Who to call when you can smell gas

When it is someone else

Calling the wrong trade costs an attendance fee to be told so. These are the cases where this problem belongs to someone other than a Plumber.

• your gas distributor, not your retailer

  always, first. The distributor owns the pipes and runs the emergency line; the retailer just bills you. The faults number is on your gas bill and on the meter.

What to do before anyone arrives

1. 1Do not operate any electrical switch, including turning a light off. Do not use a phone inside the building.
2. 2Extinguish any flame. Do not start a car in an attached garage.
3. 3Open external doors and windows if you can do it on the way out.
4. 4Turn the gas off at the meter if the valve is accessible and outside.
5. 5Get everyone out, then ring the distributor's faults line from outside.

What to ask when you book

• After the distributor has been: what did they isolate, and what did they leave tagged?
• For the gasfitter: are you licensed for gas appliance work as well as gas pipework? They are separate endorsements.
• Will you leave a compliance certificate for the work?

What changes the price

No dollar figures here: this directory holds no price data and an invented range is worse than none. What follows is what makes one of these jobs cost more than the same job next door, which is the part you can actually use when comparing quotes.

• Whether the leak is in the pipework, at a fitting, or inside an appliance.
• Whether pipework has to be exposed — in a wall, under a floor, under a slab.
• Appliance age. A leaking heat exchanger in an old unit is a replacement, not a repair.

What you can do yourself

Is this licensed work?

Gasfitting is licensed work in every state and territory, separately from plumbing, and gas appliance work generally requires its own endorsement. This is the trade where the licence exists for the most direct reason on this site.

There is no national register. Search the licence number with the regulator for the state the work is happening in.

• NSWNSW Fair Tradingbuilders, electricians, plumbers and specialist trades
• VICBuilding and Plumbing Commission, and Energy Safe Victoria for electricalbuilding practitioners and plumbers; electricians are Energy Safe Victoria
• QLDQueensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC)building and most trade contractor licences
• WABuilding and Energybuilders, electricians, plumbers and gas fitters
• SAConsumer and Business Servicesbuilding work contractors and supervisors
• TASConsumer, Building and Occupational Services (CBOS)building and occupational licences
• ACTAccess Canberraconstruction occupations licensing
• NTNT Government building practitioner registrationbuilding practitioners and electrical workers

Licensing thresholds and certificate requirements differ by state and change with amending regulation, so this page describes the mechanism rather than quoting a figure. The regulator’s own page is the current answer.

Common questions

Who to call when you can smell gas

Nobody, until you have done three things: do not touch any switch or ignition source, open the doors and windows, get everyone outside, and then ring your gas distributor's 24-hour faults line from outside the building. They attend free and make the network side safe. A licensed gasfitter does the repair on your side of the meter afterwards.

Is the distributor call-out free?

Attending an emergency gas leak is a network safety function and distributors attend without charging the householder. What they will not do is repair your installation — they make it safe and leave it isolated, and a licensed gasfitter takes it from there.

What if I can smell gas only sometimes, near the hot water unit?

Intermittent is still a leak, and 'only when the unit fires' points at the appliance rather than the pipe. Treat it the same way — ventilate, go outside, ring the faults line. An intermittent leak that you learn to live with is the one that is still there when something ignites it.

Who to hire for

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• Who to hire for a leaking tapA licensed plumber. It is a small job — usually replacing a washer or a ceramic cartridge — and the useful mov…