Photo by Andreas Fuhrmann
Andy Wallner, co-owner of Wallner Plumbing Heating and Air Conditioning, checks a toilet for leaks in the home of John Church and his son Bob Midgley on Tuesday. The Thanksgiving holiday is a busy time for plumbers.
Backed-up toilets. Clogged drains. A garbage disposal that was forced to gobble down as much as you did the night before.
Yes, it's true. The day after Thanksgiving isn't just the busiest day of the year for retail outlets. Plumbers around the country say their business booms around turkey day.
"Mostly it's sewers backing up because so many people are there," said Frank Flores, the owner of Modern Plumbing Company in Redding.
Flores said beyond a doubt Thanksgiving and the day after are his busiest days of the year.
It's the same on a national level.
Photo by Andreas Fuhrmann
Frank Flores of Modern Plumbing puts in a new sewer line in a Redding home on Tuesday. Flores said he will be on call Thursday. "Last year, I was digging on Thanksgiving," Flores said. "Pretty much the same thing. It's one of those necessities you don't think about until it's not there anymore."
Calls for service this Friday to plumbing giant Roto-Rooter will double over an average Friday, said spokesman Paul Abrams.
Indeed, the four-day Thanksgiving weekend represents a 21 percent increase above any other Thursday-through-Sunday period of the year.
"It's kind of like your arteries sort of clogging up because you eat hamburgers and red meat all year," Abrams said. "Thanksgiving is the heart attack."
Local plumbers say piping problems are bound to happen after the country's No. 1 feasting day.
But it's not just human waste that can cause plumbing problems.
Patrick Wallner, co-owner of Wallner Plumbing Heating and Air Conditioning in Redding, said garbage disposals and other drain problems lead to most of his service calls.
Potato peels and celery stalks can lead to nightmarish results when crammed down a disposal.
Wallner recounts one call in which he had to pull three balls of stringy celery goop out of a home's roof vents.
"The string creates the biggest mess," he said.
There are also problems with hot water heaters, which often go on the fritz when so many guests show up and begin straining seldom-used showers and sinks.
"We see water heaters going out left and right," Wallner said.
everyone gives a shit about thanksgiving
