The Frugal Duchess: Recovering My Frugal Groove: Guest Post: "Don’t Invite the Plumber to Thanksgiving Dinner"

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Guest Post: "Don’t Invite the Plumber to Thanksgiving Dinner"

Here's a guest post about avoiding costly plumbing woes on Thanksgiving. It's from a news release I received with helpful tips about avoiding repair costs.

How to Avoid the Plumber on What Might Be a Day of
“Disasters”

Thanksgiving Day doesn’t often bring immediate thoughts of garbage disposals, plungers and plumbers. But for many, it quickly becomes the reality when a standard kitchen gets put into overdrive while a Thanksgiving feast is being prepared.

“Thanksgiving Day is a time for family, friends and lots of food. However, that’s a recipe that could end up with an unexpected guest – the plumber,” said David Lupberger, ServiceMagic.com’s Home Improvement Expert, repeating his annual warning. “Thanksgiving can be one of the busiest days of the year for plumbing
emergencies.”

Lupberger says the garbage disposal is the main source of most Thanksgiving and holiday plumbing problems.

“During hours and hours of cooking, either too much waste gets thrown down the disposal or items are discarded that can’t be broken down by the disposal,” Lupberger said.

Lupberger offers these tips to avoid holiday plumbing issues:

· Make sure that everyone helping in the kitchen knows what can go into the disposal and what should not. Corn husks, grease, bones, potato skins, egg shells and lettuce are all common Thanksgiving Dinner byproducts that may lead to problems. (Frugal Duchess comment: I have a friend who uses egg shells and other food by-products to fertilize her garden. Coffee grinds are also good on soil.)

· Don’t put too much down the disposal at once. Run your disposal several times to clear out smaller amounts of waste instead of trying to clear everything at once.

· Since a typical household of four people can swell to more than a dozen, make sure all the visiting children know what shouldn’t be flushed down the toilet. With that many people making trips to the bathroom, your plumbing may be distressed in general!

Not only are T-Day plumbing emergencies an enormous inconvenience, but they could also be pricey. Plumbers don’t typically come cheap on a holiday.

“They’re leaving their homes to come to your home to take care of a problem,” Lupberger said. “That means you might expect to pay a lot more for something that might have been avoided.”