Gas line repair that gets tested before anything relights
A smell by the water heater, a hiss out in the yard, a burner that will not catch. We find where the gas is getting out, repair that piece, and prove the line holds under pressure before a single pilot goes back on.
If you can smell it right now, stop reading
Get everyone out of the house, pets included, and call from outside. Do not touch a light switch on your way out, on or off, and do not light anything. A switch can throw a spark, and a spark is all it takes.
Once everybody is clear, make the calls from the yard or the street: your gas provider’s emergency line if the smell is strong, and us either way. We would much rather drive over for a smell that turns out to be nothing than have you sit inside wondering about it.
Other signs we treat just as seriously: a hissing sound near the meter or somewhere along the yard, a strip of dead grass that runs in a line where the pipe is buried, and bubbles coming up through standing water after a rain.
Walking out over a smell that turns out to be nothing costs you a few minutes. That is the whole downside.
Where the gas comes up out of the ground at your place
Some properties have the meter set out by a utility pole, with the riser coming up out of the dirt right beside it and a buried line running from there over to the house. The photograph at the top of this page is one of those, freshly backfilled around a new riser.
That layout puts a stretch of buried pipe between the meter and the house, and on some lots it is a long stretch. Because that pipe is out of sight, the first sign of trouble is usually a smell, a hiss, or grass that dies off in a line nobody can explain.
Other houses have the riser right on the wall, with the regulator and shutoff near a door and very little buried pipe on the owner’s side at all. Problems there tend to sit at fittings you can reach, and the repair is usually a fitting, a valve, or a short section of exposed pipe.
As a general rule the meter and the line feeding it belong to the gas provider, and everything on the house side of the meter belongs to you. That house side is the part we repair. Our gas line repair page covers how we handle it across the rest of East Texas.
What sand and clay each do to a buried line
Smith County soil runs from sandy loam across the north toward heavier clay to the south and east. A gas line buried in one behaves differently from a line buried in the other, and the way we search for a leak changes with it.
Sandy ground
Loose sand gives escaping gas an easy path, and that path does not have to point straight up. Gas can follow the trench and come to the surface well away from the leak itself. So the spot where you smell it is where we begin, and we work along the line from there instead of digging at the first strong whiff.
Clay ground
Heavier clay holds moisture against the pipe and moves as it wets and dries out. Steel lines corrode where their coating has worn through, and rigid fittings take the strain every time the ground shifts around them. On those lots the leak is often at a joint, or where one pipe material changes to another.
Either way, you hear what we find in the hole. If the pipe on both sides of a bad joint looks sound, you get one joint repaired. If what comes out of the ground says the rest of the line is close behind, we tell you that too, and you decide with the whole picture in front of you.
No pilot goes back on until the line holds
Every gas repair we do ends the same way, whatever the original problem was. The system gets closed up and put under test pressure with a gauge on it, and then we watch it. A needle that holds steady means the work is tight. A needle that drifts means there is another leak somewhere, and we keep looking until there is not.
Only after that test passes does the gas get turned back on. We bleed the air out of the lines and relight every gas appliance in the house one at a time: water heater, furnace, range, dryer, whatever happens to be connected. Then we watch each one fire before anybody packs up a tool.
The job is done when the gauge says so, however good the repair looked.
The connector behind the stove
A good share of the gas smells we chase end up at the appliance, in the flexible connector between the shutoff valve and the back of a range, a dryer, or a water heater. Those connectors get bent every time an appliance is pulled out so someone can clean behind it, and some have stayed in place through more than one appliance.
We do not snug down a connector that has been kinked or crushed and call it repaired. It gets replaced, the shutoff behind it gets checked to make sure it closes all the way, and the new connection gets tested like every other fitting on the system.
Permits, inspections, and the drive over from Kilgore
The gas work we do is permitted and inspected. It adds a step, and that step puts a second set of eyes on a system that can hurt people when it is wrong. Skipping the permit to finish a day sooner is a shortcut we do not take.
Tyler is about 25 miles from our shop and squarely inside the area we work every week, for homes as well as businesses. When a gas problem is urgent we tell you honestly when somebody can be there, and from this distance that is usually the same day.
Stephen Crutchfield is the licensed Master Plumber on these jobs, and he is the one who answers when you call. The person who tells you what is wrong with your line is the person accountable for fixing it. Look through photographs of finished jobs, see the full list of what we do around Tyler, or send us the details to set up a visit.
Other jobs we take on around Tyler
Tankless Water Heater Installation
Sized to how many taps run at once, gas supply checked first.
Repiping
For older houses where the same pipe keeps failing.
Water Filtration
The water gets tested, then the equipment gets chosen.
Shower Valve Replacement
Drips, temperature swings, and stuck handles traced to the cause.
Gas Line Repair Across East Texas
The same tested repair wherever we work.
All of Our Tyler Work
Everything we handle in town.
Or browse all 50+ services.
Gas questions we hear before a visit
Should I shut the gas off at the meter myself?
Not while you can smell gas. Get everyone out and let the gas provider shut it off from outside. For a planned repair we close the supply ourselves, and once it has been off, the system gets tested before any pilot is relit, which is the part we handle.
Why does the yard smell of gas nowhere near where the pipe should be?
In sandy ground, like the loam across the north of Smith County, escaping gas can travel along a trench before it reaches the surface. Where you smell it is where it came up, which may be a long way from the leak. We trace the whole run rather than digging at the smell.
Do you repair the damaged section or replace the whole line?
Whichever the pipe calls for. One failed fitting on a sound line gets that fitting fixed. If the pipe coming out of the ground is corroded along its length, we show you what we found and explain why a new run makes more sense before you decide anything.
Is the yellow flexible line behind my range a problem?
Not on its own. Coated flex connectors are normal. What matters is whether yours has been kinked, crushed, or stretched from pulling the range out to clean, and whether the shutoff valve behind it actually closes. If either one is doubtful, we replace it and test the connection.
Does gas line repair need a permit and an inspection?
Permitted gas work gets pulled and inspected, and we handle the permit. It can add a little time before the job is fully closed out. It also means someone other than us has looked over a system that can hurt people when it is done wrong.
How soon can someone get to a gas problem in Tyler?
Usually the same day for anything urgent, since Tyler is about 25 miles from our shop. We give you a straight arrival time on the call. If you smell gas, leave first and call the provider’s emergency line as well, because they can shut off the supply sooner.
Call and talk it through
Tell Stephen what you are smelling or hearing, and where. He is a Master Plumber, and he will tell you plainly whether it needs somebody there today.
Call (903) 570-3051Prefer to write it down?
Say whether the meter sits at the pole or on the wall, and where the smell or hiss is strongest. That is enough to chart the job before we drive over.
Odyssey Plumbing Co is regulated by the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners (TSBPE), 7915 Cameron Rd., Austin, TX 78754, (512) 936-5200, tsbpe.texas.gov. Stephen Crutchfield, Responsible Master Plumber License M-45845.