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Gas Line Repair in Salem, MA
Most of Salem is on the gas main: 56% of households. That means a meter on the wall and a service line under the ground, and a boundary between them that federal rules put in a specific place.
Read this first
The utility's regulated line ends at the meter outlet and the piping beyond it belongs to the property owner. That boundary decides most gas line questions in Salem, where 56% of households heat with utility gas and a buried service line runs from the street on most properties.
Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey table B25040; the service line boundary is 49 CFR § 192.3.
If you smell gas right now
Leave the building on foot. Do not use a phone or a light switch inside. Call 911 and your gas utility from somewhere else, and do not call us — we are a referral service, not an emergency line. The full list, in order.
How Salem is supplied
49 CFR § 192.3 fixes the end of the service line at the meter outlet. It is a precise answer to a narrow question, and it is not the same as who is responsible for repairs, which varies by utility and by state.
Establishing which side of the meter a fault is on is the first thing any contractor should do, because it decides whether they are the right person to call.
| Households in Salem | Share |
|---|---|
| Utility (mains) gas | 56% |
| Bottled or tank propane | 2% |
| Electricity | 23% |
| Fuel oil and kerosene | 18% |
| Wood and everything else | 2% |
Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, table B25040 (house heating fuel), 2023 release. Universe: 19,709 occupied housing units. The table counts heating fuel rather than pipework. A house on mains gas almost certainly has a service line; the Census does not say so directly and neither do we. Service line definition: 49 CFR § 192.3, via PHMSA interpretation PI-12-0003.
Across Massachusetts as a whole, 56% of households are on mains gas and 4% on tank propane. Salem sits about level with the state on mains and 2 points below it on propane. A state figure would flatten exactly that difference, which is the reason these pages are built town by town instead.
Before anyone digs on the property
Digging is the risk, not age or material. PHMSA names excavation damage as the leading cause of pipeline incidents and puts a caller’s chance of avoiding one at 99 percent. 8-1-1 is nationwide, toll-free, and costs nothing.
Source: PHMSA, 811 Day.
What to ask whoever quotes it
Ask whether the job needs a permit and who is pulling it. Gas work is separately permitted in most jurisdictions and the answer should not be you.
Other Massachusetts towns we route in
- Marshfield 63% mains gas · 2% tank propane
- Middleton 39% mains gas · 11% tank propane
- Wellesley 62% mains gas · 2% tank propane
- Watertown 69% mains gas · 4% tank propane
- Westwood 50% mains gas · 7% tank propane
Checking a plumber in Massachusetts
Massachusetts licenses are issued by the Massachusetts Board of State Examiners of Plumbers and Gas Fitters, which publishes a public search you can use before work begins.
Gas work is separately permitted and separately licensed in most jurisdictions, so ask specifically about gas rather than plumbing in general.
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. Any Salem job, gas or otherwise, is routed from here.
Call (888) 752-8038