The day after Thanksgiving is an infamous one for professional plumbers. To shoppers, this is “Black Friday,” when the crush is on for holiday shopping bargains. For plumbers, this is “Drain Cleaning Friday,” when we fan out in our trucks to handle stopped-up drains and busted kitchen disposals that went through a rough time during the festive feasting.

Do you need a plumber in Chapel Hill, NC to take care of this or other post-Thanksgiving kitchen plumbing problems? Then you’re already on the right track: you recognize that whatever trouble you’re experiencing is something you can’t solve on your own with a plunger. You need a pro plumber on the job, and you’ve landed at the right place. You can trust to our skilled plumbers to see that all your after Thanksgiving plumbing troubles are cured!

The Garbage Disposal: Is It the Problem?

One of the calls we get most often during the days after Thanksgiving are about sink garbage disposals. The trouble here is that during the height of the cooking and cleaning of Thanksgiving dinner, quite a few items may go down the disposal that shouldn’t be there. Even if you’ve kept a close watch on the disposal, problems can still occur, like:

• Turkey bones: These should never go into the disposal, because the disposal’s grinder ring can’t handle them. Anything that your teeth can’t chew is something the disposal can’t chew either. But a relative might have scraped some bones off a plate and right into the disposal while you aren’t looking, and you’ll end up with a busted disposal.
• Stringy and fibrous vegetables: Celery and asparagus may look harmless, but the strands can wrap around the mechanisms of the disposal and damage it. Onions are a problem, too.
• Rice and pasta: These seem harmless, but they swell up when they absorb water, and this can lead to jamming in the disposal.
• Fats, oils, and grease: Also known collectively as “FOG,” this cooking residue is the really sneaky enemy of your plumbing during Thanksgiving. When it cools off, it becomes a waxy substance that can be bad news all around.

If your garbage disposal stops working, make sure you first try to reset it by pressing the button on the bottom of the unit. This resets the circuit breaker that went off when the disposal started to strain. If you try the disposal again and it either won’t come on or only comes on for a short time before shutting down, you have a problem that will require professional plumbers.

Fixing or Replacing? We’ll Help You Make the Choice

When our plumbers arrive to check up on your disposal, you’ll probably face the question of whether it’s best to have the issue repaired or the whole unit replaced. Your plumber can help you with this decision. If the repair is a small and easy one, the plumber will inform you that it’s the more cost effective choice, and the disposal should continue to run for many more years. But larger repairs may not be worth it, and a replacement is the better way to go.

Bud Matthews Services is here for all your home service needs in the Durham area. We offer 24/7 emergency repairs.