Smell of Gas - Urgent?

janninew

Hi

I was after some advice please. I have just been outside to read my gas meter and when I opened the cupboard door I could smell gas. My neighbour was putting his bins out and I told him and he came over and said a slight smell of gas round the meter was normal! Is this true, do I need to ring somebody? I couldn't smell it again, it was only when I first opened the door.

Any advice?

Thanks.

KxMx

I would ring the transco emergency number asap, a smell of gas is not normal, meters are not supposed to leak!

0800 111 999 it is the national number to phone when you smell gas.

janninew

Thanks, I've called them and given the details. They are sending an engineer out, I've been outside again and still can't smell anything, I hope I'm not wasting their time, but the smell was quite strong when I first opened the door.

KxMx

I am sure they won't mind, and that they would rather a false alarm than kaboom! They're sending someone round so they are taking things seriously. Possibly there is a small leak which has built up the smell, so strong smell when you first opened the door, but as you have done that a few times since it will have been ventillated and dissipated, so there could still be a problem, no longer "visible" to a human nose.

Fairzo

Never take a risk with gas, the consequences are too drastic.

antenna

If you think it's just imagination and you are not going to phone the gas line,then put some diluted fairy liquid round the joints with a toothbrush and look for bubbles.

C_Mababejive

antenna wrote: »

If you think it's just imagination and you are not going to phone the gas line,then put some diluted fairy liquid round the joints with a toothbrush and look for bubbles.

No..dont do that.

If you smell gas, call free 0800111999

This includes unexplained smells of gas in your home and also outside in the street.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/family-of-four-killed-by-suspected-gas-blast-in-house-738167.html

janninew

Well he's been and everything is fine. My gas cupboard is outside and is next to the vent where my boiler is (hope that makes sense!) The engineer said the smell is coming from this vent and its normal for some light smells of gas to be released, I must have just been down wind and caught a whiff!! I think my plumber mentioned this before to my hubby and said it was normal. Better to be safe than sorry!

madtrekker

Glad everything's ok and yes, it's always better to be safe than sorry. When I first went to uni, the house I was living in had a meter indoors rather than out (this was the first time I'd had a meter actually in the house). There was always a faint whiff of gas in the meter cupboard but I (wrongly) assumed it was normal.

We were well into our second year there when the meter reader decided to call the engineer out and it turned out we'd had a slow leak there for some time. As the house was v. old, the pipe was corroding or something and we had to have a lot of pipe replaced, right back to the mains in the street. Luckily, said cupboard was also quite draughty so plenty of ventilation!

keystone

KxMx wrote: »

I would ring the transco emergency number asap

[PEDANT MODE ON]Transco are now National Grid - its only been 5 years.[/PEDANT MODE OFF]:D

Cheers

Owain_Moneysaver

antenna wrote: »

If you think it's just imagination and you are not going to phone the gas line,then put some diluted fairy liquid round the joints with a toothbrush and look for bubbles.

No, washign up liquids contain salt and are corrosive. They are not a substitute for leak detector.