Holiday season means family and friends visiting, cooking extravaganzas, last minute shopping and, as much as we try to avoid it, stress. The last thing you need on your hands this holiday season is a plumbing emergency. Here at Van Allen Plumbing, we know this is the time of year that your home is taxed to the max. We are coming upon the most intense use of your home plumbing of the year. Between the buzz of activity in the kitchen and guests staying over, your sinks, toilets, showers, dishwashers, garbage disposals and hot water heaters will be working overtime. We're giving you some holiday plumbing tips to keep the holidays moving along as smoothly as possible:

• Be aware of what you flush! One of the most common emergencies around the holidays are clogged toilets. Avoid flushing baby wipes, feminine napkins and facial tissues. Encourage guests to not flush these items by keeping a waste basket in the bathroom.
  
• Be nice to your garbage disposal. Another common emergency during the holidays is a broken garbage disposal. This is primarily caused by putting too much food and the wrong kind of food down a disposal that is not built to handle such a large load. You can avoid this by cutting larger pieces of food before putting them into the disposal and also not putting the following foods down the disposal:  rice or pasta, celery, egg shells, potato peels, fruit pits, gravy, bones, onion skins, grease or oil.
  
• Turn up your water heater, but not too hot! You can help prepare for an overloading of your hot water supply by turning up the heat. However, make sure you do not exceed 120 degrees and turn it back down to normal after your guests leave to conserve energy.
  

Finally, we all know that prevention is the best method to avoid catastrophe. Here at Van Allen Plumbing we conduct plumbing inspections to ensure that your system will be running smoothly. For such an inspection, contact us. As always, our 23.5/7 hour emergency services are available to you should a holiday disaster occur. Simply call the number at the top of the page!

Happy holidays to all and we hope these tips are helpful this season!

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Our Complete Plumbing Services Include:

• 23 ½ Hour Emergency Services
• Clogged Drains and Toilets
• Garbage Disposals and Instant Hot Water Dispensers
• Faucets and Hose Bibs
• Partial and Whole House Re-piping
• Patio and Storm Drains
• Sewer and Drain Line Inspection
• Sewer Line Detection and Location
• Tankless and Standard Hot Water Heaters
• Toilets and Water Heaters
• Underground Pipes and Tanks Located Without Digging
• Water Service Repaired and/or Replaced
• ...And anything else plumbing related!