Plumbing Supplies Running Low

It’s a ‘battle’ to get piping locals need to make repairs

All the broken water pipes from the deep freeze last week put a big crunch on plumbing supplies in Fayette County and across the state.

Farmer’s Lumber in La Grange and Grahmann’s True Value in Schulenburg were both scrambling to keep shelves stocked this week.

“We’ve been reaching out through the whole event to warehouses and even plumbing contractors who might have an abundance of fitting and pipes to try and bring stuff into the store,” said Walt Jackson, general manager at Farmer’s Lumber. “It’s just been a battle.”

Jackson said his team even cleaned up some old dirty fittings they found and offered them for sale.

“On Saturday, we had more customers in this store than any other day in history, I believe,” Jackson said.

Jackson said supplies are slowly starting to arrive, but he said shortages could last for a month.

“As long as manufacturing keeps up, but you have to think about COVID, too, and how that might affect manufacturing,” Jackson said.

Mike Grahmann, owner of Grahmann’s True Value in Schulenburg, said he and his wife Janice opened the store on Tuesday and Wednesday last week while the power was still out in town.

“We were snowed under,” Grahmann said. “She had a line of customers fifty feet long waiting to check out. We were working in the dark half of the time. I brought most of my lanterns from home and set them up everywhere. When the power would come back on for a few hours we could get a little caught up.”

Grahmann said he anticipated broken pipes and placed a big order for plumbing supplies about a week ahead of the storm. Unfortunately, the trucks couldn’t make it to Schulenburg before icy weather shut down the highways.

“They were supposed to come Tuesday and Wednesday last week, but they couldn’t run any trucks,” Grahmann said. “One truck finally showed up on Saturday, so I got a few things in the store.”

On Wednesday last week, Grahmann said he discovered that the gutters on his building were blocked with ice. Water started running off the roof in the back of the building and into the store. His sons-in-law arrived with propane torches to thaw out the gutters and thencleaned up the water in the store.

“But my wife and I kept on working,” he said. “We were flooded with people.”

Grahmann said one customer drove all the way from El Campo to find parts.

“We didn’t have exactly what he needed, but we got him rigged up,” Grahmann said.

Grahmann expected a shipment of plumbing supplies to arrive on Wednesday with more coming later this week.

“We’re starting to get caught back up,” he said.

Both Jackson and Grahmann said supplies of CPVC pipe and fittings, which are used for hot water plumbing, remain low.