As the holiday season approaches, many residents of Pleasanton, California, are getting ready to spend Thanksgiving Day enjoying a hearty meal with their friends and families. Even if you aren’t hosting Thanksgiving this year, knowing a few of the most prevalent Thanksgiving plumbing accidents can help you ensure your holiday goes according to plan.
Broken Garbage Disposals
The garage disposal is a helpful appliance instrumental in the successful preparation of Thanksgiving fare, which is why it will be working overtime throughout the course of the holiday season. This continuous use means your garbage disposal may be subject to a range of different problems, including blockages or jams. These problems tend to arise when too many food scraps enter the garbage disposal at once, or when food items or waste that won’t break down effectively are accidently thrown down the disposal.
There are several different common Thanksgiving ingredients and foods that can severely impair a garbage disposal, such as egg shells, celery, bread, and grease. Whether you’ll be in the kitchen this year or not, refer to the following list of food items that don’t belong in the garbage disposal to help avoid plumbing problems this year:
- Beans
- Bread
- Egg shells
- Mashed potatoes
- Stringy vegetables such as asparagus, celery, and corn husks
- Rice and pasta
- Cherry pits
- Potato skins
- Coffee grounds
- Grease and oils
- Bones
If you need to get rid of a lot of scraps, split the waste up into smaller bundles and discard each portion one by one, or dispose of them manually without utilizing your garbage disposal.
Exhausted Plumbing Appliances
As the whole family gets together for Thanksgiving, the number of people in a home at one time is likely to double. This means the home’s plumbing appliances are used at a higher rate, rendering them more vulnerable to issues. Though there is no way to avoid this when you have guests during the holiday season, you can help ensure everyone knows what shouldn’t be flushed down the toilet or put in the garbage disposal in hopes of reducing the likelihood of a plumbing disaster.