Leave First, Then Call
If you smell gas, get everyone out of the house immediately. Do not flip a light switch, use a phone indoors, or search for the source with a lighter. If you can reach the meter without lingering, shut it off with a wrench, a quarter turn so the valve sits crosswise to the pipe. Call Xcel Energy from outside, then call (303) 552-3896. Only Xcel can restore service to the meter once a repair is complete, which is why we coordinate with them directly rather than around them.
Why Boulder Gas Lines Fail
The steel gas lines running to Boulder's older homes near Downtown Boulder and Mapleton Hill are often the same age as the copper supply lines now developing pinhole leaks throughout the same blocks, decades in the ground with appliance connectors that have long outlived their rated service life unnoticed. Boulder's freeze-thaw cycles and shifting soils work joints and fittings loose over time, the same slow mechanical stress that eventually opens a water pipe.
What Finding the Leak Looks Like
Once Xcel confirms it is safe to proceed, we pressure-test the line in sections and use a combustible gas detector along every joint, union, and appliance connection rather than relying on smell alone, which is unreliable outdoors and misleading indoors near several appliances. Buried yard lines get traced with the same acoustic methods we use to find buried water leaks, marking the failure point instead of trenching the whole run blind.
Common Failure Points
Flexible appliance connectors to a stove, dryer, or water heater have a service life, and a common failure point is a fixture swapped with the old connector reused. Meter sets on older homes sometimes carry thread sealant never rated for current line pressure. Buried steel service lines corrode in the ground the same way anywhere else, showing up as a smell in the yard or dead grass in a straight line. Repairs beyond a simple connector swap are permitted work, and we pull those permits so the fix is documented and inspected.
We carry gas detection equipment on every truck across Boulder and the surrounding county through (303) 552-3896.