Plumbing Materials Still in Short Supply Weeks After Winter Storm – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

After the winter storm in February, plumbers were hard to come by.

Now it’s plumbing accessories.

“I’ve never seen material so hard to get,” said Randy Watson, owner of At-Ease Plumbing in Plano.

Watson said he was inundated with customer calls, from broken pipes to frozen pool pumps, after the storm.

“I bet we probably had 500 calls that first day,” said Watson.

Six weeks later he said he had been caught.

The supply chain has not.

Watson said basic items like copper fittings, including clutches that cost less than a dollar, are still hard to find. This also applies to water heaters, parts for attaching pool pumps and even some water taps.

“It’s just a simple hot water dispenser. I just spoke to the man today who told me about 12 weeks, ”said Watson.

Before last month’s storm, the supply chain was already tight due to the pandemic.

Now, after seven days of a ship blocking the Suez Canal, one of the busiest waterways in the world, some experts say it could take weeks for shipments to get back on track.

For Watson and its customers, this means some materials could remain in short supply for months, which could result in an already frustratingly long recovery from the storm.