Gas Line Services
Gas work is the part of plumbing with no margin for improvisation. Sizing, testing and permitting are not paperwork; they are the reason it stays safe for thirty years.
If you smell gas, leave the building and call your utility or 911 first. Then call us.
If you smell gas
Do this first and read the rest later.
Leave the building. Take everyone with you. Do not switch anything on or off, not a light, not a fan, not a phone charger, because a switch contact makes a spark. Do not use a doorbell. Open a door on the way out if it is on your route, but do not go looking for windows to open.
From outside and well away, call your gas utility emergency line or 911. Utilities respond to gas odour calls immediately and at no charge, and they will make the property safe. That call comes before any plumber.
Do not go back in until someone with an instrument says it is safe.
Then call us, because once the immediate hazard is dealt with, the utility will shut the affected line and leave the repair to a licensed contractor. That is where we come in: locating the fault, repairing or replacing the section, pressure testing, and getting the system inspected and back in service.
Two additional things worth knowing. Carbon monoxide is a separate hazard and it has no smell, it comes from incomplete combustion in an appliance, not from a gas leak, and detectors are the only protection. Symptoms are headache, nausea and drowsiness affecting several people in the house at once. That is also a leave-and-call-911 situation. And a very small persistent smell near an appliance is still a call, not a wait-and-see, the human nose detects the odorant added to natural gas at concentrations well below the flammable range, which is exactly the point of it.
Leak detection and testing
Once a property is safe, finding a leak precisely is instrument work.
Combustible gas detectors sweep joints, valves and appliance connections and register at very low concentrations, which is how a weeping joint inside a cabinet gets found.
Bubble solution on accessible joints is old, simple and still definitive.
Pressure testing is the real proof. The line is isolated, pressurised with air or nitrogen to the pressure and duration the jurisdiction requires, and monitored on a gauge. A line that holds pressure has no leak; a line that drops has one, whether or not anyone can smell it. This is what an inspection requires and what we do on all new work.
Section isolation narrows a drop to a run: close valves progressively and retest until the failing section is identified, which avoids opening walls speculatively.
Common leak locations, in rough order: appliance connectors, particularly old uncoated brass flex; threaded joints disturbed by appliance replacement; valves at appliances; corroded buried or exterior piping; and joints in a section that has been knocked or leaned on in a garage or crawl space.
Smell gas? Leave, then call the utility or 911. Not us first.
Call After You Are SafeCapacity and sizing
Undersized gas piping is the most common defect we find, and it does not announce itself as a gas problem. It shows up as an appliance that underperforms, a tankless heater that cannot hold temperature at full flow, a range whose burners drop when the oven fires, a furnace that short-cycles, and people replace the appliance.
Sizing depends on four things: total connected load in BTU, the length of the run from the meter, the number of fittings, and the delivery pressure of the system. A half-inch line adequate for a 40,000 BTU heater is nowhere near adequate for a 199,000 BTU tankless, and diameter is not the only variable, pressure drop over distance is why a long run needs a larger pipe than a short one at the same load.
So we work the whole system rather than the one appliance: add up everything that could run simultaneously, check the meter capacity, size each branch from the manifold, and confirm the utility can supply the total. Where it cannot, a meter upgrade is requested from the utility, which we coordinate.
This is precisely why a tankless water heater conversion often costs more than the showroom implies, and why anyone quoting one without opening the gas question is guessing.
New lines and appliance connections
The work we are most often asked for:
Range and cooktop lines for a kitchen converting from electric, including the shutoff, the connector and the anti-tip and clearance considerations.
Water heater and tankless supply, which is usually where a capacity upgrade is needed.
Furnace and boiler connections, including reworking an old manifold that has grown by accretion.
Dryer lines, straightforward but frequently the appliance whose load was never counted in the original sizing.
Fireplaces and log sets, with a key valve where the jurisdiction requires it.
Outdoor lines for a grill, a fire pit, a patio heater or a generator, buried to depth with the correct material and tracer, or run above ground in protected locations, plus a shutoff at the appliance.
Shop, barn and outbuilding supply, common on rural properties and often the point at which the whole system needs re-sizing.
Every connection gets a shutoff valve within reach of the appliance, a listed connector rather than improvised flex, a drip leg where required, a sediment trap where required, and a pressure test before it is put into service. We also check appliance venting while we are there, because a correctly piped appliance venting badly is still dangerous.
Undersized gas line is the most common defect we find.
Book a Capacity CheckPropane east of the Cascades
Large parts of Oregon have no natural gas distribution, and propane serves them. The plumbing is similar and the differences are important.
