Gas Line Repair in Alfred, ME
18% of households in Alfred heat with bottled or tank propane. On propane there is no utility service line and no meter boundary — the tank, the regulator and the buried run to the house are all the property owner’s.
Read this first
No regulated utility service line is involved where the gas comes out of a tank, and 18% of homes in Alfred run on propane. The tank and the buried line from it are governed by the supply agreement rather than by a meter boundary, which changes who is responsible for what.
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 Alfred is supplied
A tank, a regulator, and buried line between them and the house. All of it is the property owner’s, and none of it sits under the federal service line definition that governs a mains connection.
That makes the buried run private buried line — which is exactly the sort a standard locate may not mark before somebody digs.
| Households in Alfred | Share |
|---|---|
| Utility (mains) gas | 1% |
| Bottled or tank propane | 18% |
| Electricity | 4% |
| Fuel oil and kerosene | 69% |
| Wood and everything else | 8% |
Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, table B25040 (house heating fuel), 2023 release. Universe: 3,123 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 Maine as a whole, 5% of households are on mains gas and 16% on tank propane. Alfred sits 4 points below the state on mains and about level with it on propane. The state number would tell you something true about the state and very little about here, which is why it is not the number above.
Before anyone digs on the property
A locate before digging is free, and PHMSA is unambiguous about the value — excavation damage is the leading cause of pipeline incidents and calling 8-1-1 first avoids one 99 times in a hundred. The gap to ask about is private buried line, which a standard locate may not mark.
Source: PHMSA, 811 Day.
What to ask whoever quotes it
Ask what they will do about the existing load. Adding an appliance changes what the existing pipe has to deliver, and sizing is a calculation against the whole system rather than the new run alone.
Other Maine towns we route in
- Kennebunkport 0% mains gas · 21% tank propane
- York 3% mains gas · 19% tank propane
- Wells 1% mains gas · 22% tank propane
- Kittery 6% mains gas · 21% tank propane
- Biddeford 6% mains gas · 13% tank propane
Checking a plumber in Maine
Maine licenses are issued by the Maine Plumbers' Examining Board, Office of Professional and Occupational Regulation, 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. Gas is one part of what Alfred calls us about.
Call (888) 752-8038