Video: Plumbers Busiest Day Of The Year

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WEST POINT, Miss. (WCBI) — For some people Black Friday means shopping, but for plumbers that’s hardly the case.

In fact, the day after Thanksgiving is actually one of the industry’s busiest days of the year.

“Nobody realizes how much you need a bathroom until you don’t have a bathroom to go to,” plumber and owner of Gray Bird Enterprise William Bird said.

And it will be a busy place this holiday weekend.

Bird is expecting to answer at least four calls for service,  and experience tells Bird the day after Thanksgiving will be hectic.

“Usually everybody has a lot of company and a lot company usually uses the bathrooms quite a bit so it has a tendency to stop up the line,” he said.

Toilets aren’t the only plumbing troubles Bird will see.

“A lot of times in the kitchen, everybody’s cooking so a lot of things get thrown down the drain line that shouldn’t be thrown,” Bird said.

Bird said it’s typically older homes that have the most drainage issues. .

“I would say we probably get at least three or four calls for the drain lines,” he said.

If a clog happens, Bird said not to use acid while cleaning your drain.

“A lot of pipes are metal and people don’t know realize it eats the pipe and makes the problem even worse, it’s cheaper in the long run to just have someone come and rod it out,” Bird said.
Bird said it typically takes an hour to an hour and a half to clean a drain.

Don’t pour fats or cooking oils down drains.

According to abcnews.com, five quick tips to prevent clogging your drain includes:

1. Don’t pour fats or cooking oils down drains.

2. Avoid putting stringy, fibrous or starchy waste in the garbage disposal, like poultry skins, celery, fruit and potato peels.

3. Don’t wait until the garbage disposal is full to turn it on.

4. Wait 15 minutes between showers so water has time to drain if you are hosting more people than usual at home.

5. Don’t flush cotton balls, swabs, hair or facial scrub pads down the toilet because they don’t dissolve.

6. Try using cold water instead of hot water so grease solidifies and is flushed through a pipe. Otherwise, the grease could stick to the pipe.