Christmas is stressful enough without bringing blocked drains into the equation. There are all those presents to buy, all that food to cook and all those guests to entertain or argue with. The last thing you want is for the drains to get blocked on top of everything else. You can prevent blocked drains from ruining your Christmas though, as we’ll show below.
Be careful what you put down the sink
Christmas means food. And Christmas food means even more fat, oil and other delicious but greasy festive fare than usual. Fat and grease sliding down the plughole only to cool and solidify to cause a build-up is one of the main culprits of a blocked drain but also one of the easiest to prevent.
How do you prevent fat and grease from going down the drain? Easy! Don’t pour fat and grease down the sink, it’s as simple as that.
Wipe your greasy pots, pans and plates with kitchen roll and put the dirty kitchen roll in the bin. Where you’ve got a lot of fat and oil to get rid of, pour it into a glass jar or container, wait for it to solidify and then scrape it into the bin.
Be careful what you put down the toilet
We know you’re careful what you put down your toilet, but are your guests? Perhaps your adult guests are but if they’re bringing small people with them, make sure they know the toilet isn’t a swimming pool for the toys they got for Christmas.
Also, to be on the safe side, put bins out in the bathroom for your guests to dispose of anything they need to dispose of such as wipes, nappies or sanitary products, etc.
Use a plughole strainer
To be extra sure nothing goes down the plughole that shouldn’t, invest in plughole strainers – one for each bath or shower and one for the kitchen sink. This will ensure that only water goes down the drain and not hair, fat, lumpy gravy or bits of turkey.
If in doubt, clean your drains out
It’s a good idea to test your drains before the onslaught of Christmas. We’re not suggesting you lift up the manhole and peek inside to make sure everything’s as it should be, but run your taps and flush your toilet to make sure the water’s free-flowing and draining properly.
Any slight blockage now will be much, much worse come Christmas day and the last thing you want to do on Christmas Day is to call out an emergency plumber.
If you do think your drains could do with a bit of cleaning and maintenance, don’t attempt a DIY job, but call out a drain cleaning company to do it.
As we said at the beginning, Christmas is a very stressful time for most people. A blocked drain will only cause extra stress, so make sure you follow the tips above to ensure blocked drains don’t cause you extra cost and inconvenience at this already busy and expensive time of year.
