If you smell gas, do not use this site. Leave the building on foot, do not use a phone, a light switch or anything else that could ignite, and call 911 and your gas utility from somewhere else. Do not call us — we are a referral service and we are not an emergency line. What to do, in order.

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Before You Dig

PHMSA describes excavation damage as the leading cause of pipeline incidents. It is also the one with the simplest prevention in the whole subject.

Read this first

PHMSA identifies excavation damage as the leading cause of pipeline incidents, and says calling 811 before digging gives a 99 percent chance of avoiding it. The call is free, it is required in most places, and it applies to hand digging too.

Source: PHMSA, 811 Day.

GaslineSafe is a referral service, not a contractor and not an emergency service. If you suspect a leak, leave and call 911 and your gas utility — not us. Otherwise we connect homeowners with independent contractors. Contractors are required to hold whatever credential their state or municipality demands, and gas work is separately licensed in most of them; every state page sets out who licenses plumbers there and where to check. We carry out no work, we do not set prices, and we never charge homeowners anything — the contractors in our network pay us when we route them a call.

The number, and what it is worth

8-1-1 is a nationwide toll-free number to call before any excavation project. PHMSA puts the effect plainly: someone who calls 8-1-1 before they dig has a 99 percent chance of avoiding an incident, injury, harm to the environment and even death.

It costs nothing and it applies to a fence post as much as a foundation.

Source: PHMSA, 811 Day.

Why this is the biggest single risk

PHMSA states that excavation damage "remains the leading cause of pipeline incidents". Not corrosion, not age, not material — somebody digging.

That reframes the whole subject. The most dangerous thing most people will ever do to a gas line is put a spade through it while planting something.

What a locate will and will not cover

Ask your 811 center what they mark. Utility-owned lines are the core of it; privately owned buried lines on your own side of the meter frequently are not, and those are exactly the runs to a garage, a grill or a pool heater that the property owner owns.

If a private line may be in the ground, say so when you call, and ask what your options are for having it located.

If you hit something

Stop, leave the area on foot, and follow the emergency steps — including not using a phone until you are somewhere else. A struck line is a leak whether or not you can smell one, and a scraped coating that does not leak today is still damage that has to be reported.

For repair work, not for a suspected leak.If you can smell gas, leave and call 911 or your utility from outside; this is the wrong number for that. For everything else — a line, a meter, an appliance connection — we will route you to a contractor covering your area, free of charge to you. Gas work heads this site; other plumbing is handled too.

Call (888) 752-8038
Call (888) 752-8038