Tracking down gas leaks and slab leaks in the Valley
Gas and water call for different searches. For gas, the plumber closes off one stretch of piping at a time, pressurizes it and reads the gauge; the stretch that drops is then checked fitting by fitting with an electronic combustible gas detector or a soap solution until one joint gives itself away. For water, the meter tells us whether anything moves while the house is idle. If it does, a thermal camera shows a leaking hot water line under tile or wood as a warm band, and a ground microphone hears the hiss of a cold line, and only that one spot of floor or wall gets opened.
The Valley has a hard lesson about gas. The Northridge earthquake struck the west Valley at 4:31 a.m. on January 17, 1994, with a magnitude of 6.7. The City counted 466 fires that day, most fires after the quake were in the Valley, and natural gas leaks were a principal cause. On Balboa Boulevard in Granada Hills, a broken gas main and two broken water mains led to a fire that destroyed five houses. Investigators found that most of the gas lines that broke were old steel pipe, while plastic held up. In ordinary years, most household gas leaks turn up in a short list of places: the fitting where the house line leaves the meter, a corrugated appliance connector that has been bent once too often, a furnace or water heater hookup, or an underground run feeding an outdoor grill or pool heater.
Water leaks follow the age of the plumbing. With 69 percent of homes on the Valley side of Los Angeles built before 1980, a lot of supply pipe has been carrying hot water for half a century, and if your house sits on a slab, as many postwar California tract houses do, some of it runs under the floor. LADWP maintains the service line and the meter; past the meter, the leak is the owner's to fix. Gas piping is C-36 plumbing work and sits squarely under our license. City rules add one more item: under LAMC 94.1217.0, Los Angeles requires a seismic gas shutoff valve or an excess flow valve on new buildings with gas piping permitted from September 1, 1995, on larger alterations and additions, whenever the gas meter is altered or replaced, and before a home is sold. A gas repair is done only when the section holds a pressure test, noted for your records, and it is permitted through LADBS in the City or through your own city where a permit applies. If SoCalGas has locked a meter, we repair and test the house side, and the utility sends its own person to restore service. Nothing begins until you approve the written estimate.
On every leak call
- The gas side and the water side both fall under our C-36 license, CSLB #1131308
- Water still escaping or a gas line needing repair gets our 24-hour emergency response
- A written repair price approved before anything is opened
- A written workmanship warranty covering the repair
Clues that something is leaking out of sight
- A rotten-egg smell near the range, dryer, water heater or gas meter
- A faint hiss close to a gas fitting
- Gas or water bills jumping while your habits have not changed
- The little leak dial on the water meter turning when nothing is on
- A warm streak across tile or wood, or carpet damp along one wall
- A red tag from SoCalGas on the meter or on an appliance
Outside first, then the phone
If it is gas, empty the house, phone SoCalGas or 911, and ring us once they are done. If it is water, shut the main. Someone picks up our line at any hour.
Closing in on the leak
Gauges isolate the section that is losing pressure. A thermal camera, a ground microphone, a gas detector or tracer gas then leads to the exact spot.
Fixed to code, tested again
Black iron or CSST replaces bad gas pipe and copper or PEX replaces bad water pipe, with a second gauge reading taken before walls or floors are closed.
Service restored, permit closed
SoCalGas turns the gas back on at the meter, the water is opened up again, and the permit closes with the inspector's signature.
Why the Valley calls us to find leaks
The C-36 license covers gas piping as well as water piping, which means one company can locate the leak, fix it, prove it with a test and carry it through the final inspection. Working from Canoga Park, we hold to four rules on these jobs.
Gas piping is C-36 work
Gas piping falls inside the state's C-36 plumbing class. When we replace a run, it is sized to carry every appliance on it, and we do not sign it off while the needle drifts.
The instrument that fits the pipe
A gauge for a gas section, a thermal camera for a hot water line under the floor, a ground microphone for a cold one, a combustible gas detector at the fittings and tracer gas for a line beneath the yard.
