Home Depot discontinues Tuff-R/Rmax

[Tommy Legba]

I've been trying to organize a hexayurt build day for a group of
burners in the South Bay and material availability has been a problem.
After trying to locate a source for Thermax with little success
(Service Partners quoted me ~$40 per panel for the 1" Thermax Light
Duty, ABC Building Supply never returned my call) I decided that I'd
recommend the tried and true Tuff-R from Home Depot. I had seen the
stuff and priced it just a couple of weeks ago and availability seemed
good. Since Sunshine did the fire test I felt like the risks were
well understood and compared to a tent the fire resistance is probably
much much higher.

Over the last week I've been checking various Home Depots to see how
much Tuff-R they had in stock, and I was surprised that none of them
seemed to carry it -- only the unreinforced white polystyrene
(styrofoam) panels. Luckily, I knew one Home Depot that definitely
stocked it, and they had several pallets the last time I was there. So
yesterday I arranged for a friend with a truck to meet me at the Home
Depot on Lafayette Street in San Jose to buy my Tuff-R panels.

There was no Tuff-R.

After talking to a couple of employees and escalating to a supervisor
I discovered that Home Depot (at least in this region) will no longer
carry Tuff-R or Rmax. Unknown if there will be a replacement product
but for now they have NO foil-faced polyiso rigid insulation panels.

But what happened to the pallets of the stuff I saw less than two
weeks ago? I told them I'd follow it wherever it went, I needed the
stuff.

They gave it away. They had it on clearance for a week, and what was
left they gave away. "Yesterday." The day before I showed up to make
my purchase.

Un. Be. Lievable.

So now the backup panel supply has fallen through.

Now I'm scrambling and panicking to find someone who has Tuff-R or
similar *in stock* because my scheduled build day is only a week away
and even if I rescheduled the build day, special ordering the stuff
would probably take 3 weeks which is way too close to the Burn for
comfort.

So, firstly, everybody who is interested in panels should call their
local Home Depots to see if they're still carrying Tuff-R or Rmax...
and if they are planning on getting rid of it see if you can get it
cheap or free. I personally have a need for 100-200 panels of the
stuff.

Secondly, if anybody knows of a source for Tuff-R, Rmax, or Thermax
(or any similar product) that has it IN STOCK I'd really appreciate
the contact info.

Namaste,

Tommy Legba

PS just found out that Lowe's supposedly carries Super Tuff-R but are
currently sold out at the Sunnyvale location with an expected shipment
on Tuesday.

[Bill Wiltschko]

Service Partners in Sacramento has some Thermax non-HD. About 50 last
month. I also saw many other kinds of panels there last month, if the
Thermax is gone.

Bill

[Vinay Gupta]

Oh man that sucks... good luck finding panel resources. Pregis sounds
like one option, or maybe if you can actually get 'em to ship Thermax...

Keep trying!

Vinay

--
Vinay Gupta - Designer, Hexayurt Project - an excellent public domain
refugee shelter system
Gizmo Project VOIP: 775-743-1851 (usually works!) Cell:
Iceland (+354) 869-4605
http://hexayurt.com/ Skype/Gizmo/Gtalk: hexayurt Two's
company. Three's Musketeers

[cly...@gmail.com]

Tommy, if it's any consolation, down here in SoCal we
tried to get Thermax OR Tuff-R from Home Depot all
last week and it couldn't be had for love or money. We
eventually gave up and spent Saturday cutting our
second cardboard stretch yurt.

Apparently no one west of the Mississippi needs reflective
hard-panel foam insulation (other than hexayurt builders).

:) Connie-Lynne