Move Over Black Friday: Plumbers call the day after Thanksgiving ‘Brown Friday’

In the retail industry, what’s known as Black Friday is known as Brown Friday to your local plumber.

That’s because the day after Thanksgiving tends to be one of the busiest for house calls.

“Everybody’s out shopping, and we’re, you know, generally cleaning up messes for people’s houses,” said plumber Jeremy McCoy.

McCoy, who works for a plumbing and heating company, says every Black Friday, or Brown Friday as they call it, the phones ring off the hook.

His team works overtime, fixing endless plumbing nightmares, which he says are almost always preventable.

It starts with protecting your pipes.

“People think that their garbage disposals are garbage cans, and that’s probably your biggest problem,” he explained.

Mccoy says scrape leftover grease and oils off any cookware and put it in the trash or an empty container.

But just in case, he says mixing baking soda and vinegar and even ice can help with drain cleanup.

Solutions like Drano may not be the best.

“If you have older pipes, it will eat away at those over time, and that’s not a good thing.”

There’s an acronym to remember known as “FOG.”

It stands for fats, oils, and grease. Anything like salad dressing, cheese, milk, butter, and cooking oil shouldn’t go down the drain. Experts say it binds with flushable wipes, which brings up the last tip.

“You should never, ever flush a flushable wipe, just throw out in a garbage can. It’s easier to wrap up a bag of garbage and take it to your can outside than it is to call us,” said Mccoy.

If you’re hosting this holiday season and your guests offer to clean up, ask them to throw scraps away instead of using the garbage disposal.

Most plumbers will be open for emergencies, but many do charge more for working over the holidays.