Gas Leak Detection in DeKalb, IL
If you smell gas right now
Leave the building immediately. Do not flip switches, unplug anything, use a phone indoors, light a match or start a vehicle in an attached garage. Once you are well away from the building, call 911 and Nicor Gas at 888-642-6748. They respond 24 hours and will make the situation safe at no charge. Call us after the utility has secured the site and you need the line tested, located and repaired.
Nicor Gas is responsible for the main and the service up to and including the meter. Everything downstream of that meter — the house piping, the drops to your furnace, water heater, range, dryer, fireplace and any outdoor grill or generator line — is the property owner’s. That is the piping we test, locate and repair.
Natural gas is odorless on its own. The rotten-egg smell is mercaptan, added specifically so leaks are noticeable. Some people cannot detect it reliably, which is why we also test with instruments rather than relying on noses.
On this page
Warning signs of a gas leak
A rotten egg or sulfur smell
The most common indication, and the one that means leave now rather than look around.
Hissing or whistling near an appliance or line
Audible escaping gas means significant volume. Evacuate and call from outside.
Dead or discolored vegetation in a line
A buried gas line leak displaces oxygen in the soil and kills grass and shrubs in a strip above it, even in a well-watered yard.
Bubbling in standing water or wet soil
Gas escaping underground surfaces through puddles and saturated ground as a steady stream of small bubbles.
Dirt or dust blowing up from the ground
A larger underground leak can visibly disturb soil above the line.
Unexplained higher gas bills
A slow leak on interior piping shows up on the Nicor bill long before anyone smells it.
Headaches, dizziness or nausea indoors
Symptoms that improve when you leave the house point to either a gas leak or combustion products, and both need immediate attention.
Yellow or orange burner flames instead of blue
A combustion problem rather than a leak, but it belongs on the same service call — it can indicate incomplete combustion and carbon monoxide.
How we test and locate gas leaks
1
Confirm the building is safe to enter
If the utility has already been out, we start from their findings. If not and there is an active odor, we do not enter to investigate; we get the utility involved first. Safety sequence is not negotiable on gas work.
2
Pressure test the house piping
The system is isolated at the meter and charged with air to a test pressure, then monitored on a gauge. A pressure drop over a held interval proves the system is leaking and gives us a sense of magnitude. This is the test municipalities and inspectors accept.
3
Sweep with a combustible gas detector
A calibrated gas detector traces joints, unions, valves, drops, appliance connectors and the length of every accessible run. Detection is at parts-per-million sensitivity, far below the level a person can smell.
4
Bubble-test suspect fittings
Old-fashioned and still definitive. A leak solution applied to a suspect joint under pressure shows the exact escape point.
5
Locate and probe buried gas lines
For yard lines feeding a detached garage, pool heater, grill or generator, we trace the line electromagnetically and use bar-hole probing with a gas detector to find the leak point without opening the whole run.
6
Repair, retest and document
We replace failed sections, connectors and valves, then retest the whole system and leave you with the pressure test record. Where a permit or inspection is required, we handle it.
What causes gas leaks in DeKalb homes
Corroded black iron piping. Older DeKalb houses are piped in black iron. Where that pipe runs through a damp basement, a crawl space, or exits to an exterior meter, the outside of the pipe rusts, particularly at threaded joints where the coating is thinnest.
Failed appliance connectors. Flexible connectors on ranges and dryers get flexed every time the appliance is pulled out for cleaning. Older uncoated brass connectors have a known failure history and should be replaced on sight.
Do-it-yourself work and remodels. A capped-off line left from a removed appliance, an unsupported run added during a kitchen remodel, or pipe dope used where it should not be are common findings.
Ground movement on buried yard lines. The same clay soil movement that stresses water services stresses gas lines to detached garages and outbuildings, and that is a common configuration on the larger lots in Greenwood Acres and out toward the township roads.
Impact damage. Digging for a fence post, a deck footing or a tree without calling JULIE at 811 first. Gas lines are frequently shallower than water services.
Gas line services we provide after the leak is found
- Section replacement and re-piping of failed black iron, with properly supported and sized replacement runs
- Appliance connector and shutoff valve replacement at every gas appliance, including sediment traps where they are missing
- New gas line runs for a range conversion, a garage heater, a standby generator, a pool heater or an outdoor kitchen, sized for the total BTU load rather than guessed
- Buried yard line repair and replacement in coated steel or approved poly with tracer wire so it can be located next time
- Pressure test certification when a utility or municipality requires documentation before gas is restored
- Carbon monoxide checks at combustion appliances, because the two problems travel together more often than people realize
Before you dig, call 811
Illinois law requires notifying JULIE at least 48 hours before mechanized digging. Call 811 or 800-892-0123. It is free, and gas lines are often less than two feet down.
Common questions
Call Nicor Gas at 888-642-6748 first, every time, from outside the building, along with 911 if the odor is strong. The utility will come out at any hour at no charge, check for a leak and shut off gas if necessary. Their responsibility ends at the meter, so once they have made things safe and confirmed the leak is on your house piping, that repair is ours.
A pressure test with a detector sweep of an average single-family home in DeKalb is typically in the low hundreds. Cost rises where piping is largely concealed, where the building is large or has multiple units, or where a buried yard line needs tracing. Repairs are quoted separately once we know what failed.
It cannot wait. Natural gas is explosive in air at concentrations between roughly five and fifteen percent, and a slow leak in a closed basement or a tight modern house can reach that range. There is no version of this where waiting is the sensible choice.
Mercaptan, a sulfur compound added to natural gas as a warning agent. Natural gas has no smell of its own. Because scent perception varies and some people lose sensitivity after prolonged exposure, we test with calibrated instruments rather than trusting noses, including our own.
Yes. Propane systems on properties outside the Nicor service area, out toward Malta, Shabbona and the county roads, get the same pressure test and detector sweep. Propane is heavier than air and pools low, so the inspection sequence differs, but the principle is identical.
Yes. We size the run for the appliance's BTU demand plus everything already on the system, pull permits where required, run coated or approved buried pipe with tracer wire, pressure test and document the work.
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Think you have a leak? Call and we will find it today.
Same-day appointments across DeKalb and next-door response for active flooding. No digging or demolition until we know exactly where the leak is.
Leak line, answered 24 hours
(815) 849-0091Call nowOne call does it. We work out what is likely wrong on the phone, quote before we come out, and book you in on the same call.