Holiday Disaster Prevention - More Cheer and Less Fear! Don’t Let a Plumbing or Water Damage Emergency Ruin Your Christmas.

The Holidays are meant to be enjoyed with those you love the most. Don’t let unnecessary disasters ruin your Christmas or New Year’s. The cold temperatures in Utah combined with higher traffic in the kitchen and bathrooms can lead to unwanted disasters from broken or frozen pipes, plumbing or sewage backups.  Nothing is worse than having to call an emergency plumber or water restoration company in the middle of a family gathering, or worse, having to send everyone home because the plumbing is shot. Or better yet, if you are traveling for the Holidays, the last thing you want to do is return to a mess after a long trip.

There are a few simple tips to keep your Holiday Season filled with more cheer and less fear! Here are some things every homeowner should do before mother nature takes over:

1. Disconnect the hose from your outside spicket / hose bibb. Once it freezes, there is a very good chance it will break the pipe and cause flooding.

2. Make sure your automatic sprinklers have been turned off and drained properly.

3. When temperatures get below 25 degrees, it’s a good idea to keep a faucet dripping at night time. This prevents pipes from freezing.

4. Make sure you know where you main water shut off is in the house. Put a tag on it so anybody kind find it easily. You never know when you are out of town and somebody else may need to enter the house to turn the water off.

5. When you go on vacation keep your heat at the same temperature you would while living there. Many people turn it down or off and it can lead to frozen pipes. It’s cheaper to heat your home than it is to pay a disaster cleanup company to clean up your mess!

6. If you go out of town, turn your water off. Water can’t keep running when it’s shut off.

7. Install heat tape on your roof if you know that you have problems with ice dams building up on your gutters. Ice dams sneak up under your shingles. When this happens the ice starts to melt and can leak into your home.

8. During the Holidays many things get flushed down toilets that aren’t meant to be flushed down!  Avoid flushing baby wipes, feminine hygiene products, any type of clothing, plastic products etc. Check bathrooms periodically throughout holiday parties to be sure they are flushing properly to avoid backups.

9. Many people think the disposal will “eat” anything. It’s safer to put many of your food remnants in the garbage vs. the disposal. Avoid potato peels, orange peels, large pieces of meat.

10.  Make sure all of your C02 detectors work in the house. More deaths are caused by C02 poisoning than by fire.

11. Be careful with how many Christmas lights you have plugged into one socket. Overloading the electrical outlets can lead to fire.

12. Last but not least MAKE SURE SANTA DOESN’T GET STUCK IN THE CHIMNEY!!!

If all else fails and you still end up with a Holiday Disaster, call Quality Disaster Cleanup of Utah for 24 Hr. Emergency Response to flood, fire, and sewage emergencies.  We also partner with emergency plumbers in the Salt Lake Valley who are available after hours and on Holidays.