SAN ANTONIO – Black Friday is a busy day for plumbers, too. Typically, plumbers receive up to 50% more calls than they do on any given Friday.
It’s all thanks to the big Thanksgiving meals and what people are pouring down the drain.
“Typically about 30% of our jobs are sewer and drain related. Today, it was over 80%,” Clay Saliba said. Saliba is the general manager for George Plumbing.
“It’s been pretty busy. We got about four calls on us today,” Dwayne Singleton said. Singleton is an apprentice plumber at George Plumbing. “Drain line issues, basically clogged sewer lines, people flushing stuff down the toilet that shouldn’t be flushed.”
While bathrooms are a big problem during the holiday, the most common issue, according to plumbers, starts at the kitchen sink. People often throw their Thanksgiving scraps down the drain.
“So, big things like potato peels and bones and stuff like that, you don’t necessarily want to put down the drain,” Saliba said.
While some repairs are easy, others can quickly add up.
“In a typical unclogging of a main sewer line, (that can cost) $300 to $400,” Saliba said.
To avoid a ‘Brown Friday’ that could lead to a hefty plumbing bill, the key could be the water flow.
“Like the toilet or the disposal, the more water you can run down, you give it a good drink of water to flush it out, you know?” Saliba said. “So, yes, running more water, flushing more times, theoretically, would help push the waste down better.”