Gas Leak at Home? What to Do Right Now

Short answer: if you smell gas, don't touch a switch or use your phone inside. Open the doors and windows, get everyone out, turn the gas off at the meter if you can safely reach it, and ring from outside. A leak at the meter or in the street goes to your gas network's emergency line, which is on your gas bill. A leak inside the house goes to a licensed gasfitter. If there's a fire, or someone feels unwell, ring 000.

That's the whole emergency. Everything below is the detail: how to tell whether it's really a leak, how to turn the gas off, and what happens once a gasfitter arrives.

What a gas leak smells like

Natural gas and LPG don't smell of anything on their own. Gas companies add a chemical called mercaptan so that a leak smells like rotten eggs, sulphur or a struck match. It's deliberately strong, so people notice a small leak long before it becomes dangerous.

Other signs of a gas leak:

• A hissing or whistling sound near a gas pipe, the meter or an appliance
• A cooktop flame that burns yellow or orange instead of blue
• Dead or browning grass in a line across the yard, where a gas pipe runs underground
• A gas bill much higher than usual, with no change in how you use it
• Bubbles in a puddle or wet ground near the meter or a pipe

Any one of those is worth a check. A rotten-egg smell inside the house is worth acting on straight away.

What to do in the first five minutes

1. Don't create a spark. No light switches, power points, appliances, doorbells or phones inside the house. Each one can make a small spark, and gas only needs a small spark.
2. Put out naked flames. Candles, the cooktop, a cigarette.
3. Open the doors and windows on your way out, if you can do it quickly.
4. Get everyone out, pets included, and move well away from the house.
5. Turn off the gas at the meter if it's outside and you can reach it safely. More on that below.
6. Ring from outside, well away from the house.

Don't go back in to check whether the smell has gone. Gas collects in low spots and enclosed rooms, and the smell fades for the person standing in it.

How to turn off the gas at the meter

Most houses in Maitland and the Lower Hunter have the gas meter on an outside wall near the front of the house, or in a meter box. On the pipe going into the meter there's a valve with a handle.

• On: the handle runs along the pipe.
• Off: turn it a quarter turn, so the handle sits across the pipe.

That stops gas flowing into the house. If the handle is stiff, don't force it with tools. If the meter is in an enclosed cupboard and the smell is strong there, leave it and get away.

If you're on LPG bottles rather than mains gas, turn the bottle valve clockwise to close it, then ring your gas supplier.

Who to ring

Who you ring depends on where the leak is.

• At the meter, or out in the street: that's the gas network's responsibility. Ring the faults and emergencies number on your gas bill. They come out at no charge.
• Inside your property, after the meter: the pipes and appliances are yours, so you need a licensed gasfitter. In NSW, only a licensed gasfitter can work on gas lines and appliances.
• A fire, an explosion, or someone unwell: ring 000 first.

We do emergency gas work across Maitland and the Lower Hunter, 24 hours a day. Ring us from outside on the number at the top of the page.

How a gasfitter finds the leak

When we arrive, the first job is making it safe. Then we find the leak:

• A pressure test on the gas line. We cap the line, pressurise it and watch a gauge. If the pressure drops, there's a leak somewhere on that line.
• Isolating sections, one appliance and one branch at a time, until the leaking part is found.
• An electronic gas detector and leak-detection fluid on joints, fittings and appliance connections. A leak bubbles.

Most leaks we find are at a joint or fitting, in a flexible hose behind a cooktop or a heater, or at an old appliance. Pipes in the ground can corrode too, especially older galvanised lines.

Fixing it

Once the leak is found, we repair or replace the faulty section, pressure test the whole line again, and relight and check every appliance. Gas work in NSW gets a compliance certificate, and you get a copy.

If an appliance is the cause and it's old, we'll tell you straight whether it's worth repairing. A gas heater that's past its life is usually cheaper to replace than to keep fixing.

How long a gas leak repair takes

Most leaks at a fitting or a flexible hose are found and fixed in a visit of an hour or two, including the pressure test at the end. A leak in a buried line takes longer, because we isolate it a section at a time and may have to dig to reach it. If the repair can't be finished on the day, the faulty section is capped off and the rest of the house is made safe to use, and you'll know exactly what's still to be done before we leave.

Appliances are the slower part. If a cooktop or a heater is the cause and the part has to be ordered in, the appliance stays disconnected until it's fixed. We'll tell you which appliances are safe to use in the meantime.

LPG on rural blocks

Out on the farm blocks around Greta, Branxton and Cessnock, many homes run on LPG bottles rather than mains gas. The same rules apply: get out, close the bottle valves if you can do it safely, and ring from outside. Bottles should stand upright on a firm base, chained to the wall and away from drains and windows. A leak at the regulator, or in the short hose between the bottle and the pipe, is one of the faults we find most often.

Gas leak or water leak?

A hissing sound isn't always gas. A pipe leaking water under pressure hisses too, and a damp patch, a jump in the water bill or a meter that keeps turning with every tap off points to water, not gas. Water leaks aren't an evacuation, but they're worth finding fast, and our water leak detection page explains how we track one down. If there's any rotten-egg smell at all, treat it as gas.

Carbon monoxide: the leak you can't smell

A gas leak smells. Carbon monoxide doesn't. A poorly maintained gas heater or a blocked flue can put carbon monoxide into a room, and the first signs are headaches, dizziness, tiredness and nausea that get better when you leave the house.

If you have a gas heater, the usual advice is to have it serviced every two years, and more often if it's old. A carbon monoxide alarm in the rooms with gas heaters is cheap insurance.

Stopping a leak before it starts

• Have gas heaters and hot water serviced on schedule.
• Never use an outdoor gas heater or barbecue indoors.
• Replace flexible gas hoses that are cracked, stiff or kinked.
• Don't hang anything off a gas pipe, or let a garden bed bury the meter.
• Get any gas work done by a licensed gasfitter. It's the law in NSW, and it's the reason the work gets certified.

If you're replacing an old gas hot water system anyway, our hot water service page covers the options, and our guide to heat pump hot water explains when moving off gas is worth it. If you can smell gas right now, stop reading, go outside and ring.