Brown Friday: How to Avoid a Plumbing Disaster the Day After Thanksgiving

The day after Thanksgiving is the busiest day of the year for plumbers. It’s known across the industry as Brown Friday, when service calls spike nationwide. Most of those calls are for clogged kitchen sinks, jammed garbage disposals, and toilets that stop working somewhere between the second slice of pumpkin pie and the fourth houseguest’s shower.

A few quick holiday plumbing tips for the kitchen and bathroom can help you avoid plumbing disasters this Thanksgiving. But if something does go wrong, Republic Home Services has plumbers on call 24/7 through the whole holiday weekend.

What Is Brown Friday? 

Brown Friday is the comedic name plumbers use for the day after Thanksgiving, when calls for clogged drains, broken disposals, and backed-up toilets spike across the country. It’s a play on Black Friday, and you can probably guess where the color comes from.

The busy stretch lasts all weekend. Some signs of future problems start showing Thursday night once the Cowboys game ends and the dishes pile up, and others don’t bubble up until Sunday morning after the third round of leftover turkey sandwiches. 

Why Plumbing Problems Spike After Thanksgiving 

Your drains handle more grease, food scraps, and water over Thanksgiving weekend than they do in a typical week. A lot of these clogs already started forming before the holiday, but the increase in use pushes them past their limit. When a 20-pound turkey and a houseful of guests show up, a kitchen line that’s been coated in grease all summer finally backs up.

Even with just a handful of extra people in the house, bathrooms can work overtime. Toilets get flushed far more than usual, and back-to-back showers send water down the drain faster than your line can handle. Ellis and Dallas County’s hard water also leaves mineral scale that narrows pipes over time, which means your drains might start out with less room to spare.

Kitchen Do’s and Don’ts 

Most of what ends up in your kitchen garbage disposal on Thanksgiving belongs in the trash. Disposals are designed to grind up small, soft scraps, and can’t handle starchy, stringy, or greasy leftovers. Even if those potato peels seem harmless going down, they swell with water once inside and turn into a thick paste that settles in the pipe.

Here’s what not to put down the garbage disposal: 

• Grease, oil, and pan drippings
• Turkey bones, skin, and gristle
• Potato peels
• Rice, pasta, and stuffing
• Coffee grounds
• Eggshells and pecan shells
• Flour, dough, and leftover gravy
• Celery, onion skins, and corn husks

Texas made pecan pie the official state pie, so plenty of kitchens here will be cracking pecans the night before. Those shells are hard on disposal blades and settle into the trap under the sink. Throw them out with the eggshells to keep the drain clear. 

A few other habits that help you avoid a day after Thanksgiving plumbing clog:

• Scrape plates into the trash or compost bin before rinsing.
• Run cold water before, during, and after the disposal runs.
• Feed scraps in a little at a time when the disposal is running.
• Set a mesh strainer in the sink basin to catch anything that slips in.
• Space out dishwasher loads to avoid overwhelming the system.

How to Safely Dispose of Turkey Grease and Cooking Oil

The turkey is the highlight of Thursday afternoon, but the grease it leaves behind is what plumbers end up dealing with on Friday. Let grease cool, pour it into a sealed container, and throw it into the trash. Never pour it down the sink, even with hot water and soap. It hardens as it cools and catches every scrap that follows.

If you fried your turkey, let the oil cool overnight and pour it back into the original jar. Many North Texas cities run a Holiday Grease Roundup after Thanksgiving with free drop-off sites where you can recycle used cooking oil into biofuel. Check your city’s website the week of Thanksgiving for dates and locations. For smaller amounts, wipe greasy roasting pans and skillets with a paper towel before they go in the sink or dishwasher.

Bathroom Tips for a Full House 

Two bathrooms and a house full of family can feel like the halftime restroom line at AT&T Stadium. Keep a plunger beside every toilet and space showers at least 10 minutes apart. The break gives drains time to clear and lets your water heater catch up to avoid a cold shower for whoever’s last in line.

Put a small lidded wastebasket in each bathroom so wipes and cotton swabs don’t get flushed. Most homes around Palmer and Ennis run on a septic system, which can get overloaded by a weekend of extra showers and laundry. Spreading laundry out over a few days and knowing how to dispose of cooking grease properly goes a long way.

Quick Pre-Holiday Plumbing Checklist 

Run through this checklist the weekend before Thanksgiving, before plumbers get hit with the holiday rush:

• Test the disposal: If your garbage disposal hums, grinds, or drains slowly, get it checked out before Thursday.
• Clear slow drains: Schedule drain cleaning for any slow drains that take more than a few seconds to empty.
• Check the water heater: Look for water around the base, popping noises, or rusty hot water that signal the need for repair.
• Find the main shutoff: If a pipe or fixture starts leaking, you’ll need to know how to turn off water to the whole house fast.
• Disconnect garden hoses: Unhook hoses to avoid cracked outdoor faucets during DFW’s first freeze, which usually shows up around November 22.
• Test each toilet: Flush every toilet in the house to make sure it refills and stops running.
• Stock up on supplies: Put a plunger in every bathroom and keep a sink strainer handy so you have them ready when guests arrive.

What to Do If Something Goes Wrong 

If your Thanksgiving weekend turns into a Brown Friday plumbing disaster, immediately stop using the fixture and shut off its water before the mess spreads. Use the valve behind the toilet or under the sink, or the main shutoff for a bigger leak.

Avoid putting chemical drain cleaners down the sink. They rarely clear grease clogs and can do more damage than good, especially to older pipes and septic systems. For a jammed disposal, turn off the power and press the red reset button on the bottom of the unit, but never reach inside.

If several drains start backing up at once or water comes up the tub drain when you flush, call Republic Home Services’ emergency plumbers near you in Ellis and Dallas Counties.

24/7 Holiday Plumbing Help From Republic Home Services

At Republic Home Services, we answer plumbing calls 24/7. If you have a clogged kitchen sink after the first bite of turkey or your toilet overflows during Aunt Linda’s 20-minute shower, we can have a plumber on the way that same day. Our team is based in Red Oak and sends you a text when your plumber is headed to the door. 

Call us or book online, and we’ll be there to get your plumbing working again after a weekend of a little too much turkey, tamales, and Cowboys football.