Holidays busiest time for plumbers

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Valley plumbers have been very busy these past few days with chunks of food clogging the drain. Even garbage disposals were put to the test these past two days.

Scraps from those Thanksgiving Day meals and food preparation often cause the drain to back up. With so many people getting together, plumbers have been just as busy as retailers this week.

Rod Ingram, quality control manager for Mr. Rooter Plumbing explained, "There's potato, potato peelings, everything else and all of a sudden it's 9 o'clock, 10 o'clock at night is when we're getting the calls for the people who have big family dinners."

Ingram sent his plumbers on service calls from Fresno and Madera to Visalia and Porterville. His crews have snaked through just about everything imaginable in those pipes. Grease helps clog the pipes but sometimes big roots also help put a stop to the sewage flow.

Ingram said, "There's people who believe the garbage disposal is the cure-all. A garbage disposal basically is what's left on the plate after scraping into the trash. This isn't the landfill here. We don't just shove everything in there."

The holidays mark one of the busiest times of the year for plumbers. Bigger gatherings also means more people are indoors using the bathroom.