Gas Line Repair in Brooklyn, NY
In Brooklyn, 73% of homes are on mains gas. Every one of them has a service line under the ground between the street and the meter, and part of it belongs to somebody else.
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 Brooklyn, where 73% 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 Brooklyn 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 Brooklyn | Share |
|---|---|
| Utility (mains) gas | 73% |
| Bottled or tank propane | 3% |
| Electricity | 13% |
| Fuel oil and kerosene | 7% |
| Wood and everything else | 4% |
Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, table B25040 (house heating fuel), 2023 release. Universe: 1,009,555 occupied housing units. B25040 records what heats the house, which is the best available guide to whether a property has mains gas or a tank — it does not count service lines directly. Service line definition: 49 CFR § 192.3, via PHMSA interpretation PI-12-0003.
Across New York as a whole, 61% of households are on mains gas and 3% on tank propane. Brooklyn sits 12 points above the state on mains and 1 point below 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 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 New York towns we route in
- Rifton 0% mains gas · 8% tank propane
- Mount Kisco 43% mains gas · 5% tank propane
- Bearsville 5% mains gas · 19% tank propane
- Pennellville 48% mains gas · 32% tank propane
- Sound Beach 11% mains gas · 3% tank propane
Checking a plumber in New York
New York issues no state plumbing license. New York City licenses Master and Journeyman Plumbers through the Department of Buildings; elsewhere in the state it is your own city, town or county. Start here. Ask the contractor which municipality licenses them and confirm it with that office 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 Brooklyn calls us about.
Call (888) 752-8038