Gas Leaks In Homes

You can live in a house for years and never suspect a thing, then an inspector walks in, runs a combustible gas detector along a fitting, and finds a leak you cannot see and might not smell. Jim and Laura break down what that moment really means for homeowners and buyers, and why propane and natural gas leaks show up so often during real home inspections in Ohio. We get specific about how gas leak detection works, why soap-bubble testing can miss small leaks, and why a previous utility check does not always tell the whole story.

We also lay out a clear, practical “severity ladder” you can remember. If the only way to find the leak is putting the detector right on the joint, it is usually a fix-it item, not a panic moment. If you smell gas after opening a furnace room or heading into the basement, that is when we pick up the phone and recommend a plumber right away while airing things out safely. And if you smell gas at the front door, we talk about why you should not be flipping switches, why sparks matter, and what the next step should be.

Then we switch to a different kind of gas entirely: radon. We explain why radon testing still matters even when a mitigation system is installed, plus the real failures we see in the field, from bad installs to fans that are “running” but not actually moving air, to pipes set too low and sucking water. If you care about home safety, home maintenance, and making confident decisions during a real estate transaction, this conversation is built for you. Subscribe for more inspection insights, share this with a homeowner who needs it, and leave a review with your biggest question about gas leaks or radon.

Transcript

Propane Vs Natural Gas Basics

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Alright everybody. Jim and Laura here.

SPEAKER_02 0:04

Hello everyone.

SPEAKER_01 0:06

A lot of houses, at least a lot of houses here in Ohio, they have uh gas for heating, water heaters, things like that.

SPEAKER_02 0:16

Gas stoves.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

Gas stoves. Propane or natural gas. Typically propane's more out in the country, and then natural gas is more in the city where you got the all the gas

How Gas Leak Detection Works

SPEAKER_01 0:26

lines going. But we will on some of our inspections do uh gas leak detection. Yes. Where we take a combustible gas detector and use it to sniff along the gas lines looking for lease. And Laura, and and you probably have a better gas than most people, but what percentage of homes you think actually have a small gas leak that we find?

SPEAKER_02 0:55

70 to 80 percent. Not joking. Really?

SPEAKER_01 1:01

You think it's that high?

SPEAKER_02 1:02

I think it's that high.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

I was thinking like 30.

SPEAKER_02 1:04

No, I think I'm not saying they're huge, but we find gas leaks in a lot of the houses that we inspect.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

Every week there's a gas leak somewhere.

SPEAKER_02 1:15

Every week we're we're getting something with the gas leak. So I I will have to admit I haven't gone through and and checked how many gas leak um we get added on to the orders versus how many don't. But I I'm thinking it's it's a very high number. And it may not like be huge, and like the the one we had last week, the inspector walked in and smelled gas right away, and he just pulled out the gas detector because it was that bad.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

Yeah, but I want to talk about I I know I did the number one long time ago, and it was like 25% of the houses at least a small

Three Leak Levels And Responses

SPEAKER_01 1:51

leak. So it and even and one time we I did an inspection on the house, they had been vacant. This is like 2008, 2009, where they a lot of vacant houses. They turn the gas and power back on, and the gas company checks for leaks before they turn the power turn the gas back on because it's been vacant for a little while. They turn it back on, they found no leaks. I found four little leaks in this place. So just because it was looked at by somebody else, that does not mean there's no leaks in it at all.

SPEAKER_02 2:23

And I don't know what equipment they use. Why why wouldn't theirs be as sensitive as ours? Like, and that's not the first time that's happened, and it's not been the last.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

A lot of them will just use that soap solution.

SPEAKER_02 2:35

It's just soap, like if it's that small, it's not going to pop a bubble.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

It won't blow a bubble very quickly, but you also have to make sure you get the soap on the correct spot.

SPEAKER_02 2:45

Right.

SPEAKER_01 2:46

So when we do we have a combustible gas leak detector that sniffs the kind of makes it sniffs the air where we put that tip, and it can pick up the gap the combustible gases.

