What Tucson Homeowners Should Do Before the Turkey, Gravy—and Entire Family—Arrive
By Dunn Plumbing & Drain Service LLC
Thanksgiving has a way of putting almost everything in your home to work.
The oven is working overtime.
The dishwasher is wondering what it did to deserve this.
Every bathroom suddenly has a waiting list.
And your kitchen drain?
It may be dealing with more food, grease, dishes, and garbage-disposal activity in one day than it normally sees in a week.
That is why the days surrounding Thanksgiving are a good time to think about your drain system before twenty people arrive for dinner.
Because nothing brings a family together quite like Thanksgiving.
Except perhaps standing around a kitchen sink that suddenly will not drain.
Quick Answer: What Should I Do Before Thanksgiving?
Before holiday guests arrive:
If your drain is already giving you warning signs, Thanksgiving dinner will probably not improve its attitude.
Why Thanksgiving Can Be Hard on Kitchen Drains
Holiday cooking creates exactly the kinds of materials drains do not particularly enjoy:
Fats, oils, and grease can stick to the inside of sewer piping and gradually contribute to blockages.
And your garbage disposal does not make grease disappear.
It may grind food into smaller pieces, but those pieces—and the grease surrounding them—still have to travel through your plumbing.
Thanksgiving Rule #1:
If it came out of the turkey, don’t pour it down the drain.
Put cooled grease into a disposable container and place it in the trash.
Your drain does not need gravy.
You have relatives for that.
Brian’s Advice: Slow Before Thanksgiving Usually Means Slower After Thanksgiving
A drain does not normally go from perfectly healthy to completely blocked because your aunt washed one plate.
Usually there were warning signs first.
Look for:
If those symptoms already exist, Thanksgiving is not the ideal day to conduct a stress test.
Schedule an inspection beforehand.
Cory’s Corner: Grease Is a Collector
Grease inside a drain can become sticky.
Then other material catches on it.
Food particles.
Soap.
Lint.
Debris.
More grease.
The opening through the pipe gradually becomes smaller until a busy day finally pushes it over the edge.
That is why a drain can appear to work reasonably well on Wednesday and suddenly back up after Thanksgiving dinner.
The meal may not have created the entire problem.
It may simply have revealed the buildup that was already there.
Can I Use My Garbage Disposal on Thanksgiving?
Yes.
Just don’t treat it like a wood chipper.
Use it for small amounts of appropriate food residue—not entire plates of leftovers.
Better habits:
Run plenty of water.
Feed material gradually.
Scrape plates into the trash first.
Keep grease and oil out.
Avoid large amounts of fibrous or starchy foods at once.
And if the disposal starts sounding like it is negotiating its retirement package, stop feeding it.
What Should Never Go Down the Thanksgiving Sink?
A simple holiday list:
Grease and oil
Trash it after it cools.
Turkey skin and bones
Trash.
Large quantities of potato peels
Trash or compost where appropriate.
Coffee grounds
Trash or compost.
Large amounts of rice or pasta
These can expand and contribute to problems.
Stringy vegetable waste
A disposal may struggle with large quantities.
Everything left on everyone’s plates
Your garbage disposal is not the cleanup crew.
Don’t Forget the Bathrooms
The kitchen gets most of the attention, but holiday guests also mean bathrooms get used far more frequently.
Before guests arrive:
And perhaps most importantly:
Keep wipes out of toilets.
Even products marketed as flushable can contribute to plumbing problems.
The safest household rule is simple:
Human waste and toilet paper belong in the toilet. Everything else belongs somewhere else.
TRASH: grease, wipes, bones, coffee grounds, food scraps.
DRAIN/TOILET: normal wastewater and toilet paper.
What If My Drain Is Already Slow?
Do not wait until Thanksgiving morning.
If you have a history of recurring clogs, professional inspection may determine whether you have:
Sometimes a cable is appropriate.
Sometimes a more complete cleaning is appropriate.
Sometimes a camera discovers that cleaning is not the solution at all.
That is why Dunn Plumbing believes in understanding why a drain keeps having trouble rather than simply waiting for the next backup.
Sometimes a cable is appropriate. Sometimes a more complete cleaning is appropriate. Comparing hydro jetting vs. drain snaking can help you understand which method is right for clearing tough grease versus clearing simple obstructions.
Real Job Spotlight: Twelve Guests, Gurgling Toilets, and a Broken Sewer Line
It was Thanksgiving afternoon when the call came in.
The homeowner had 12 people at the house, the toilets were no longer flushing correctly, and the drains had started gurgling.
Not exactly the kind of background music anyone wants with Thanksgiving dinner.
Because the family called early in the day and was among the first emergency calls, Dunn Plumbing was able to respond within about an hour.
When we arrived, the symptoms pointed to a problem deeper than one clogged toilet.
The home, built in the 1970s, had an older clay sewer line. After inspection, we found that part of the drain pipe was broken and tree roots had intruded into the damaged area.
The Thanksgiving crowd had not actually created the problem.
The pipe was already compromised.
But all the extra water from cooking, dishes, toilet flushing, hand washing, and having a dozen people in the home pushed the drain system past the point where it could keep up.
In other words:
Thanksgiving did not break the sewer line. It simply introduced the sewer line to 12 dinner guests at once.
The damaged section needed more extensive work than could reasonably be completed that afternoon.
So the family did what families sometimes have to do when plumbing decides to join the holiday festivities:
They brought in a portable toilet so everyone could get through the rest of Thanksgiving.
The following day, a Dunn Plumbing crew returned and began removing the root intrusion and addressing the damaged sewer line.
It was not the Thanksgiving plan anyone had in mind, but the family made it through the holiday and the real plumbing problem was finally identified.
The lesson is an important one:
Extra holiday usage may not cause a sewer problem—but it can expose a weakened drain system that was already close to failure.
What About Chemical Drain Cleaners?
We don’t recommend using harsh drain chemicals as a Thanksgiving emergency plan.
If the drain remains clogged, the plumber who arrives now has to deal with both:
the original plumbing problem
and
whatever chemical was poured into it.
If you have used a chemical product, always tell the technician before work begins.
If you are debating DIY drain cleaning or calling a plumber, remember that if the drain remains clogged, the technician who arrives now has to deal with both the clog and the caustic chemicals.
Is Preventive Drain Cleaning Worth Doing Before the Holidays?
For a healthy drain system with no history of trouble, you do not need to panic and schedule unnecessary work simply because Thanksgiving exists.
But preventive attention makes sense when you already know:
The objective is not to invent a plumbing problem.
It is to handle the one already trying to get your attention.
For a healthy drain system with no history of trouble, you don’t need to panic and schedule unnecessary work just because Thanksgiving exists. But scheduling professional drain cleaning makes sense when you already know kitchen drains regularly slow down, guests will significantly increase usage, or you’ve had recurring sewer problems.
Thanksgiving Drain Checklist
A few days before guests arrive:
Frequently Asked Questions
The Dunn Plumbing Thanksgiving Advice
Thanksgiving should involve:
Turkey.
Family.
Football.
Possibly an argument over who makes the best stuffing.
It should not involve everyone standing around while the kitchen sink fills with gravy-colored water.
Pay attention to the warning signs before guests arrive.
A little prevention can help keep Thanksgiving focused on what actually matters.
