Life without gas

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mavei

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Dec 26, 2010
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Came home today and smelled gas in the living room. Had new HVAC ductwork put in the attic recently and the sheetrock guy hasn't been here yet to fix the holes around the opening.

Got on a ladder and found that it was coming from the attic,but could't tell where.
called the gas company and serviceman found a leaking coupling on the line that comes into the house.It was so small it wouldn't register on the meter right away. Seems they used four couplings instead of using one long piece of pipe. He shut off the gas at the meter and locked it.

I called our plumber and he may be able to come out Monday.
They also said that they will have to file a permit for the job, fix the leak,and perform a pressure test-it has to hold pressure for 10 mins. Also everything must be up to code before the gas can be turned back on by the gas company.
It will cost me at least $380 to start,probably more.

What a nightmare. Not the way I wanted to start the weekend off. And the forecast is for temps in the 30s-40s with cold rain.

Now I have lost the use of the stove,furnace and dryer.
term

I am using small electrics to cook with(but they're no substitute for a gas range), have 2 tabletop convection ovens to bake with,electric heaters to keep the rooms warm,and we already have a 50 gal electric water heater.
I can wash clothes but,I HAVE NO WAY TO DRY THEM unless I hang them up to dry in the house or go to a laundromat.
We can get by for now,but not something I would want to do long term.

I CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT GAS! Major inconvenience!
 
Sorry!

That is terrible.

I would consider filing suit against the HVAC idiot(s). In a SENSIBLE world, you would not have to pay for the repair work!

Lawrence/Maytagbear
 
The HVAC guy didn't do it.
Whowever piped the house for gas when the house was built in the 50s or when central heat was added caused the problem. No telling how long it had been leaking.
 
Yikes, just be glad you found it before it caused a MAJOR disaster. It could have happened at night, and blown up you and half the neighborhood!

Back in the early 70's a house over 2 blocks away blew up at like 4 in the morning - woke me and my parents up; somehow sister slept through it. Luckily the house was vacant, as it had just sold. The new owners had the propane tanks filled the day before, and turned the furnace on. There was a leak, and gas built up to the point where when the furnace kicked on again, a violent explosion occured. The house was leveled, and 2 others had enough damage they were later demolished. Over 50 homes, and several businesses had at least minor damage. It cracked ceilings and walls in 2 or 3 rooms in our house, and caused our next door neighbors upstairs ceiling to partially collapse - and this was about 1/3 mile away. No one was badly hurt, but several people complained of headaches and hearing problems for several days. Consider yourself blessed you only have the inconvenience of doing without gas service.
 
Since I need to wash and can't use my gas dryer...

...does anybody know of the best way to dry clothes indoors?

BTW,the leak wasn't very bad,but gas company protocol said that if a leak of any size is found,the gas must be shut off until a plumber can repair it(no DIYs). I just hope the piping passes the pressure test and there are no other problems that must be corrected-that's probably big $$$ if the house must be repiped for gas. The plumber said that we should have gas by Thursday or so.
 
What a pain! I hope the gas line gets fixed quickly--and cheaply!

As for drying clothes inside, I have heavily used those folding wood drying racks for years. They are easily available, and worth having even with a dryer. (I do a lot of drying on my rack--as much as 100% at times, even though I have a dryer.) The only problem is that clothes might take a long time to dry in an unheated house.
 
Problem with drying clothes indoor is that the humidity level might already be high when there is no heating. Best thing to dry clothes when not using a dryer is hanging them outside. If there is wind, that will help.

If you can't dry clothes outside an electric heater will speed up the process. A dehumidifier could help too.

I think I would go to the laundromat in such a case. Not only not to have clothes hanging around the house, but also just for the fun of it.
 
Interesting, but lately our local gas utility company has been courting our neighborhood since we are one of the few in our town that doesn't have gas service. However their stipulation is that we must all convert to gas for heating and water heating (presumably since that is where they make most of their money). But every time I think I am ready to take the plunge, I read another story about leaks or explosions and I think I am better off without it.
 
I had the same problem in my new house. the line to the upstairs furnace had 5 pinholes in it. the gas company wanted to shut the gas meter off. I asked isn't there some other way? he stated if you can get the plumber here quickly he can disconnect the gas line to that furnace and cap it off then we can leave the gas on for the rest of the appliances. I called he came over in 10 minutes. the gas co shut the meter off he disconnected that line capped it off and the gas co turned the meter back on. finally had the line replaced after the summer and the heat is back on. I would check to see if that could be done so your not without gas till thursday.
Jon
 
Mavei,

Would it be possible to take your laundry to a laundromat? This would eliminate the indoor drying hassle for you. Sorry Louis, didn't see your laundromat suggestion earlier, my bad![this post was last edited: 1/8/2011-09:29]
 
I am trying not to be mean in stating this, and some will recognize the great effort that is, but why can't you even give us your name like the profile requests? Robert does not seem to care about this, but we are not a porn site and there is nothing really shameful about being a member here. You dump your misfortune on a bunch of kind people who have sympathy for you and even take the time and energy to respond and post suggestions and you cannot even let us know your name.
 
