Thanksgiving table scraps spell booming business for plumbers

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Nov 23, 2006 | by Rebekah Gordon

Besides Aunt Mildred, six cousins and Grandma, a likely guest of honor for many households this Thanksgiving will be their local plumber.

Indeed, plumbers at outfits large and small give thanks for the holiday's guaranteed boom in business, courtesy of drain cloggings en masse from too much turkey grease, holiday food scraps, and yes, even bathroom use.

Black Friday, indeed.

"I can tell you exactly what's going to happen on Friday. Everybody's going to have a clogged kitchen sink," said Jeff Meehan, the owner of Cabrillo Plumbing in Redwood City. "It's probably the biggest day of the year for backed-up drains."

Meehan said he's seen it all in the pipes, from potato peelings to turkey bones. And should you fail to eat all your brussels sprouts, don't try to stuff them down your drain or garbage disposal, either.

"The worst offenders are artichokes and celery," Meehan said. "They'll just turn into ahemp-like product."

What many fail to realize is that garbage disposals are not an endless black hole for making all your food gunk neatly disappear. Most disposals and drains feed into a pipe only 11/2 or 2 inches wide.

"The truth of the matter is, there's not too many things you should put down there," said Travis Allen, the owner of Smelly Mel's Plumbing in South San Francisco.

Allen said he'll have his full staff of eight on hand Friday to handle what he guesses will be 30 to 40 calls -- at least five times his normal volume.

While sending rice, stuffing and anything else starchy down drains is a pet peeve for Allen, grease from your bird is his biggest no-no.

Plumbers liken the dilemma to what happens to your body's own arteries should you eat too many greasy hamburgers.

"It's grease that builds up on the lines," Allen said. "That restricts the flow of the pipe."

Instead, wipe grease out of pots or pans with paper towels or pour it into a container, such as an old coffee can.

Plumbing giant Roto-Rooter, with 610 locations nationwide, knows it will be making a lot of guest appearances Friday. According to spokesman Paul Abrams, the company is planning for service calls to jump 50 percent.

"Well see about a half million dollars of added revenue," Abrams said.

Their legions are at the ready.

"The day after Thanksgiving is probably the hardest day to get out of working if you're a plumber," Abrams said. "It's all hands on deck."

Plumbers see plenty of older systems that manage to get by handling a household's regular activity (because, after all, who wants to spend money on upgrading their plumbing?), but get maxed out from the additional guests on Turkey Day and all the food waste that goes with them.

"Pipes build up, and this might be the catalyst that does it: The turkey dinner," said Meehan of Cabrillo Plumbing. "People don't understand that a garbage disposal has an effective life."

And then there's the matter of the bathroom.

Out-of-town guests mean more showers, more sink use and more loads of laundry -- all things that put additional stress on pipes, especially older ones. It also means more toilet flushes.

But the biggest Thanksgiving bathroom nuisance, Meehan said, is not too much toilet paper or, shall we say, too much delivery.

Rather, toilets are just too much fun.

"When you have the whole tribe in the house, the kids are unsupervised," Meehan said.

He has seen all kinds of children's Thanksgiving entertainment gone awry in the commode, from tennis balls to water toys. One year, he said, they were called to a house three times in one day after a wee lad just couldn't get enough of sending his army men on a mission down the pipes.

Unknowing adult guests are sometimes to blame, too. Aunt Mildred, ever helpful in the kitchen, may think she's doing a favor by quickly tossing table scraps for 12 down the drain. But that can do more harm than good for hosts.

"They have relatives over that aren't familiar with their plumbing and put things down the drain that they normally wouldn't, and inevitably it backs up," said Denis O'Halloran, the owner of Southwood Plumbing and Heating in San Bruno.

His advice?

"Keep your in-laws away from the kitchen sink," O'Halloran said.

Across the board, plumbers say the easiest way to avoid a problem with your drain or garbage disposal is rather simple.

"Don't put anything down there. Put your garbage can right next to the kitchen sink, and throw everything in there," said Allen of Smelly Mel's. "And if everyone cooperates, I can give my guys Friday off."

Staff writer Rebekah Gordon can be reached at (650) 306-2428 or rgordon@sanmateocountytimes.com.

Tips for a plumber-free Thanksgiving

Don't pour fats or cooking oils down the drain. Wipe with paper towels or pour into a container and throw it away.

Avoid putting poultry skins, potato or carrot peels, stuffing, rice or fibrous vegetables like celery or rhubarb in your garbage disposal.

Run your garbage disposal when you put food debris into it; don't wait until it's full to turn it on.

Run cold water for 15 seconds before and after using the garbage disposal to flush waste to the main sewer.