‘It’s the most wonderful time of the year,’ declares the classic Christmas song, but your drainage system may not be inclined to agree. When you’re entertaining guests, serving lavish meals and throwing parties, your drains are working harder than ever. Plus, they’re more likely to be exposed to cooking fat and other notorious drain blockers during the indulgent festive season than at any other time of the year.
Careful planning is required to ensure Christmas and New Year celebrations go smoothly, and as a leading Bath drainage company we know how important it is for homeowners to factor their drains into their seasonal plans. If you prepare your drainage system for the holidays now, as well as taking steps to protect it when the celebrations are in full swing, you can significantly reduce your risk of experiencing drain disasters such as collapsed drains.
Nothing puts a dampener on festive cheer quite like the stress, mess and inconvenience of drainage problems. So read on for Mega-Rod’s seasonal drain care tips, which will help you to keep your home merry and bright.
At Christmastime, many people open up their homes to family and friends. It’s wonderful to share this season with people you love, but there’s no getting away from the fact that filling your home with guests increases the chances of rogue items being flushed down toilets and forming blockages that need to be removed by a specialist drain unblocking team.
With that in mind, you’ll want to ensure there are lidded bins in the guest bedrooms, bathroom and downstairs toilet. Place signs near the bins to make guests aware that wet wipes, sanitary products, half-eaten mince pies, cracker toys and other items that aren’t designed to be flushed away should be thrown away instead.
Roast turkey is the centrepiece of many people’s Christmas dinner menus. A staggering 10 million turkeys are cooked in the UK during the holidays. Other festive favourites include goose and pork. They’re all delicious but also produce lots of fat, which can play havoc with drains.
Never pour fat, oil and grease (also known as FOG in the drainage industry) down your kitchen sink. As they harden, they can create mini fatbergs capable of blocking drains, trapping rogue items, causing nasty backups, exerting enough pressure on pipe walls to make drains collapse, and ultimately enlarging vast sewer fatbergs.
To give you an idea of the scale of the problem, 27% of UK adults admit to pouring fat down plugholes, while 250 tons of fatty waste enters the water system per million cooked turkeys. One water company has even issued a ‘festive FOG warning’, noting that a single turkey ‘can produce enough fat to cause a blockage in smaller pipes’.
Instead of pouring away fat, oil or grease, let it cool slightly then place in a sealable plastic container, which you can bin once cold. Also throw away other festive food waste that can block drains, including leftover gravy and cranberry sauce, bones, and vegetable peelings.
If there’s any chance food waste or other nasties are lurking in your drains right now, you need our drain cleaning service. We’ll use a drain jetter or other powerful equipment to clean and clear your pipework before Christmas.
After hosting an unforgettable New Year’s Eve party, you’ll have more cleaning to do than usual and will want anyone whose head isn’t too sore to help you with it! But don’t go overboard – mixing cleaning products is dangerous and won’t make them work better. For example, combining bleach and toilet cleaner can produce toxic gas and damage pipework.
Also avoid harsh chemical drain cleaners, as they can cause chemical burns and respiratory issues, as well as warp drains. If your drains are struggling (perhaps they’ve been overwhelmed by numerous guests using large amounts of toilet paper), our drain jetting service can quickly and safely resolve the problem with no need for nasty chemicals.
Why not make a New Year’s resolution never to use harsh chemical drain cleaners again? Your drainage system will certainly thank you.
Eat, drink and be merry this Christmas and New Year – but spare a thought for your drains!
We provide a comprehensive range of drainage services in Bath, Bristol and the surrounding area, including drain unblocking, drain cleaning, drain jetting and more, to keep your wastewater flowing throughout the festive season and beyond.
Don’t let drain problems spoil your festive plans – call Mega-Rod today on 01225 422980.
