Exhibit 99.1

      WALTER INDUSTRIES NAMES JEFFERY W. SPRICK CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER OF
                             WATER PRODUCTS BUSINESS

TAMPA, Fla., Nov. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Walter Industries, Inc.
(NYSE: WLT) announced today that Sr. Vice President and Controller
Jeffery W. Sprick has been named chief financial officer of Mueller
Water Products and Mueller Group, Walter Industries' subsidiaries that
include its Mueller, U.S. Pipe and Anvil businesses.

He is expected to continue as CFO after Walter Industries completes the
previously announced IPO and spin-off of that business. William F. Ohrt,
executive vice president and chief financial officer of Walter Industries, will
assume Sprick's responsibilities at Walter Industries until a successor is
named. Tom Fish, who previously served as interim CFO of Mueller Water Products,
will return to his role as president of Mueller's Piping Systems segment.

Sprick, 38, was promoted to the position of sr. vice president and controller of
Walter Industries in August 2005. He previously was vice president of corporate
accounting -- a post he held since joining the Company in 2002. Sprick joined
Walter Industries from PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he worked from 1988 to
2002.

Sprick is a Certified Public Accountant. He holds a Bachelor's Degree in
Business Administration from the University of Michigan.

Walter Industries, Inc. is a diversified company with annual revenues of
$2.7 billion. The Company is a leader in water infrastructure, flow
control and water transmission products, with respected brand names such
as Mueller, U.S. Pipe, James Jones, Hersey Meters, Henry Pratt and
Anvil. The Company is also a significant producer of high-quality
metallurgical coal and natural gas for worldwide markets and is a leader
in affordable homebuilding and financing. Based in Tampa, Fla., the
Company employs approximately 10,600 people. For more information about
Walter Industries, please visit the Company Web site at
http://www.walterind.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

Except for historical information contained herein, the statements in this
release are forward-looking and made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of
the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements
involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause the Company's
actual results in future periods to differ materially from forecasted results.
Those risks include, among others, changes in customers' demand for the
Company's products, changes in raw material, labor, equipment and transportation
costs and availability, geologic and weather conditions, changes in extraction
costs and pricing in the Company's mining operations, changes in customer
orders, pricing actions by the Company's competitors, changes in law, the
collection of approximately $14 million of receivables associated with a working
capital adjustment arising from the sale of a subsidiary in 2003, potential
changes in the mortgage-backed capital market, and general changes in economic
conditions. Those risks also include the timing of and ability to execute on the
initial public offering and spin-off of the Company's Water Products business
and any other strategic action that may be pursued. Risks associated with
forward-looking statements are more fully described in the Company's and
Mueller's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company
assumes no duty to update its forward-looking statements as of any future date.

SOURCE  Walter Industries, Inc.
    -0-                             11/08/2005
    /CONTACT:  Investors, Joseph J. Troy, Sr. Vice President, or
+1-813-871-4404, or jtroy@walterind.com, or Media, Michael A. Monahan,
Director - Corporate Communications, +1-813-871-4132, or
mmonahan@walterind.com, both of Walter/
    /Photo:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20020429/FLM010LOGO-c
              AP Archive:  http://photoarchive.ap.org
              PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com /
    /Web site:  http://www.walterind.com /
    (WLT)