Gas Line Repair in Gresham, OR
46% of households in Gresham heat with utility gas, which means a buried service line runs from the street to a meter on most of these properties. Where that line ends is a federal definition, and it decides who repairs what.
Read this first
Responsibility changes hands at the meter outlet. The line under the ground between the street and the meter is the utility's up to that point, and the yard line and house piping after it are the property owner's. 46% of homes in Gresham heat with utility gas.
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 Gresham is supplied
Everything upstream of the meter outlet is the operator’s service line under 49 CFR § 192.3. Everything after it is customer piping under local code. That single point is what a contractor establishes before quoting.
It is also why the answer to "is this my problem" is sometimes no, and why it is worth asking before assuming it is yes.
| Households in Gresham | Share |
|---|---|
| Utility (mains) gas | 46% |
| Bottled or tank propane | 1% |
| Electricity | 51% |
| Fuel oil and kerosene | under 1% |
| Wood and everything else | 1% |
Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, table B25040 (house heating fuel), 2023 release. Universe: 32,249 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 Oregon as a whole, 44% of households are on mains gas and 2% on tank propane. Gresham sits about level with the state on mains and about level with it on propane. That spread is what a state average hides, and it is why this page carries the town’s own figures rather than inheriting them.
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
If any part of the job is in the ground, ask when they are calling 8-1-1 and whether a private line may be in the way. Both answers should come before the excavation, not during it.
Other Oregon towns we route in
- Rainier 12% mains gas · 3% tank propane
- Newberg 34% mains gas · 4% tank propane
- The Dalles 14% mains gas · 1% tank propane
- Dallas 38% mains gas · 1% tank propane
- Tygh Valley 0% mains gas · 5% tank propane
Checking a plumber in Oregon
Oregon licenses are issued by the Oregon Building Codes Division, Department of Consumer and Business Services, which publishes a public search you can use before work begins. Plumbing businesses in Oregon must also hold a Construction Contractors Board license, which is a separate search.
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. Non-emergency work in Gresham goes through this number as well.
Call (888) 752-8038