What to do if You Smell Gas in Your House

A gas leak is nothing to fool around with, but many people don’t know exactly what to do if they think they may have a gas leak in their house. We recently had a small gas leak in our basement and I wanted to share our experience because it turned out to be easy and inexpensive. Hopefully you’ll never have a gas leak but, if you do, we hope you’ll take some of these precautions and steps to keep yourself and your house safe.

Disclaimer: These tips are only anecdotal and you are responsible for your own safety (see our terms & conditions).  

Don’t Take Any Risks with a Gas Leak

It goes without saying, if you smell a natural gas odor leave the area immediately and do not turn anything on or off or touch anything. Turning on a switch or even touching the screen of your mobile phone could be enough to trigger the gas if there is enough of it in the area. If you can take your phone with you without turning on the screen, grab it and evacuate the area as soon as you can. Make sure everyone else is also safely away from the area. If there’s any doubt, always err on the side of caution and get yourself and anyone else out of the house.

Have a Plan Before a Gas Leak

Our gas leak happened during a day of frantic cleaning. Michael had been in the basement earlier and briefly thought he smelled a faint amount of natural gas. He didn’t smell it again, so he shrugged it off and continued to clean. Later that night though, I smelled a faint amount natural gas in the living room. We weren’t 100% sure that we both smelled it until we opened the door to the basement and could smell a bit more down there. It was still faint, but enough for us to know definitively that there was natural gas leaking.

So we knew we had a gas leak, but we then just kind of looked at each other and said, “What do we do?”.  We’ve dealt with small gas leaks on a stove before, but we didn’t want to take any risks with the furnace or water heater (both likely culprits for the leak in the basement). It was also late at night on a Saturday and we weren’t sure who we could call. I checked on our gas company’s website and realized they do have an emergency number for instances like this. We called it and were told that a service man or woman would be out to check our lines as soon as possible.

Even though we figured it out, it made me realize that we should have had this number set aside before something like this happened. If this was a larger leak, we would have had to get far away from the area immediately and it would have been good to have the number in my phone so that I didn’t have to take the time to look it up. It’s simple enough to do and it might just save you and your home in the future.

Get Your Gas Lines Checked for Free

I never realized that most gas companies offer free emergency services when you smell a gas leak. If you call your gas company’s emergency number, they will send someone out to check for leaks and turn the gas off if necessary. The service man from our gas company came out within 10 minutes of us calling. He ran a test by pressurizing the gas lines to make sure we had a leak. He also used a gas leak detector inside of the house to find exactly where that leak may be. If need be, the service person can also turn all of the gas off for safety.

In our case, it turns out that Michael and I just have really good noses. The gas leak was to our water heater and was so minimal that the gas leak detector barely picked it up. We had the water heater professionally installed within the last two years by a licensed plumber so we were surprised that there was a leak, but it was very small. The service man said he thought the gas had probably just been building up from the slow and steady leak and that’s why we were able to smell it. Michael was able to tighten the union on the water heater and that took care of it.

So that was it. Easy Peasy. And I am amazed the service was completely free from our gas company. After checking online, it seems that most companies have similar policies. In the spirit of having a plan, take a moment to check what services your gas company offers before a leak.

Hopefully you will never have a gas leak but now you know the house can usually be tested and secured by the gas company for free. Remember that safety is always first in these instances. Get yourself to safety first and then call your gas company, and make sure you have their emergency number on file because you never know when you will need it.