Gas Line Repair in Smithville, ON — Inspected, Fixed and Pressure Tested

You may have caught a smell near the meter, heard a hiss behind the dryer, or found a tag left on your furnace after an inspection. Each of those needs a certified technician, and none of them should wait.

This page covers finding the fault, repairing it, and testing the system afterwards. We are TSSA certified, and no line goes back into service until it holds pressure.

If You Smell Gas Right Now

Leave the building. Take everyone with you.

Once you are outside and clear of the property, call Enbridge Gas on 1-866-763-5427, or dial 911. That line is open 24 hours. (1)

While you are still inside, do not use a phone, a light switch, or anything electrical. Do not start a car in the garage. The spark is the danger, not the smell.

The utility’s job is to make the line safe. Finding the fault and repairing it is ours.

Where Gas Lines Fail

Gas piping does not fail at random. Five things account for most of the repairs we do, and where your line runs decides which one it’s likely to be.

Threaded Joints

Where two pipes meet is the weakest point on any line run. The sealant on the thread dries out over decades, and the joint starts to weep gas long before anyone smells it.

Corrosion

Steel pipe rusts where it stays damp. Buried line runs, crawl spaces and pipe passing through a concrete floor are the places we check first, because moisture sits against the metal there.

Physical Damage

Someone digs a garden bed and clips a buried line. A car catches the pipe on a garage wall, or a renovation puts a screw through a line inside a stud. Damage like this shows up the day it happens, not over years.

Shut-Off Valves

Valves seize if nobody turns them for twenty years, and older ones begin to weep around the stem. We check them whenever we are working on the line.

Flexible Connectors

The short flexible pipe behind a range or dryer gets bent every time the appliance is pulled out for cleaning. That is the part homeowners damage most, and it is the cheapest thing on this list to replace.

Many older Smithville homes are still running their original piping. The same line feeds the furnace or boiler on the end of it, so a fault on the main line affects heating as well as cooking.

How We Find the Leak

A pressure test proves there is a leak. It does not tell you where, so the next step is isolating sections of the line until the drop points at one stretch of pipe.

We test the whole system rather than the section you suspect, because a fault in one place can hide a second fault somewhere else.

Buried lines take longest, because there is nothing to see and the route may never have been recorded. On a rural property with a long lane, finding where the gas is escaping becomes most of the work involved.

If Your Gas Has Been Red Tagged

A tag on your equipment means a technician found a safety problem. Enbridge issues two kinds, and the difference decides how much time you have. (2)

Type A. The appliance is an immediate hazard, so the gas supply to it or to the whole building is shut off on the spot. Nothing runs until the fault is repaired.

Type B. There is no immediate hazard, and you have up to 42 days to repair or replace before the service may be shut off.

Do not pull the tag off, and do not turn the gas back on yourself. Enbridge states that it does not repair or service natural gas appliances, and it tells you to hire a TSSA-registered contractor. (2) We are one.

Most tags we see come out of an annual inspection or a house sale, which is why an inspection of the whole system is worth booking ahead of either.

Repair or Replace

Age on its own does not settle this. The material, the soil around a buried line, and how long the pipe has been damp all matter more than the year it went in.

One failed joint on a sound line is a repair, and we do not turn that into a bigger job. Several faults along the same run, or corrosion showing in more than one place, means replacing the run rather than patching it.

We tell you which of the two you have. A repair visit stays a repair visit.

Buried rural lines are the ones most likely to need replacing, because whatever corroded one stretch has been working on the whole length.

What Affects the Cost of a Gas Line Repair in Smithville

On a repair, most of the cost sits in finding the fault rather than fixing it, and that varies more than on any other job we do. Five things decide your quote.

Finding it. A visible joint in a basement takes minutes. A buried line with no record of its route can take hours.

Access. Finished walls, concrete floors and crawl spaces you cannot stand up in all add time to the same repair.

How much of the line is affected. One joint, or the whole line.

Whether the gas is already off. A Type A tag means the house has no heat or hot water, so it moves up our schedule.

Permit and re-test. Where the repair calls for them, they are part of the job.

Rural properties vary the most, because locating a fault on a long buried line is most of the work.

Ask us to look at it. We would rather quote what we find than guess over the phone.

Common Questions About Gas Line Repair in Smithville

Does Enbridge fix gas leaks?

No. Enbridge will make the situation safe and shut off the gas. The company states that it does not repair or service natural gas appliances, and tells customers to hire a TSSA-registered contractor. (2) Call them first in an emergency, then call us.

What should I do if I think my gas line is leaking?

Leave the building first, then call Enbridge on 1-866-763-5427 from outside. (1) Do not use a phone, a light switch or anything electrical while you are still inside.

Can I use plumber’s putty on a gas line?

No. Plumber’s putty is not a sealant for gas joints, and Ontario law reserves gas repairs for TSSA certificate holders. (3) The repair also has to hold a pressure test before the line goes back into service.

How long does a gas line last?

There is no fixed lifespan. The material, the soil around a buried line and how dry the pipe has stayed all matter more than the year it went in. We inspect the line rather than judge it by age.

My gas was shut off after a tag. How soon can you come?

As soon as we can get to you. A Type A tag means the house has no gas until the fault is repaired, so those go to the front of the list.

Can you repair a propane line?

Yes. Propane runs at different pressures and uses different regulators, and we work with both. Much of West Lincoln and Haldimand sits off the natural gas grid, so propane is common outside town.

If Something Is Wrong With Your Gas Line

Call us and describe what you are seeing, hearing or smelling. If the gas is already off, or a tag has a date on it, say so when you call.

We are TSSA certified, we pressure test the whole system before signing anything off, and we have been a trusted family business in Niagara since 2014. Read about gas fitting, appliance hookups and safety inspections.

References

1. Enbridge Gas, Smell Gas?, enbridgegas.com
2. Enbridge Gas, Safety Violation, enbridgegas.com
3. Government of Ontario, O. Reg. 212/01: Gaseous Fuels, ontario.ca