Every home and business owner who has gas lines in their building should know about some of the most common problems these systems face. Natural gas is an accessible and useful resource for many commercial and domestic applications. However, it can also be very dangerous for people, animals, and property when it’s not contained within the proper infrastructure. Installing gas detectors in key locations is a recommended safety measure in buildings of any size.
1. Line Obstructions
The most obvious sign of a major line obstruction is that your heater or appliances just don’t work. Depending on their size and location, blockages might cause a complete system failure or only lead to intermittent and local problems. Once you’ve verified that your gas line supply is active and that the appliances are working fine, then a blockage is the likely suspect behind poor performance.
Finding and addressing gas line obstructions can be difficult and dangerous. It’s also important to investigate the underlying cause of the problem to prevent it from happening again in the near future. Aging gas lines and those made from copper often need to be replaced to ensure safe operation.
2. Interior Gas Leaks
Even a tiny crack is enough to allow gas to escape from the lines and contaminate the living spaces throughout a building. There are potentially serious consequences to short- and long-term exposure to gas, which is why it’s treated to have a distinct sulfur or rotten egg odor as a safety mechanism. If you ever catch a whiff of this kind of smell in your home, it should be a red flag that you might have a gas leak.
If you don’t have detectors around your home, then house plants are usually the first obvious indication of unhealthy gas levels. Many types of house plants will wither and eventually die when exposed to gas leaks. Progressive symptoms that include headaches are among the initial health indications in people suffering from exposure to unhealthy concentrations of gas.
3. Inefficiency and Usage Increase
One of the reasons why you should retain gas bills is to compare them from year to year. This helps you spot sudden spikes in usage rates from the same month in different years. An unexplained increase in consumption is one of the only visible symptoms of gas leaks in remote parts of the system. They could otherwise go unnoticed.
Get Gas Line Solutions That Work
The best solutions are the ones that are based on accurate information and tailored to meet the needs of the client. That’s why Flatirons Plumbing offers a full range of gas line services to our clients in Arvada, CO, including maintenance, repair, and installation, so call us today.
