-Rooter said it experiences a 50% increase in call volume the day after Thanksgiving compared to an average Friday. The company also said Thanksgiving weekend has a 21% uptick in business over any other four-day weekend period.
Mr. Rooter also describes the day after Thanksgiving as its busiest of the year. The company said that it's not clogged toilets causing all of the issues, but instead items getting into kitchen drains, clogging lines.
"A typical Thanksgiving dinner puts a far greater demand on your kitchen sink than it receives on a normal day. To make things worse, the type of food that typically gets made during Thanksgiving is exceptional at clogging sinks," Mr. Rooter said.
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"Houses full of holiday guests take extra showers and flush more toilets, so that alone puts a strain on residential drain systems," said Paul Abrams, spokesman for Roto-Rooter. "But once the kitchen gets busy and the sink and disposal receive peelings, rice, poultry skin and oily turkey drippings, things start clogging up fast."
Roto-Rooter issued the following tips to prevent drain trouble during Thanksgiving weekend:
- Never pour grease, turkey drippings or cooking oil down drains. They solidify in pipes like candle wax and choke drains.
- Don't put potato peels, poultry skins, bones, rice or pasta down the garbage disposal. Disposals can handle small quantities of scraps, but most food should go into the trash can or compost pile.
- Make sure the garbage disposal is running when you add food scraps.
- Don't flush wet wipes down toilets. Most won't dissolve and may clog drainpipes and sewers.
- Place plungers in guest bathrooms to save guests the embarrassment of asking for one.
- Spread out showers and laundry loads so pipes have time to drain.
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Both Roto-Rooter and Mr. Rooter said they'll be fully staffed on Black Friday to assist customers with the plumbing needs.
