Gas Line Repair in Ararat, VA
Gas reaches 4% of households in Ararat. Where it is present it works the same way as anywhere; there is simply much less of it here than in most of the country.
Read this first
Gas of any kind reaches only 4% of households in Ararat, so most homes there have no gas line at all. Where one exists it is more often a tank than a main, which puts the installation on the property rather than behind a meter.
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 Ararat is supplied
A town with little gas still has gas somewhere, and the arrangement matters just as much on the properties that have it. What changes is how many contractors nearby work on it regularly.
That is worth knowing when you are choosing one: ask how much gas work they actually do, not just whether they can.
| Households in Ararat | Share |
|---|---|
| Utility (mains) gas | 1% |
| Bottled or tank propane | 4% |
| Electricity | 73% |
| Fuel oil and kerosene | 14% |
| Wood and everything else | 9% |
Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, table B25040 (house heating fuel), 2023 release. Universe: 959 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 Virginia as a whole, 45% of households are on mains gas and 3% on tank propane. Ararat sits 45 points below the state on mains and about level with it on propane. That is the gap a statewide number papers over, and the reason the figures above are this town’s rather than the state’s.
Before anyone digs on the property
The single most dangerous thing most people will ever do to a gas line is put a spade through it. PHMSA calls excavation damage the leading cause of pipeline incidents; 8-1-1 is a nationwide toll-free number to call before any excavation, and calling it gives a 99 percent chance of avoiding an incident.
Source: PHMSA, 811 Day.
What to ask whoever quotes it
Ask which side of the meter the work is on before anything else. On the utility side it may not be a contractor job at all, and a quote that has not established that has not established whose problem it is.
Other Virginia towns we route in
- Check 5% mains gas · 7% tank propane
- Manassas 49% mains gas · 3% tank propane
- Clifton 59% mains gas · 5% tank propane
- Alexandria 51% mains gas · 1% tank propane
- Spencer 0% mains gas · 5% tank propane
Checking a plumber in Virginia
Virginia licenses are issued by the Virginia Department 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. We serve Ararat for plumbing that has nothing to do with gas.
Call (888) 752-8038