Naples and Collier County
If you smell gas, this page is not the first thing to do
Leave the building. Do not touch a switch, a phone or a door opener on the way out. Call from outside.
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A gas smell indicates a leak and is an emergency. The correct sequence is to leave immediately without operating any electrical device, avoid anything that could create a spark, and call the gas utility from outside the building. Utilities respond to reported gas leaks without charge.
What to do, in order
Everything else on this page can wait.
Leave the building immediately and take everyone with you. Do not switch anything on or off — a light switch, a fan, a garage door opener — because an electrical contact can produce the spark that a gas leak needs.
Do not use a phone inside the building. Do not light anything. Do not attempt to locate the leak or to shut off an internal valve if doing so means staying inside.
Once outside and clear, call the gas utility. Reported leaks are responded to as emergencies, and the utility makes the building safe before anyone else works on it. A plumbing contractor is the second call, not the first.
Why gas work is permitted and inspected
It is not the same category as a leaking tap.
Gas piping is regulated separately from general plumbing. Work is permitted, pressure tested and inspected before being put back into service, and that sequence exists because the failure mode is not a puddle.
A Florida plumbing contractor licence does not automatically extend to gas work. Whether a specific contractor may perform it depends on the scope of their licence, and that is a fair and normal thing to ask before engaging anyone.
You can verify any Florida contractor licence yourself through the Department of Business and Professional Regulation public licence search, and the licence number must appear in every advertisement under Florida Statute 489.119(5)(b).
Common reasons a gas line needs work
Mostly additions and corrosion.
Adding an appliance — a range, a pool heater, an outdoor kitchen, a generator — where the existing supply cannot carry the additional demand. Undersized supply presents as appliances that underperform when several run together.
Corrosion on exposed exterior runs, which in coastal Southwest Florida is accelerated by salt air alongside the humidity that affects everything else here.
Physical damage from landscaping, construction or settlement, and connections that have loosened over time at appliance shutoffs and flexible connectors.
What not to do yourself
Two things in particular.
Do not use a soapy-water test as reassurance. It can confirm a leak at a fitting but it cannot rule one out elsewhere, and a negative result on one joint says nothing about the rest of the run.
Do not reconnect or extend gas piping with hardware store fittings. Gas connections use specific materials, thread compounds rated for gas, and a pressure test before commissioning, and none of those is a matter of care and attention alone.
And do not leave a suspected leak until it is convenient. Gas accumulates in enclosed space, which is why the sequence at the top of this page is not a formality.
Questions about this work
Direct answers, no sales pitch.
JAMIE KLONCZ · GREAT HERON PLUMBING ONLINE Pick a question on the left, or search above. You will get the direct answer, the way an answer engine would give it.
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