Fall is when Big Country homes go back on gas: the furnace on the first cool morning, the fire pit, the grill. With appliances that sat all summer running again, it's a good time to know what a gas problem looks like and who fixes it.
The short answer: if you smell rotten eggs, hear a hiss, or see dust blowing up from the yard, get everyone out and call 911 and Atmos Energy at 866-322-8667 from outside. Atmos maintains the system up to its meter. Everything past it, from the yard line to the connector behind your stove, is yours, and fixing it is plumber work.
Smell gas? Get out first, then call
Atmos Energy, Abilene's gas utility, is blunt about this, and so are we: don't go looking for the leak. Get everyone out. Don't flip a light switch, run the garage door opener, or make the call from inside — anything that can throw a spark stays off. From the yard, call 911 and Atmos's 24-hour line. Atmos sends a technician at no cost, and asks you not to assume somebody else already called.
Your nose isn't the only alarm. Atmos says to use all three senses:
- Smell: rotten eggs or skunk. Utilities are required to add that odor so a leak gets noticed.
- Sound: a hiss or whistle near a gas appliance.
- Sight: dust blowing up out of the ground, bubbles in standing water, or a patch of dead grass along a buried line.
Don't trust smell alone: Atmos notes that hours in the house can dull your nose, and other odors can cover it. And a gas smell won't ever warn you about carbon monoxide, which has no odor at all. That's what the CO alarm near the bedrooms is for.
A burning-dust smell the first time the heat runs is a different story; our sister company Hawkins Air Conditioning covered why a heater smells like burning when it first turns on. Rotten eggs is never dust.
Where Atmos's job ends and yours begins
Atmos maintains the gas system up to its meter. Past the meter, the piping is yours: the line to the house when the meter sits out by the alley, the pipe in your attic, and any buried line to a shop, pool heater, or grill. Federal rules require Atmos to tell customers this, and its notice says buried piping should be checked periodically for leaks and, if it's metal, for corrosion.
If the leak's on your side, Atmos turns the gas off until it's repaired. In Texas, that repair is plumbing work — the state plumbing license law covers gas piping the same as your water lines. That's the call we take.
Where gas lines usually fail in Big Country homes
Old appliance connectors. The flexible tube behind an older range or dryer. In 1996 the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission warned that old uncoated brass connectors can break at their soldered fittings and said to replace any of them with a new stainless steel or coated connector. Don't pull the stove out to look — the CPSC warns that moving the appliance can be what snaps a weak one.
Buried steel yard lines. An older house with the meter out by the alley may have steel pipe running across the yard, and steel corrodes underground. Today's fuel gas code doesn't even count galvanizing as protection below grade. A strip of dead grass along the line's path is an Atmos call first, then ours.
Yellow CSST that was never bonded. The flexible yellow-jacketed gas line in a lot of newer homes is good pipe, but code requires it to be bonded to the home's electrical grounding with a heavy copper wire, because a nearby lightning strike can arc through it. Black arc-resistant CSST, marked “AR,” doesn't need the extra bond. With the storms that roll through here every spring, that's not a corner to cut.
New outdoor lines. Fire pits, outdoor kitchens, pool heaters, and standby generators each mean a new line through the yard. Abilene's stricter than the national code here: its local amendment requires buried gas piping at least 18 inches deep instead of 12, and it dropped the exception that lets a line to a single outdoor appliance sit at 8. A big new appliance can also outgrow the pipe you've got — a gas tankless water heater is the usual example, as we covered in tank vs. tankless in Abilene's hard water.
The gas company's responsibility ends at the meter. Everything after it — the yard line, the attic pipe, the connector behind the stove — is yours to keep up.
How a gas line repair gets permitted and tested in Abilene
Gas line repairs are on the City of Abilene's list of work that needs a permit, and so is replacing a water heater, gas or electric. Repaired or new piping gets pressure-tested before it goes back in service: we cap the system, pressurize it, and watch a calibrated gauge for any drop. Abilene's amendment sets that test at no less than 3 psi for most house systems, on a gauge that reads in tenths of a pound, so even a small drop shows.
One more thing the permit brings: in an existing home with gas appliances or an attached garage, Abilene requires carbon monoxide alarms outside each sleeping area when permitted work is done. If you don't have them, plan on it. It's a good rule.
Digging this fall? 811 won't mark your line
Planting trees or setting fence posts? Call 811 first. It's free, Texas law builds in a two-working-day wait so the utilities can mark their lines, and Atmos says more than 60 percent of hazardous leaks on its own system come from excavation damage.
The catch: locators mark what the utilities own, and that usually stops at the meter. Texas811 says lines running from the meter onto private property are the owner's responsibility to get marked. If your meter's out by the alley, the gas line across your yard is the one nobody's going to paint.
When to call for gas line repair in Abilene
Gas smell, hiss, or blowing dust: get out, call 911 and Atmos from outside, then call us. We install, test, and repair gas lines for ranges, heaters, fire pits, and generators, done safe and inspected, and we quote the repair before we start.
Adding a line this fall, or wondering about an old connector or yard line? Better to test it on a Tuesday afternoon than find out on the first cold night. And if Atmos has shut you off and there's no heat or hot water, our 24/7 emergency line is there for exactly that.
We're owner-operated and licensed in Texas as a Master Plumber (M-18761). Real work, real people, no corporate runaround.
Call or text (325) 701-7017 or request service online.
Frequently asked questions
Will Atmos fix a gas leak inside my house?
No. Atmos investigates suspected leaks free, day or night, but if the leak is on your side of the meter, they'll shut the gas off and the repair is yours to arrange with a licensed plumber. Then the fixed piping gets permitted and tested.
Do I need a permit to run gas to a fire pit, grill, or generator in Abilene?
Yes. New gas piping goes through the city's permit and inspection process, and Abilene requires buried gas lines at least 18 inches deep, including short runs to outdoor appliances the national code would let sit at 8 inches.
What's the yellow flexible gas line in my attic?
Probably corrugated stainless steel tubing, or CSST. Yellow CSST has to be bonded to the home's electrical grounding so a nearby lightning strike doesn't arc through it. If you're not sure yours was, have it checked.
Should I buy a gas detector, or is my nose enough?
A detector's a good backup, not a replacement. Atmos says residential methane detectors add protection when they're installed to the manufacturer's instructions, but they don't replace using your nose, ears, and eyes. If anything seems off, get out and call.
Need a gas line checked, fixed, or added?
Gas line installation, testing, and repair for ranges, heaters, fire pits, and generators, done safe and inspected. Licensed, owner-operated, quoted before we start, and on call 24/7 once Atmos has made things safe, across Abilene and the Big Country.
Call (325) 701-7017 24/7 Emergency Plumbing