Holiday Plumbing Considerations

During the holiday season, it can feel like your schedule is all consuming. But you aren’t the only one doing double time, the extra cooking, dishes, laundry, and guests mean your plumbing has to work extra hard all December as well. Grease, gravies, sauces, hair, and more are all making their way through your drains and pipes. Add in a niece or nephew who tries flushing an entire roll of toilet paper or a new Barbie doll, and you’re well on your way to a clog.

Use Traps & Your Compost.

After a long day spent cooking and feasting, a great chore for the teens or tweens is packing away the leftovers, scraping all the residue off cookware into the compost, and scraping plates. Simply making use of your young workforce to remove the worst of food scraps and oils will do wonders for your drains. But we recommend Calgary homeowners take clog prevention one step further. 

A hair snare is a mesh hair trap that can be placed into the drain of showers and sinks. Traps with larger holes are also available and are perfect for catching bits of food in the kitchen sink. 

Childproof Your Washroom.

Speaking of your young nibblings, you should consider childproofing washrooms. An excellent first guard will be a childproof, over the knob, door lock. As long as the door is kept shut, this will prevent toddlers going in unattended where they may unroll the toilet paper or play in the garbage. But, unfortunately, you can’t rely on people keeping the door closed. 

As your second line of defence, you should invest in a toilet lock. These easy to use and affordable devices lock the toilet seat down. Toddlers under 3 years old are most likely to drown in the home, typically in the bathtub, a buck of water, or in the toilet. Young children this age are very top heavy, so if they peek into the toilet to see the water, they can tip forward and fall head first into the bowl. Their face will be underwater, so they will be unable to yell or otherwise alert an adult.

Be Preemptive!

Whether it’s childproofing your washroom or buying some cheap hair snares, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Pay attention to your drains! Has water been pooling in your sink or shower because the drain has slowed down? You likely have a partial clog. You should take care of that small clog now before it becomes a full clog. Remember to never use drain cleaner in your plumbing system, either use one of our easy to follow guides or call your local, friendly Calgary plumber to clean your drains for you.

Your house’s intricate system of pipes and plumbing are hidden beneath your floor or in your walls. With your plumbing out of sight (and out of mind), it’s easy to take it for granted. But, over the holidays, your plumbing works hard to take care of you and your guests. Make sure you take care of it in turn. Contact the Calgary plumbers at Plumbing Paramedics to schedule your drain cleaning today, and happy holidays to all Calgarians!