Earthquake valves and red tags
In the City, a seismic gas shutoff valve is required when the gas meter is altered or replaced and before a home is sold, and adding one the same size as the gas main is an LADBS Express Permit. A SoCalGas red tag gets the named problem corrected and the piping tested, so the utility finds the work done when it comes back.
Permits and inspections handled
Gas piping work in the City runs through LADBS, and each of the other cities issues its own permit. We book the inspection and get the final sign-off.
What makes one leak repair bigger than the next
Getting to the pipe sets the size. A worn connector behind a stove is a short job; gas pipe buried in a finished wall means opening and patching it. A floor over a crawl space lets us reach many lines from below. A slab is harder, and lifting tile or hardwood takes more care than pulling back carpet.
Then the amount of pipe and its route. Gas run underground to a grill or pool heater can mean digging. Under a slab there are two paths: cut a small hole in the concrete and repair the pipe where it failed, or retire that section and bring a replacement line overhead, dropping it into the rooms through the walls. Where the copper under the floor has already failed once, the overhead route usually pays for itself. Work at the gas meter can also trigger the City's earthquake valve rule, and some jobs add a permit, an inspection and SoCalGas coming back out.
Once we know where the leak is, you get a written price, and nothing is repaired until you say so.
Leak calls across the county
We are based in Canoga Park and answer gas and water leak calls from the Valley side of Los Angeles, the cities west and north of it, and the rest of the county's 88 cities.
Canoga Park and the west Valley
Hidden leaks in the walls and under the floors of ranch houses in Canoga Park, Winnetka, Reseda, West Hills and Woodland Hills, and gas connectors behind ranges and dryers in homes built in the 1950s and 1960s.
Granada Hills, Northridge and the rest of the Valley
Granada Hills, where a gas main broke under Balboa Boulevard in 1994, plus Northridge, Porter Ranch, Sylmar and the east Valley, with their aging gas piping, worn appliance connectors and hot water lines under the floor.
Hidden Hills, Calabasas, Agoura Hills and Westlake Village
Long water and gas service runs across one-acre Hidden Hills lots, and piping in the 1970s and 1980s homes of Calabasas, Agoura Hills and Westlake Village, all on SoCalGas and Las Virgenes water.
Malibu, Santa Clarita and the rest of the county
Malibu, where only SoCalGas restores gas service after a fire, Santa Clarita's Valencia, Saugus, Newhall and Canyon Country, and every other city in the county.
Gas and water leak questions
Leaving comes first. Do not flip a switch, start a car in the garage or do anything that could make a spark; once outside, phone SoCalGas or 911. Our work starts after the utility says the house is safe.
The rotten-egg odor is put into natural gas deliberately, because the gas itself is odorless. Treat even a hint of it as a leak until the piping holds pressure on a gauge.
You can check for a hidden water leak yourself. Shut off every faucet, toilet, appliance and the sprinklers (in the City they may only run on your watering days and never from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.), then watch the meter. That meter is LADWP's in the City, Las Virgenes' in Hidden Hills, Calabasas, Agoura Hills and Westlake Village, District 29's in Malibu and SCV Water's in Santa Clarita. If the dial or leak indicator moves, water is escaping somewhere, and in a house built on a slab, buried copper heads the list of suspects.
Inside the City, most gas piping repairs are permitted through LADBS; elsewhere your own city issues the permit. The filing, the inspection visit and the closing of the permit are part of our job.
A red tag stays on until the condition it names is fixed. The fix and the test are our part. Relighting is SoCalGas's job, done on a visit the utility books.
24/7 Emergency Plumbing
Ceiling leaks, burst hoses and backups, answered at any hour.
Drain Cleaning & Hydro Jetting
Kitchen lines and laterals cleared, then checked on camera.
Water Heater Repair & Installation
Gas tank heaters connected, vented and held by two straps.
Sewer Repair & Repiping
Laterals repaired to the main and worn supply lines replaced.
Smell gas: leave first, then call
Out of the house, then SoCalGas or 911, then us once the utility says the house is safe. Running water from a hidden leak is a 24-hour emergency response call too, in the Valley or in any other city of Los Angeles County.