Brown Friday Is Coming: A Holiday-Week Playbook for Plumbing Companies

Reading time: ~8 min

By Alex Gold, founder of Orcatec

Every plumber knows the pattern. Family arrives, the kitchen runs all day, a dozen extra people use one guest bathroom, and by Friday morning the phones are ringing. The industry even has a name for it: Brown Friday.

This playbook is for owners, dispatchers and office managers at plumbing companies of any size, and it also helps appliance repair and handyman shops that get disposal and dishwasher calls the same week. It covers who to put on call, what to stock, what to tell customers ahead of time, how to price holiday work honestly and what to do once the rush is over. Thanksgiving falls on November 26, 2026, so Brown Friday is November 27.

What is Brown Friday?

Brown Friday is the day after Thanksgiving, and it is widely called the busiest day of the year for plumbers. According to a Roto-Rooter press release from November 2025, service calls that Friday jump about 50% compared with a normal day, and calls rise 21% across the Thursday-to-Sunday holiday weekend.

That data comes from one large national company, so treat it as a direction, not a forecast for your shop. Your own call history is the better guide. Pull last year's calls for the Wednesday before Thanksgiving through the following Monday and compare each day with a normal week in November. That comparison tells you how big your spike really is and which day it lands on.

Why do drain and disposal calls spike over Thanksgiving?

Drain and disposal calls spike because a normal household suddenly cooks, cleans and hosts like a small restaurant for two or three days. Grease, potato peels, turkey skin and coffee grounds go down the kitchen sink, and toilets see far more use than usual. Pipes that were already partly clogged finally stop draining.

The typical holiday calls look like this:

• Kitchen sink clogs: grease that was poured hot, cooled in the line and trapped food scraps behind it.
• Garbage disposal jams and failures: fibrous peels, bones and too much food at once. Some of these become appliance repair calls if the unit needs replacing.
• Toilet clogs and running toilets: more guests, more paper and more flushes than the fixture normally handles.
• Main line backups: when several fixtures back up at once, the problem is often further down the line.
• Water heater complaints: extra showers and dishwashing can run a tank out of hot water, which some customers read as a failure.

Knowing the mix tells you what kind of techs and trucks to put on the schedule.

How should you staff the holiday weekend?

Staff the holiday weekend by building a Thursday-to-Sunday on-call schedule early, filling it with volunteers first and paying a clear holiday premium. Lock time-off requests for that week well in advance, give Friday your deepest bench, and plan so no tech works all four days alone.

Start with a simple worked example. Suppose your shop runs 20 calls on a normal November Friday and each tech handles about 4 calls a day on drain work. If Friday lands 50% above normal, you would expect about 30 calls. Divided by 4 calls per tech, that is 7 to 8 techs, compared with 5 on a normal Friday. These numbers are illustrative, so swap in your own averages.

A few staffing rules that tend to work:

• Ask for volunteers first. Many techs prefer a paid holiday shift to a quiet weekend. Offer a flat bonus or a higher rate and say so in writing.
• Lock time off early. Tell the team right away which days are blocked and approve requests on a first-come basis so nobody is surprised. Next year, do this in October.
• Rotate the on-call phone. Split Thursday night and Sunday so the same person is not on call for all of it.
• Keep one person on the phones. A live voice Friday morning books more jobs than voicemail.

What should be on the truck for Brown Friday?

Stock every truck for drain and disposal work before Wednesday, because supply houses may keep holiday hours and a missing part turns one call into two. Focus on clearing tools, common toilet repair parts and disposal parts, and check that each tech knows what is on their truck before Friday.

Do a quick count on Tuesday or Wednesday. Carrying a few extra fittings is cheaper than a Friday supply house run.

What should you text customers before Thanksgiving?

Text customers a short, friendly message about a week before Thanksgiving with three things: what not to put down the drain, your holiday hours and how to reach you in an emergency. The goal is to prevent some calls, set expectations for the rest and remind people who to call first.

Keep each message short. Three examples to adapt:

• Prevention tip: "Hosting Thanksgiving? Keep grease, potato peels and coffee grounds out of the sink and disposal. Wipe greasy pans into the trash first. Questions? Reply to this text."
• Holiday hours: "Our office is closed Thanksgiving Day. We have plumbers on call Thursday through Sunday for emergencies. Call [your number] and we will get back to you as fast as we can."
• Booking: "Want a drain checked before guests arrive? We still have openings Monday through Wednesday. Reply BOOK and we will call you."

