Home Depot Drops the Ball on Frozen Water Pipes

When you need some milk, you expect to find a good choice at the grocery store. Right? And when you're facing subfreezing temperatures and frozen water pipes, you would also expect to find some pipe insulation products at Home Depot. Right?

Not so fast. Like much of the country, we were hit with some colder-than-normal weather over the past week here in Texas. And, as often happens in such circumstances, water pipes began to freeze. Specifically, my friend lost her hot water when the supply pipe to her water heater froze. This kind of thing happens a lot down here because many people have their water heaters (and washing machines) in the garage or in unheated storage sheds attached to the house.

She managed to melt the ice with an indispensable power tool . . . her blow dryer. But since the temps were still expected to fall into the teens again, we raced off to Home Depot to pick up some pipe insulation. What we found instead were a bunch of other suckers starring at empty shelves and a few empty boxes that used to hold foam tubes used for insulation.

We asked one of the men in orange if they had any more. "Nope. Sold out." But how can you not have pipe insulation just when most people need it, we inquired? To which we got a shrug of the shoulders.

Well, it does seem that an outfit like Home Depot ought to be equipped to supply desperate homeowners with a routine product when they most need it. To which they would likely respond that they had not foreseen this particular cold spell and thus had not ordered enough insulation products from suppliers. Gotta watch that inventory, don't you know.

So, lesson learned. Again. Don't wait for the sun to come out before shopping for a bathing suit. Or for the ice to form before shopping for pipe insulation. Plan ahead.

See also Choosing a Garage Heater and Types of Insulation for Your Garage.

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