Hot Water Systems
Gas storage, continuous flow, electric, solar and heat pump systems across the Perth metro.
Learn more →If you can smell gas right now
Stop reading in a moment and do this.
Do not touch a light switch, a power point, an extraction fan, a garage door remote or a phone inside the building. An electrical arc is an ignition source.
Open the doors and windows on your way through. Turn the appliance off. If the isolation valve at the meter or the bottle is safely reachable, turn the supply off there.
Get everyone outside. If the smell is strong, if you hear gas escaping, or if anyone feels dizzy or unwell, leave the property and do not go back in.
Call the gas network emergency line — the number is on your gas bill and on the meter box, and it is staffed twenty-four hours. If there is any risk to life, call 000.
The repair comes after the escape is made safe, not instead of it.
What we do once it is safe
A gas leak repair starts with a pressure test of the installation. The supply is isolated, the system is pressurised, and the drop over time tells you whether there is an escape and roughly how large it is. Then the installation is worked through section by section and appliance by appliance until the source is identified.
Common findings: a perished flexible connector behind a cooker or a dryer, a loosened threaded joint, a regulator past its service life, corroded external pipework — particularly on coastal properties — and on LPG, a failing changeover regulator or bottle connection.
The repair itself is usually small. The test that finds it is the work.
Carbon monoxide is a different hazard
Not every gas problem smells. An unflued or poorly flued gas appliance, or a heater burning incompletely, can produce carbon monoxide, which is colourless and odourless. The warning signs are physical rather than sensory: headaches, nausea or drowsiness that improve when you leave the house and return when you come back, and a burner flame that is yellow and lazy rather than crisp and blue.
If that describes your situation, stop using the appliance and have it checked. Old gas space heaters in older homes are the usual context.
Preventing the next one
Flexible appliance connectors have a service life and perish, particularly behind an oven where they cook slowly for years. External pipework near the coast corrodes — in suburbs like Rockingham and Scarborough the salt air is doing work on anything unprotected.
Redundant gas points left live behind a cupboard when an appliance was removed are a genuine risk and should be capped properly. That is straightforward gas fitting work and worth doing the next time someone is on site.
If the appliance in question is your water heater, the hot water repairs page covers pilot, thermocouple and gas valve faults that present as a unit that will not stay lit.
More services
Explore our other services
Hot Water Installation
Like-for-like swaps, relocations and changeovers between gas, electric and heat pump.
Learn more →Hot Water Repairs
Elements, thermostats, thermocouples, anodes and tempering valves — repaired where repair is honest.
Learn more →Emergency Hot Water Replacement
Same-day changeover when a cylinder splits or an old unit stops for good.
Learn more →Blocked Drains
Jetting, electric eel and CCTV for sewer, stormwater and kitchen waste blockages.
Learn more →Burst and Leaking Pipes
Copper pin-holing, poly joint failures and slab leaks isolated and repaired.
Learn more →Leak Detection
Finding the leak behind a rising Water Corporation bill before anyone digs.
Learn more →Gas Fitting
Bayonets, cooktops, gas points and appliance connections on mains gas or LPG.
Learn more →Taps and Toilets
Dripping taps, running cisterns, mixer cartridges and toilet suite replacements.
Learn more →Backflow Prevention
Testable backflow devices installed and tested to keep your supply separate from the main.
Learn more →General Plumbing
The everyday work — renovations, relocations, roof plumbing and maintenance.
Learn more →
FAQs
Frequently asked questions
What should I do if I can smell gas inside the house?
Do not operate any electrical switch, appliance or phone inside. Open doors and windows. Turn off the appliance and, if you can do it safely, the gas at the meter or bottle. Get everyone outside. If the smell is strong or you feel unwell, leave the building entirely and call from outside, away from the property.
Who do I call in a gas emergency in Western Australia?
For an immediate, strong gas smell or an escape you cannot isolate, the gas network operator's emergency line is the first call and it operates around the clock — the number is printed on your gas bill and on the meter box. Fire and Emergency Services on 000 is appropriate where there is any risk to life. A gas fitter handles the repair afterwards.
Why does gas smell like rotten eggs?
Natural gas and LPG are both odourless in their natural state. An odorant, usually a mercaptan compound, is added specifically so that a leak is detectable by smell at a concentration far below anything dangerous. If you can smell it, the concentration is still low — which is the point of adding it — but it should never be ignored.
Where do gas leaks usually come from?
Most are at connections rather than in the middle of a pipe: appliance flexible hoses that have perished, threaded joints that have loosened, regulators at the end of their life, and corroded external pipework. On LPG installations the changeover regulator and the bottle connections are common points. Buried lines leak far less often but are harder to find.
Free, no-obligation