Only text customers who agreed to receive messages from you, and keep marketing texts separate from appointment messages. Send them during normal daytime hours so they do not wake anyone up.

How do you price holiday and after-hours calls fairly?

Price holiday and after-hours calls fairly by using one flat after-hours or holiday fee, telling the customer the amount before you dispatch, and adding it on top of your normal price for the repair. Customers accept a higher price when they hear it upfront and feel cheated when it appears on the invoice.

A simple structure is easy to explain on the phone:

1. Holiday or after-hours fee: one flat amount for coming out on the holiday or after hours. Example: $125, illustrative only.
2. Standard price for the work: the same flat-rate price you charge any other day for clearing a kitchen line or replacing a flapper.
3. Written estimate before work: the tech confirms the price on site and gets approval before starting.

Train whoever answers the phone to say it the same way every time: "There is a $125 holiday fee to send a plumber today. The tech will give you a price for the repair before starting." Write the script down for anyone covering the phone.

Avoid surprise multipliers such as "double time" that only show up on the invoice. If you run a membership program, consider waiving or reducing the holiday fee for members, and say so in the plan terms.

What should you do after the rush?

After the rush, follow up with every holiday customer by text within a few days, check whether the fix held and offer a practical next step such as a drain maintenance visit or a main line camera inspection. Then review the weekend with your team while details are fresh.

A short follow-up message works well: "Hi Maria, this is Dave from Clearline Plumbing. Checking that your kitchen sink is draining well after Friday's visit. If you want the main line inspected before the holidays, reply and we will set it up."

Then hold a 20-minute team debrief the next week:

• Which parts ran out, and on which trucks?
• Which calls took much longer than expected, and why?
• Did the phone script and holiday fee work, or did customers push back?
• Were any customers waiting too long for a callback?

Save the answers where you will find them next October. That note becomes next year's playbook.

How to set it up in Orcatec

To run this playbook in Orcatec, use Messaging for pre-holiday texts, Settings > Notifications for automatic reminders and on-my-way texts, Dispatch for the on-call schedule and the Map for picking the nearest tech. That keeps holiday-week communication and scheduling in one place. The Customer Texts and Automatic Reminders tutorial walks through each screen click by click.

• Pre-holiday texts: send prevention tips and holiday hours from the Messaging tab with New Chat. Texting requires a Communication Center phone plan and business texting registration.
• Appointment reminders: in Settings > Notifications, check the Automatic Reminder Event, which sends 24 hours before by default, and the En Route Event, which sends the "on my way" text with the tech's name. Review the sending window, which defaults to 10:00 AM - 07:00 PM.
• Holiday schedule: plan the on-call rotation and move non-urgent work in Dispatch, using the appointment queue for calls that are not yet assigned. The Dispatch guide covers the board. Record approved holiday time off on the Dispatch board so nobody books a tech who is out.
• Closest tech: on Brown Friday, use the Map to see each tech's jobs for the day and pick who is nearest to the next call. Live tech locations require the optional GPS Tracking add-on and the mobile app.

Frequently asked questions

Why is the day after Thanksgiving so busy for plumbers?

Households cook and host far more than usual over Thanksgiving. Grease, food scraps and extra toilet use push partly clogged lines past their limit, and many people wait until Friday to call. Roto-Rooter reported in November 2025 that service calls on that Friday run about 50% higher than on a normal day.

Should I charge more on holidays?

Many plumbing companies charge a flat holiday or after-hours fee, and that is reasonable if you disclose it before dispatch. Quote the fee on the phone, keep your normal price for the repair itself and get approval on site before starting. Charges that first appear on the invoice are a common source of disputes.

What should I tell customers before Thanksgiving?

Send one short text about a week ahead with three points: keep grease, peels and coffee grounds out of the drain; your holiday hours; and how to reach you in an emergency. Offer open slots earlier in the week for anyone who already has a slow drain.

How many techs should be on call over Thanksgiving weekend?

Start from your own data. Take last year's call count for each day of the holiday weekend, divide by the number of calls a tech handles per day on drain work, and add one person as a buffer on Friday. Use a rotation for Thursday and Sunday so no one covers every day.

Sources

• Roto-Rooter press release: Brown Friday after Thanksgiving, the busiest day of the year for plumbers, PR Newswire, November 20, 2025