SPEAKER_02 2:57

Right.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

So that's how R works. Because the soap, it works, but you gotta first you gotta make sure you can see that side that has the where it's gonna maybe form a bubble, and you gotta make sure you spray it on and everything. So, but anyway, so gas leaks, they're common, not unusual. We kind of set some rules that we'll be going over the inspectors other next next time with me with it. Just remind them that uh if you find a gas leak, but you don't find it like you you smell it. Well, well let's do let's go easiest to worst. Okay. Let's say you don't find the gas leak until you put your detector right up to it.

SPEAKER_02 3:39

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Okay. That that is a small leak. Right. Not I mean, is it a safety issue? Yeah. How long would it take for the a tiny thing to fill the room up to cause explosion? Probably a long time.

SPEAKER_02 3:56

So you've got time to get it fixed, is what he's saying.

SPEAKER_01 3:59

So we can't find let's use the detector. Cool, get it fixed. Not a real big deal.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

Now the next next level is Habitation investigation is the way to go.

When To Call And When To Exit

SPEAKER_00 4:12

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SPEAKER_01 4:32

We go in the house, everything's fine. We go down the basement, open the room that has the furnace in there. Bam, we smell gas. Didn't even get the detector out, we smelled it. Okay, that one we're gonna call the list agent and let them know there's a leak there.

SPEAKER_02 4:49

They need to get a plumber out to fix it.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

Yeah, because all they need is tighten up the pipes. Maybe take them off, put a new putty on or whatever, but seal those pipes back up. So that one we're gonna make a phone call. Hey, she knows a gas leak here. And then what I would do is usually I kind of air that air air area out a little bit, air it out, and you can continue like normally would.

SPEAKER_02 5:10

Now, question that would impact a radon test, airing that out.

SPEAKER_01 5:15

So well, what it was should yes. If if I dilute it with outside air, I would probably turn on the fan and just spread it, spread it out so thin, it's never gonna be an issue. It's in the house already. Right. I just diluted it a ton. But even then, it's not likely to cause any kind of issue. Now, if we get to a house, open the front door, and we smell it. No. No, we're gonna.

SPEAKER_02 5:43

Because we've had that.

SPEAKER_01 5:45

Yep, I've had that. We're not gonna be going into the house. Probably not gonna turn on any light switches because we don't need sparks.

SPEAKER_02 5:52

Sparks would not be your friend.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

That was one we immediately called the listening age and go, hey, it seems like there's a pretty large gas leak here.

SPEAKER_02 6:00

Someone needs to fix it. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 6:02

Now, are we gonna shut the gas off? No.

Real World Reporting And Agent Reactions

SPEAKER_01 6:06

Nope. Because if we wow. First of all, if it's a small gas leak and we shut the gas off to the whole house, it's winter time. You might freeze pipes, cause more damage. If it's a small gas leak, it's not gonna cause issues in the first place. So that's not our call to make. Now, if there was a gas big gas leak at a say a gas fireplace, there's a control knob right there. That doesn't affect the entire house. That one, we could possibly do that one. But if it's leaking at that valve, uh no, you might make the leak worse by turning the turning the valve.

SPEAKER_02 6:41

Right.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

So that's kind of what we do with it for the gas leaks. Should expect it to be in the house fairly often. Not every house, but it it does show up consistently, like I don't know, 20 to 70 percent is our range, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:58

Yeah, I I and I don't know. I I just know every week we I see something about gas leaks.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

Wow, it may be, yeah, it's probably more along the 25% with the number of houses that we do. Because if it's just a small gas leak only detected by the detector next to it, I'm not calling the office. I'm putting in the notes. Because it's not it's not a severe deal. And also, we've had real estate agents when we call and tell them about the little gas leak, they're annoyed.

SPEAKER_02 7:31

Yeah, we don't we don't do the little ones anymore, we just do the big ones.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

Because because they they would get pissed at us for calling, and then others would like throw fit. We don't talk about the little ones.

