If none of these materials is available to you you can always elect water softener to soak rags or towels in hot water and wrap them around the frozen pipe. This will probably take longer than any of the methods previously mentioned.
Be cautious. If you've just become aware of a problem with water line repair in your home, there are a few steps you should take. First, if there's a lot of water (such as from flooding), you should turn off your electricity to avoid electrocution. Also, don't use your regular household appliances (such as a vacuum cleaner) to remove water. If the water is contaminated (such as from a sewage line), you and your family should leave the home so that you don't get sick. Finally, if the water is from a leak, try to locate the leak's source and turn off the water to prevent further damage.
You don't want to be paying your plumber to clear the area before they start work particularly if you are paying an hourly rate. Empty cupboards and make sure there is nothing that may cost the plumber time and you money gaining access to the job.
Sales representatives must know beforehand that almost all the answers above need to be encouraging. Otherwise, there is a slim to none chance a sale is made. Besides cold call prospecting, so much of the typical sales rep's time is spent trying to make sales when a sales situation does not truly exist.
Here are some general cautions. Do not begin jobs on holidays, weekends, or at times when plumbers raise their rates or are difficult to reach. Do start early leaving plenty of daylight to call a plumber if something goes wrong. Study the situation carefully. Think about what might happen if something suddenly broke and what the effects would be. Old corroded copper tubing might break in the wall when you are wrenching an angle stop that supplies the water line repair to your toilet. A flood in the wall could be costly. If the angle stop, on the other hand, is new and shuts off easily and you have another toilet in the house then it might make sense to repair the toilet yourself. Be honest, too. Are you handy with tools? Did you do well in shop classes in school?
Plumbers, contractors, landscapers, and related professionals are often indexed by numerous online websites eager for you to visit their "directory". Each field will have their own group of websites competing for your attention. In the end these "Plumbers Directories" are often incomplete, and frequently provide little more information than the phone book.
Windshield repair techs come and go on a daily basis. The majority struggle to survive. Most fail. It's not that they're not good at what they do, it's not that they don't have the skills, it's not that they're not willing to work hard, it's their lack of MARKETING Training. That's the bottom line: It all comes down to proper marketing strategies.