Vapour pressure and regulators. A propane system runs at higher tank pressure with a two-stage regulator reducing it for the house. Sizing works differently because the fuel has a different energy content per cubic foot, and pipe sizing tables for natural gas do not apply.
Tank capacity and vaporisation. A tank has to be able to vaporise liquid fast enough to meet peak demand, and that capacity falls as the tank empties and as temperature drops. A tank adequate in September can starve appliances in a January cold snap at low level, which in Bend, Burns or La Pine is a real scenario rather than a hypothetical. We size for winter peak and low tank level, not for average conditions.
Propane is heavier than air. It pools in low points rather than dispersing upward, which changes where detectors go and makes basements, crawl spaces and pits a specific concern.
Appliance orifices differ. An appliance set up for natural gas needs a conversion kit for propane and vice versa. Running one on the other is genuinely dangerous, and it is a mistake we find on second-hand appliances.
Coordination with the supplier. Tank, regulator and first-stage work usually belongs to the propane company; the house side is ours. We work out the boundary before starting rather than during.
Black iron, CSST and materials
Black iron pipe with threaded fittings is the traditional standard: robust, well understood, tolerant of physical abuse, and slow to install. Still the right choice for exposed runs in a garage, shop or crawl space where anything could get knocked.
Corrugated stainless steel tubing runs like flexible tubing through framing, which makes long routes far quicker and reduces joints. It needs correct bonding and grounding, the lightning-related failures that gave early CSST a poor reputation were largely a bonding issue, and it must be protected with striker plates where it passes framing. Arc-resistant jacketed types are the current standard and we use them where CSST is appropriate.
Copper is permitted for gas in some jurisdictions and not others, and not for propane in many. Local code governs.
Polyethylene for buried exterior runs, with a tracer wire and a transition fitting at the riser. Never inside a building.
What should never be there: galvanized pipe on gas, where the coating flakes and blocks orifices; unlisted flexible connectors; and the old uncoated brass appliance connectors, which are a known failure item and which we replace on sight.
Permits, inspection and who may do this work
Gas piping is permitted work in Oregon. A permit is pulled, the work is pressure tested, and an inspector verifies it before it goes into service. That is not an optional formality, unpermitted gas work is a problem at the point of sale, potentially a problem with an insurance claim, and a straightforward safety risk when nobody independent has verified the test.
The professionals who install gas piping hold the appropriate Oregon license and endorsement for the work, they carry insurance, and they coordinate the inspection. That is the standard we hold the independent contractors in our network to, and it is worth verifying with anyone you hire, from us or otherwise.
What we will not do: connect an appliance to a line we have not tested, extend a system that is already at capacity without addressing capacity, or leave a gas job unpermitted because it would be faster. If a quote you have received is materially cheaper than the others, permitting is the first place to look.
Every appliance gets a shutoff, a listed connector and a pressure test.
Get a Gas QuoteServices that often go with this one
- Tankless water heater installation
- Water heater installation
- Emergency plumbing
- Commercial plumbing
- Seasonal home winterization
- Water heater repair
Where we cover
Available in all seven regions, 155 Oregon communities.
Gas lines, answered
Leave the building immediately with everyone in it, touching no switches and using no phone inside. From well away, call your gas utility emergency line or 911. They respond immediately at no charge. Do not re-enter until someone with an instrument says it is safe, and only then arrange the repair.
Yes. Gas piping is permitted, pressure tested and inspected in Oregon. Beyond compliance, it matters at resale and potentially on an insurance claim, and the inspection is the only independent verification that the test was actually done.
Because it needs its whole heat output instantly rather than over an hour. A tank heater might draw 40,000 BTU; a whole-house tankless commonly needs 150,000 to 199,000. Existing half-inch supply is frequently inadequate, and the run length matters as much as the diameter.
Yes, and it is a popular job. Outdoor runs are buried to depth in the correct material with a tracer wire, or run above ground in protected locations, with a shutoff at the appliance. It gets pressure tested and inspected like any other gas work.
Yes, when installed correctly. The early concerns related to lightning-induced damage and were largely a bonding and grounding failure. Current arc-resistant jacketed products, properly bonded and protected with striker plates at framing, are a sound choice, though black iron remains better where pipe could be physically knocked.
Not without the correct conversion kit for that appliance. The orifices and pressures differ, and running one on the other is genuinely hazardous. It is a mistake we find regularly on second-hand appliances moved between properties.
Propane sizing uses winter peak and a low tank, not averages.
Talk to a PlumberSized, tested, permitted, inspected
We work the whole gas system rather than the single appliance, pressure test everything we touch, and coordinate the permit and inspection. If you smell gas right now, call your utility or 911 first.
Statewide · natural gas and propane
Call 1-866-203-6890