SPEAKER_02 7:41

So something policy.

SPEAKER_01 7:43

I think that has to deal with the uh agents' own paranoia about gas. Because I had I did an inspection one time. This lady who was not gonna buy the house because they had a gas cook stove, she realized she was not comfortable with gas. Fortunately, this place already had an electrical line hook up behind the gas stove. And I looked and saw that you just pull this out, you got electric hookup. She was like, Oh, so that's faved up. Yeah, that's fake that aspect I'll saved it for. But gas leaks, they can be a big deal, but typically they're not a big deal.

SPEAKER_02 8:20

No, everything is repairable. Like, and and a gas leak isn't gonna be that expensive to fix.

SPEAKER_01 8:26

No, no, no, just have a plumber come out. Correct. All right, anything else you can think about this one, Laura?

Radon Systems Can Still Fail

SPEAKER_02 8:34

I don't think so.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

Now the now gas leaks, radon leaks, totally different gas. So you need that you should do both tests, especially especially they do not have even they do have a radon system already, because those have failed. We have found houses with active radon systems that have high radon because of some other home improvements that were done that were not correct, not should not have been done in the first place. Or the fans failed. We have seen that as well. Motors running, but the blades aren't spinning.

SPEAKER_02 9:05

We also saw one where they had the mitigation system and the pipe came down into the pit, but it was all the way down. So the fan was sucking up water and you could hear it gurgling. They needed to pick that pipe up so that the fan could actually suck and take all of the radon out. So, like that one needed some actual work.

SPEAKER_01 9:28

Could be a bad install.

SPEAKER_02 9:30

Could be a bad install.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

And and as inspectors, we see bad radon installs.

SPEAKER_02 9:34

Yes, yes, we do.

SPEAKER_01 9:35

And you, Laura, you are a licensed mitigator. You have the course and you know how they're supposed to be set up. So we often will verify with the Laura, hey, does this look right? It's like, nope. And we're like, all right, that's all we need.

SPEAKER_02 9:48

No, it does not.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

So it's not like our inspectors are just making up stuff. Like, right. No, we would we know and we verify with uh Laura, the licensed radon mitigator, even though we never do radon mitigation, we don't want to do that.

SPEAKER_02 10:03

I have no desire to do that.

SPEAKER_01 10:05

Nope. I don't believe it.

SPEAKER_02 10:06

I would need to go to work with the company to be able to really do that and and get practiced at it before. Because there was no practical in it. And I'm my my learning method is by doing, so I can't just it's not ro it's not rocket sized. No, but you just but like sitting here and and drilling through the concrete to get to the subslab and put the pipe in, or you know, using the sump pump. It's just a technical skill that you just need to learn how to do. And I would prefer to do that under somebody who's gonna train your competition.

SPEAKER_01 10:38

And as a light mitigator, you would not have to physically do that stuff yourself. That is true. You would just need to watch somebody go you have to go, yep, there's a hole through the slab, good enough. Good job. Oh, yep, you dug out a little bit of gravel. Okay, good.

SPEAKER_02 10:53

Keep that pipe up over that gravel so it doesn't fall in.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

Yeah, you could totally start your own radon mitigation company. Yeah. I but you wouldn't have to just just you just have to check on it. That's that's about it. So, anyway, that's it. Gas leaks, propane, natural gas, not uncommon.

Packages Discounts And Wrap Up

SPEAKER_02 11:12

We do have a basic protection package that has gas leak checking, termite, thermal imaging, and radon that a lot of people get. So when you're scheduling online, I would look for that, and then that'll cover.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

Yeah, that gives a little bit of a discount, also.

SPEAKER_02 11:27

It gives a bit of a discount for it.

SPEAKER_01 11:29

Those are things people need to know.

SPEAKER_02 11:31

Right. Like it's basic information.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

All right, that's it. Thank you, everybody. Bye. Bye bye.