Your forecast for today will be sunny in the mid 50's. I'd start hanging my heaviest clothes outside first. You'll have a gentle breeze, so your clothes should dry.

Every now and then we have a house in Houston blow up from a gas leak. Your rain won't start until Sunday night.
 
When a gas pipe leaks in a New York City apartment building, the utility shuts off the gas to the entire building, until all the pipes in the building can be inspected or replaced. Can take months.
 
Sorry, Tom,my apologies

I hadn't realized that I left my profile incomplete.
I have since updated it.

BTW,Suburbanmd,gas is not allowed in apartments here in most cases. They're worried about having a leaky pipe under a floor or in a wall between two units. Onlt a few older units built no later than the late 60s-early 70s have it piped directly into the apartment for cooking and heating. Most are all-electric,so it's very unusual to see gas in an apartment here.

If gas service is on site in an apartment complex,it can be only for a remote laundry room for gas dryers or the water heater to supply the washers, a central boiler plant building to supply hot water for heating and domestic hot water service,and for gas lights and barbecue grills. But it cannot be piped directly into the apartment.

I know of one building that had gas service in the apartments(and proudly advertised it) that had to be demolished after Hurricane Katrina. Probably built in the early 70s.
To access each apartment,the gas lines ran around the outside of the building and went into the wall at each apartment. There was only one meter for the entire building,so gas was included in the rent.

Marc
 
Interesting story about the apartment buildings. I don't know of any apartments around here that have gas, but I don't think it's a code issue -- I think it's just because going all electric is easier to install. Like a lot of places, apartment buildings are built as cheaply as they can absolutely get away with here. They don't spend a penny on anything that the inspector doesn't insist on.

The neighborhood we live in does not have gas service. We heat with heat pumps plus a couple of propane-burning fireplaces. I doubt we'll get gas service anytime soon, but if we did, I might think about replacing the heat pumps we have with dual-fuel systems. Other than that we'd probably stay with electric. My wife hates cooking with gas, and venting for gas water heaters would be difficult to install.
 
Gobs of liability involved

In the deep south we here are in lawsuit hellhole. It is an industry, late night TV on lessor channels troll endlessly for things/industries to sue. Thus if there is any chance of any danger with a even tiny gas leak, the gas company is going to shut off the gas. A tiny leak if cannot be fixed properly is going to have the gas shut off, they did this 100 years ago too.

If they arrive to check your leak and you have hazards by the say gas water heater, they will have you sign that you have a pint can of paint on that workbench in the garage where there is a hot water heater.

One buddy in California had his gas turned off and hooked up a propane tank for his water heater, normal folks should not attempt this due to dangers.

Drying clothes via air drying is harder here since it is damp. One *can* just hang stuff over a rod inside and use a 20" box fan to speed things up.

To find leaks the gas company often just sprays the joints with a "windex" type spray bottle with water and a tad of soap. Even windex works.

A gas leak has blown up many a building
 
Ah, so that's why laundries in apartment buildings are set up that way.
In Houston many apartment buildings have their laundry facilities in a separate building, usually at the back or in the parking lot. I always thought that was a strange set up. The apartments are always electric. Now I know why they use that set up. The water heaters and dryers are probably gas.
 
My old apartment in California had about 12 units per one common building; and about a dozen of the buildings. It was built about 1970.

Us renters had all electric heat, AC, stove, dishwasher.

The HOT water was via giant high recovery rate GAS water heater at the end of the building, with a recirculating pump.

Thus one had about instant hot water, that was paid by the apartment manager. Gas was only for these big hot water heaters in each building.

About every other building had a laundry room too; right next to the "service" room that had the giant water heater, cable and phone hookups, and electric meters. There was a firewall between the gas water heater and #1 apartment in the building.

*** From a renters standpoint, the apartment was "all electric" , since no gas line was available to a renter. There was gas; it just ran the water heaters or gas dryers.

The laundry room was a joke, sometimes never enough washers, never enough dryers. There was with say 24 apartments (two buildings one with the laundry room) only about 5 washers and 4 dryers. About all the time one was broken. Thus one had 4 washers and 3 dryers. At any given time the dryers were full and stopped and no tables if one wanted to remove others stuff.

