Plumbers Earn a Premium and Gratitude for Fixing Yule Clogs

Henry and Marjorie Lipson were anything but jolly on Christmas morning.

They had 16 relatives and friends coming over for a 5 p.m. holiday party at their Sherman Oaks home, a 25-pound turkey waiting to be cooked -- and a clogged kitchen sink.

"I don't know how much longer I can wait," said Marjorie Lipson, frustrated that she couldn't start preparing the feast. "Talk about nervous!"

It's times like these that plumbers such as Louis Serrano of Northridge join police officers and firefighters among America's pantheon of public service heroes. Serrano, employed for six years by the Roto-Rooter Service and Plumbing franchise covering Los Angeles County, is a member of that hard-to-find breed of skilled worker available for duty on holidays.

On Sunday, he worked Christmas and Hanukkah miracles with his pliers and snakes. When he arrived at the Lipsons' ranch-style house about 10 a.m., the couple's immediate reaction was typical of many holiday customers: "Thank God!"

Serrano, who has done Christmas duty several times in his plumbing career, tries to shrug off the high anxiety he faces from customers on the holiday. "Emergencies tend to be inconvenient, but that's why they call them emergencies," he said. On holidays, particularly in the evenings, Serrano added, customers' emotions come to the surface. "They are usually either really desperate, or happy to see you."

American homeowners open their doors to plumbers an average of 1 1/2 times a year and spend about $400 annually for the work, according to estimates by the Home Improvement Research Institute in Tampa, Fla.

It is unclear how much of that $3.2 billion in business happens on Christmas, but industry veterans say most consumers try to wait until holiday rates -- roughly double the standard charges -- are no longer in effect.

Still, the people who want a plumber on Christmas \o7really\f7 want a plumber on Christmas. This is the season when eager kitchen helpers jam garbage disposals with too many potato peels, when out-of-town guests flush the wrong things down the toilet and when holiday celebrators accidentally drop precious jewelry down bathroom sink drains.

Or, as Bill and Karen Holman of San Gabriel discovered on Christmas Eve, long-standing problems with a main line leading to the city sewer system can flare up at the wrong moment.