customer wants to know until we find minor gas leak is it safe to breathe...to be in house

Joseph_4

Hi all (I'm hoping Tim will see this)
I have a customer who had a gas smell near the gas meter room. He called me and I found a decent size leak which was in the room and fixed it. It was late at night. The half cubic foot dial has 10 notches on it. I noticed even after I fixed the first leak, when I performed a dial test on the half cubic foot dial it moves forward one of the notches in 90 seconds.
He has 3 floors in his house and I wasn't going to start breaking walls as I sprayed leak detector on all the easily accessible places (behind appliances etc..) and didn't find any leak. I told him lets wait till am. By the morning, he no longer had a gas smell. I'm assuming the leak I fixed caused the smell...but, he clearly has a leak that needs to be found.
My question is if I do the math. his leak is 1/10 of 1/2 cubic foot 0r 1/20th a cubic foot every 90 seconds.

If that leak is behind a wall... or so small that he doesn't smell anything anywhere in the house. Is it safe to be in the house?. Is there a rate of dissipation into the air that at that point its not hazardous?
Thanks
Joe

STEVEusaPA

I would've shut the gas off. You have no idea if your calculation is correct and where/how much gas is accumulating. Just because you can't smell it doesn't mean it's not accumulating somewhere and at a high level.
I would get a good leak detection analyzer and call the gas company.
BTW, what was leaking. Could be a sign of more leaks in the near future

SWEI

NFW I would leave that job without locking out the meter. Our liability insurance is expensive enough without any claims.

Joseph_4

Not sure why the calculation would be wrong. That is why there are different dials. If you can't rely on the meter then you can never clock a meter either to find if it's burning the proper BTUs
Joe

Jamie Hall

Shut off the gas. Use the outside breaker to shut off the electricity. Everybody out until someone can verify the the gas piping is tight.

aircooled81

Are pressurizing his whole entire gas loop in the house?
By any chance did you cap every single gas cock? My expierience is gas valves to appliances don't hold pressure well, I'd suggest capping all the gas caulks before you run around trying to find another leak, if you haven't already.

Larry Weingarten

Hello: Are you sure the leak isn't in the supply to the house? Two approaches come to mind. One is to call someone who has a lot of leak detection equipment and the second is to get an ultrasonic detector, which is good for finding all sorts of small leaks. Also, I've found I can find small leaks with a gas sniffer that will not show up with soap.

Yours, Larry

Tinman

One of the first things I was taught was to CYA.
Err on the side of caution.
Shut it down.
Call the gas company.

JUGHNE

Does the gas supply come in thru the basement wall below grade? If so the odor may be from the gas that is not passing thru the meter but from an UG leak and coming thru the wall.

I would call the gas company. There has been some tragic and fatal results from gas service lines that do not "break ground" before entering the building.

Joseph_4

I appreciate everyone's input
Thanks
Joe

lchmb

is it possible to break off individual lines inside to id which line is leaking? Shut all appliances off...disconnect the meter and use a guage... I deal with LP and we are not allowed to leave any indication of a leak. I have spent hours chasing the smallest leak that would never cause an issue except ruin my sleep if I didnt find it...

Steamhead

Did you check to see if any appliances in the house have standing pilots? Most of the ones we see are on water heaters. These can consume enough gas to cause the dial to move like that.

JUGHNE

Also gas ranges, some have 2 cook top pilots, one could be out causing the smell and meter flow.

Tim McElwain

I assume from what I read here that this is a single meter serving the entire house? There are two tests you can run. One is a tight test using the 1/2 foot dial on the meter. Shut of all the pilots in the building and mark the test dial, check back in 5 minutes and see if there is movement, if so you have a leak. Now if you can begin to isolate one appliance at a time. If after isolating all the appliance s by shutting of gas cocks ahead of the appliances and you still have movement then you have a leak in the piping system. Then it is soap and water on all joints until you find the leak.

You can also use a manometer connected in the system at a convenient location. Then shut of the meter gas cock and watch the manometer, if you lose pressure you have a leak. Again by process of elimination try to find it.