The set up probably was ok if one did not have a job or had no schedule. I only used it a few times and about always went to a laundromat. One couple I knew removed anothers dry clothes since they were there for 1/2 hour already; the other couple got mad as hell. They to "get back" the couple I knew had a mystery person place manure in their clothes being dried, thus besides messing up clothes that dryer got ruined for awhile.
 
Quote: When a gas pipe leaks in a New York City apartment building, the utility shuts off the gas to the entire building, until all the pipes in the building can be inspected or replaced. Can take months.

I dont know about that, but one learns quickly that one does call the utility anywhere, except in a dire emergency for just the above-mentioned reasons.

One shuts off the gas onself and gets a plumber out.

I am a firm believer in a back-up heating system. If you have a through-the-wall air-conditioner I recommend replacing it QUICKLY with one that provides electric or heat-pump heat.

PLEASE do not use a ventless (gas)heater in your house. These are a SEVERE and PERMANENT danger to one's health.

Best of luck.

P.S. i have been dying to find on YouTube that commercial advertisement for natural gas that has a song with "I"VE GOT GAS" in it. Hugely funny.
 
A quick way to find a gas leak is to fill a spray bottle with a concentrated detergent solution. Then spray it on all the joints and valves. If that doesn't find the leak, try spraying the entire pipe.

It is not difficult to replace leaky gas valves. A bad joint would be another matter.

After I hired a plumber to extend the gas line to the laundry closet, and also install a shut-off ball valve on the line that goes underground to the workshop, I found a scent of gas in the crawl space. Sure enough, one of the valves that he replaced was leaking - the one to the gas furnace. It was a simple matter to replace it, once I found the correct size.

BTW, the pressure test can't be done unless all the older iron gas valves are replaced with modern ball valves, because, as I was told, the older valves can't take the pressure test. Which is why he replaced the one on the gas furnace. Wouldn't you know, that's the one that had a slight leak.

Given all that, I'm planning (someday) on extending the gas line under the house so I can have a gas dryer in the enclosed patio as well as a hookup on the outer patio (for the gas BBQ). Along with hot water line extensions for washers. Someday.
 
Toggleswitch,I couldn't agree with you more about those unvented gas heaters. I had unexpected heart surgery 3 years ago after I was diagnosed with inherited cardiovascular disease(I wasn't overweight and had nothing else wrong). Now I can't stand to be around those heaters -the products of combustion smell like chlorine(And I cook with gas). And most of the old houses here didn't have any type of permanent heat except these heaters,so I grew up around these. I show a picture of a typical unvented gas bathroom heater below,many of which are still in use.

The house is very warm thanks to Reddy Kilowatt. We have a permantly installed 2000 watt baseboard heater in the den,electric ceiling heaters in the bathrooms,and electric heaters in all the other rooms(each plugged into their own dedicated circuits),and a 50 gal electric water heater.
In the kitchen I have an electric cooking table with many electric utensils and 2 tabletop convection ovens(Once again they have a dedicated circuit of 4 outlets that can handle 4000 watts and another dedicated circuit one nearby. So I can cook and have been quite surprised at the results. I just have to hang the clothes to dry.

BTW, in case you were wondering why I don't get an electric stove,my electrician says it's too difficult to run a circuit into the kitchen (not that I'm interested in an electric stove.) The Kenmore gas stove is 5 years old-it's a barebones model similar to the Frigidaire FGF315 except with clock.Troublefree.

The plumber will try to come here tomorrow. They have been very busy.
Marc

mavei++1-10-2011-20-54-46.jpg
 
Here's another one-lit

This bathroom heater looks to be from the 1930s. It dosen't seem to be glowing as brightly as it should even though it's full on.

mavei++1-10-2011-22-06-47.jpg
 
Life without gas should end tomorrow

The plumber came over today,found and repaired 3 gas leaks in our attic,installed a new ball valve on the dryer line, and a new flue on the furnace.Everything's now repaired and up to code. The inspection (done by dept.of inspection and code enforcement)should be tomorrow. They will call and let us know when he is coming over. Upon completion,the inspector will notify the gas company to turn on the gas. The gas serviceman also has to change the meter and fittings because they're near the end of their life.

Total cost(including $380.00 inspection fee)$823.00. Well within budget.

Marc
 
You see those bathroom heaters in houses all over the place down here.
About 10 years ago we lost a good friend due to one of those.
He turned his bathroom heater on and got in the bath to relax.
His wife found him in the morning, dead in the tub. Cause?
Carbon Monoxide poisoning. Seems a bird built a nest in the outside vent to the heater, causing the fumes to come inside.
 

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