Gas Leak Detection in Smithville, ON

Natural gas has no smell of its own. The rotten-egg odour you associate with it is an additive called mercaptan, put there for one reason: so that a leak announces itself before it becomes dangerous. If you can smell it, believe it.

Environmental Heating & Cooling provides gas leak detection across Smithville, West Lincoln, Grimsby, Beamsville, Stoney Creek, Winona, Ancaster, Caledonia, Binbrook and Dunnville, using electronic detection equipment and section pressure testing.

Emergency First — Read This Before Booking

If you can smell gas right now, do not wait for an appointment:

1. Do not touch anything electrical. No light switches, no thermostats, no garage door opener, no appliance controls.
2. Do not use a phone inside the building.
3. Leave, and take everyone with you.
4. From outside, call Enbridge Gas at 1-866-763-5427. The line is open 24 hours.
5. Call 911 if anyone is unwell.

Enbridge makes the situation safe. Repairing the piping inside your home is our job, and we pick up from there.

The Signs, and What They Mean

You Can Smell It

The clearest signal, and the one to act on immediately. A faint smell that comes and goes still counts — small leaks disperse.

A Hissing or Whistling Sound

Near a meter, an appliance connection or a run of pipe. This indicates gas escaping under pressure and is not a wait-and-see situation.

Dead Grass or Plants in a Line

A stripe of dying vegetation over the route of a buried gas line, with no other explanation, can indicate an underground leak. Gas displaces oxygen at the roots.

A Yellow or Orange Flame

A healthy natural gas flame is crisp and blue. Yellow or lazy orange suggests incomplete combustion, which is a carbon monoxide concern as much as a gas one.

Soot Marks

Black staining around a burner, a vent or an appliance cabinet means something is not burning or venting correctly.

An Unexplained Gas Bill

Consumption up with no change in habits, weather or appliances. A slow leak is a meter that never stops turning.

Symptoms That Improve When You Leave

Headaches, dizziness, nausea or unusual tiredness that lift when you are out of the house. Carbon monoxide has no smell and no colour. This is the one sign a gas detector will not catch, and it needs urgent attention.

Carbon Monoxide Is a Different Problem

People often use “gas leak” to mean both, but they are separate. A gas leak is unburned fuel escaping. Carbon monoxide is a product of fuel that burns badly or vents badly. A gas detector will not find CO, and a CO alarm will not find a gas leak.

Every Ontario home with a fuel-burning appliance or an attached garage is required to have working carbon monoxide alarms. If yours are more than ten years old, replace them — the sensors expire regardless of whether the battery still works.

How We Find It

1. Survey. An electronic detector is walked over accessible piping, connections, valves and appliances to narrow the area.
2. Confirm. Suspect joints are checked individually with leak-detection solution, which shows the exact point.
3. Isolate. Where the source is not obvious, the system is split into sections and each is pressure-tested to find which one is losing pressure.
4. Trace. Buried exterior lines are located before any digging, so excavation happens in the right place and only once.
5. Report. You get told what was found, where, and what it will take to repair it.

Why an Inspection Is Worth Booking Without a Smell

The leaks that cause real damage are the ones nobody could smell — in a crawl space, behind an appliance, or underground. An annual check picks these up along with the connectors and valves that are quietly nearing the end of their life. It is also the right time to verify your CO alarms.

Book a Leak Detection Visit

If there is an active smell, follow the emergency steps first. Otherwise call us or request service online, and a TSSA-certified technician will get back to you.