Holiday Season Plumbing Tips in Germantown & Rockville

Any time you have more guests than normal, you have the opportunity for more plumbing problems than normal.  Well, that’s precisely what frequently happens during the holidays and, from our experience here at Your 1 Plumber, it’s about a 50-50 split between nuisance-type plumbing problems that occur in the kitchen and bathroom.

But knowing what causes the majority of these problems can help you prepare well in advance

With a house full of company, for example, you’re going to have a lot more people than normal using your bathroom.  And, let’s face it, not everybody is as careful as you are, especially with they’re using other peoples’ plumbing!  That’s why you should keep a trash bin in every bathroom available for their use.  These will serve as subtle reminders that only toilet paper should be placed in the bowl.  It’s amazing how many cocktail straws and napkins, paper towels, feminine products, and other such matter find their ways into toilets this time of year, causing potentially messy back-ups.

While you’re at it, and while it might not be your most attractive holiday decoration, keep a plunger in plain sight in your bathrooms, too.  Let’s face it:  what guest wants to emerge from a trip to the “oval office” to announce that they just blocked your toilet?  So why not give them a chance to take care of the problem on their own, especially before it gets any worse!

In the kitchen, don’t you just love it when friends and family members express their appreciation for you, as host, by doing all the dinner dishes so you can take a load off once dinner is done?  Of course you do, but again, what if they’re not quite as careful as you are about properly disposing of grease, knowing what should and shouldn’t be placed in the garbage disposal, and so on?

Listen, it’s your house, and you get to make the rules.  So thank the volunteers, let them do their thing, but first provide them with an empty coffee can for any cooking grease as just one gentle reminder of how things get done YOUR way, clog free.