Gas Leak Detection and Repair in Spartanburg County, Day or Night

Utilities add an odorant, mercaptan, to natural gas so a leak smells like rotten eggs; the gas itself has no smell. Take the smell seriously even if it is faint and comes and goes. Small leaks often show up as a smell that is strongest first thing in the morning or when you open a closet door.

Get out first, then call. A phone, a doorbell, a light switch or a refrigerator compressor cycling on can all make a spark. Do not go hunting for the leak or try to shut off appliances one by one. If the meter valve is right by the door and you know how to operate it, the utility may walk you through it, but leaving is the priority.

Natural gas is lighter than air and rises toward ceilings and attics. Propane is heavier than air and settles into basements, crawlspaces and low spots, so a propane smell in a lower level calls for the same urgency even if the main floor seems fine. If you are on propane, call your propane supplier as well as 911.

Finding the leak is methodical, not guesswork. We use several methods together, because each one catches what another might miss.

• Electronic gas detector: a combustible gas sniffer that reads small concentrations in the air. We run it along every accessible joint, valve and connector, and into wall cavities and cabinets, to narrow the search fast.
• Leak detection solution: a non-corrosive bubble solution brushed or sprayed on a suspect fitting. Even a tiny leak builds a cluster of bubbles, which pins down exactly which joint is leaking.
• Pressure decay test: the system, or one branch of it, is isolated, pressurized and watched on a gauge. If the pressure falls, there is a leak somewhere in that section, even where no detector can reach, such as inside a wall or underground.
• Meter check: with every appliance off, the small test dial on the gas meter should not move. Movement means gas is going somewhere on your side of the meter.
• Bar holes and surface readings outdoors: for a suspected buried leak, readings at the surface along the line show where gas is coming up, so we dig in the right place.

A red tag is the utility's notice that its technician found an unsafe condition, usually a leak, a bad connector, a damaged vent or an appliance that should not be running. The technician shuts off gas to the appliance or the section of pipe, or locks the meter, and writes the problem on the tag. It is not a fine; it is a record of why your gas is off.

Piedmont's South Carolina service regulations let the company discontinue gas for any condition it determines to be hazardous, and they make the customer responsible for keeping the piping beyond the meter in safe repair. So the repair is yours to arrange, with a qualified contractor.

Bring us the tag or a photo of it. We repair the condition it describes, test what we repaired, and check the rest of the system so a second problem does not turn up when the gas comes back on. If the meter was locked, only the utility unlocks it; we work with their process to get service restored.

Once the leak is pinned down, the defective part is replaced. A leaking threaded fitting is taken apart and remade with fresh pipe dope or tape rated for gas, or replaced if the threads are damaged. A corroded section of pipe is cut out. A tired connector is swapped for a new listed one. No sealants, no wrapping, no tightening a joint under pressure until the bubbles stop.

Then the repaired section is tested. Under the fuel gas code a test on piping is held at a minimum of one and a half times working pressure, never less than 3 psi, for at least 10 minutes, and it must hold with no drop on the gauge. When the leak was found by a decay test, we retest the same section after the repair to confirm it is the only one.

Finally the line is purged, every appliance is relit, and each connection is checked again with the detector while the gas is flowing. A leak repair is not finished until the house is back to normal.