smell of gas

dooj

When i walked in the house for the last two night i have smelled gas near the front door in like a small lobby bit i have in between front door and passage door (about 2 ft square). The gas meter lives in this bit of the house and ive had a sniff round but the smell doesnt really get stronger anywhere and obviously once the door has been opened for a bit the smell has wafted away. Is there a test i can do or something to see where the smell is coming from or is there someone i should phone. On the front of my gas meter it says to turn off all gas and phone emergency number, this seems a bit extreme as its only a faint smell.

Anyone any advice?????

heatherw_01

You should call the gas company if you smell gas even if it is not from your house.

Pauls

Personally I'd ring Transco ASAP, better to be safe than sorry

uncle_buck_3

Do as advised & ring the phone number on the front on the meter.

rchddap1

No test is really safe....best call the number and get someone to look at things.

Pink.

Can I remind users of the warning at the top of this board:

Always use a professional for gas maintenance and complex electrical repairs. Being safe is more important than MoneySaving.

Thankyou,

Pink

sooz

just to add, apart from ALWAYS call transco....

our whole street smells of gas. transco are busy replacing all the mains around here...and are doing it for free as part of a maintenance thing all over the country. ours has now been done, and the men said we had a hole in the mains by the front door that you could stick a finger into....we only caught a small whiff every so often outside...now that all the front gardens are being dug up the whole street smells.


and just for a laugh, the men say they are quite regularly asked to refill lighters, and to connect people back to the hot water mains :rotfl:

moneysavingplumber

0800 111999 (Transco emergency phone no.)

Even if there is no leak, you won't be charged for them to come out and they will not be bothered, it exasperates me when customers call me saying they've been smelling gas for weeks and they haven't called Transco.

I call them out quite regularly on behalf of my clients to replace faulty meter controls, governors, and to investigate low incoming pressure. It's not extreme at all, call them now and they'll be there in the hour. In the unlikely event that there is no leak it won't matter, the engineer will be glad of an easy job. I'm guessing it's either your meter control or meter test point leaking, but it could be anything.

I've even called them when I've been walking down the street in the past and smelt gas and within an hour or two there've been crews there digging up the road repairing a leaking main, trust your nose, gas is distinctive.

exlibris

I am unable to smell gas but I prefer to cook by gas and have gas central heating. Is there a gas detector similar to the carbon one I can get?

I must say that in over 30 yrs af using gas, this has not bothered me before. However, this thread has got me wondering.

robowen

exlibris wrote:

I am unable to smell gas but I prefer to cook by gas and have gas central heating. Is there a gas detector similar to the carbon one I can get?

I must say that in over 30 yrs af using gas, this has not bothered me before. However, this thread has got me wondering.

I think peeps should relax a bit here :think:
The explosive limits for natural gas occur at around 5-15% gas in air.
That's an awful lot of gas !! It would be a big smell of gas !
As mentioned above. If you smell gas, close off the emergency control valve at the meter, call the number on the meter, then ventilate the property. There should always be a label with an emergency phone number on the meter.

rob

moneysavingplumber

I agree in part Robowen, it's very difficult to actually create an explosive situation, but when you walk into a house and have only a faint smell of gas, for all we know the upstairs of the house could be full of gas, as natural gas is lighter than air. With LPG the opposite is true as it is heavier than air and sinks to below where we might smell it, as I'm sure you know.

I had a situation about six years ago where I went back to collect a tool I'd left upstairs at a newly renovated property we'd replumbed, it had been tested as tight and Transco had done their own test the previous day as they had changed the meter control. As I reached the top of the stairs I nearly fell backwards as the smell of gas hit me. The owner had decided, in his wisdom, to steady up a loose floorboard that day by driving a 4" nail right through the centre of it and drove it right through the 22mm gas supply. The painter had been merrily painting away downstairs with a ciggy hanging from his gob and, luckily for him, hadn't once ventured upstairs! I always err on the side of safety, even the 4-8 mbar permissible pressure drop on tightness tests are ruled out if there is any smell of gas.

I'm sure there is a consumer gas detector/alarm on the market, BG might even do one.