Gas Line Installation & Repair in Jupiter, FL

With all the benefits natural gas offers, it can be easy for homeowners to fail to recognize the responsibilities that come with using gas as their home’s fuel/power source. 

Those responsibilities include proper care and maintenance, which involves the following:

• Install carbon monoxide and natural gas detectors: If a gas leak is slow or a person has a poor sense of smell, it can be difficult to smell natural gas. So, it’s important to install natural gas detectors to ensure that if there’s a gas leak, home occupants will be alerted in time to avoid injury or death. Carbon monoxide detectors cannot detect natural gas, but they can detect carbon monoxide that is produced when appliances and other devices don’t properly burn natural gas.
• Keep kids away from sources of natural gas: It’s important to prevent children from accessing sources of natural gas. This equipment is sensitive and dangerous and should only be used by adults. In addition, kids should be taught what natural gas smells like, the signs of natural gas exposure, and what to do if they think there’s a gas leak.
• Learn how to shut off the gas: Homeowners should know where the gas shutoff valve is and how to turn it off if there’s a gas leak or similar type of emergency.
• Perform safety checks: Homeowners should check natural gas sources and appliances that use natural gas, such as stoves, furnaces, generators, water heaters, and dryers, for gas leaks regularly.

Gas Line Installation & Repair

There are certain things that should be left up to professionals. In some cases, it’s obvious that only a licensed and trained professional should handle something, such as piloting a jumbo jet. In other situations, it’s less clear whether it is safe for a layman to take care of something, like a homeowner trying to do the minor electrical work necessary to install a ceiling fan in their house. One job that should always be left up to a professional is gas line installation and repair.

Natural gas is a wonderful way to power a home, but there can be deadly consequences if someone who isn’t trained tries to repair a gas leak or install/replace a gas line. That’s why homeowners should contact a licensed and certified gas line repair specialist if they suspect there’s a gas leak in their home or some other issue involving their gas lines.

How to Know If Your House Has a Gas Leak

If left undetected, a gas leak can have disastrous consequences for homeowners and their families, such as:

• Fires
• Explosions
• Carbon monoxide poisoning
• Permanent injury or illness
• Death

For the reasons listed above and others, it is critical that homeowners understand how to recognize and are on the constant lookout for signs of a gas leak:

• Usage Spike – An increase in gas usage during certain times of the year is expected. However, if there’s an unexpected and unexplained increase in gas usage, it may be a sign that there’s a gas leak or some other problem.
• House Plants Dying – If a homeowner is taking proper care of their house plants and notices that they are wilting and dying, that could mean there’s a gas leak. Natural gas poisoning can cause plants to fail to absorb oxygen and wilt. In addition, homeowners may notice that leaves on trees in their yard are smaller than normal and patches of grass in their yard turn yellow if there’s a gas leak.
• Medical Issues – If homeowners and/or other occupants of the home begin experiencing symptoms of natural gas poisoning, there may be a gas leak. Common symptoms include memory loss, nosebleeds, headaches, loss of consciousness, nausea, lightheadedness/dizziness, difficulty breathing, loss of appetite, fatigue, ringing in ears, loss of muscle control, paler than normal skin, chest pains, blistering skin, abdominal pain, and drowsiness.
• Rotten Egg Smell – Natural gas is odorless. However, as a safety precaution, natural gas companies add chemicals to natural gas to give it an odor that can be recognized in case of a leak. The chemicals are called odorants and they make natural gas smell like rotten eggs or sulphur.
• Air Bubbles – If a gas leak happens in underground pipes, it can sometimes come up through the yard and show up as air bubbles in standing water outside a home, such as mud or puddles.
• Strange Noises – When natural gas is leaking from pipes or appliances, it often makes a hissing sound.

What to Do If You Have a Gas Leak in Your Home

If a homeowner suspects that there’s a gas leak in their home, they must react quickly because their safety, the safety of their family, and even the safety of their neighbors could be at stake. 

So, at the first sign of a gas leak, a homeowner should:

• Avoid looking for or trying to fix the leak
• Get out of the house as quickly and safely as possible
• Open doors and windows (on the way out of the house if there’s time)
• Avoid using electronics, lighters, or matches in or near the house (could spark a fire or explosion)
• Call 911 and report the incident

Once authorities say the home is safe, the homeowner should contact a gas line installation and repair service to locate and fix the gas leak as soon as possible.