Gas smell mystery solved!

Well it all started about 6-8 months ago. Every once in a while while out in the yard I would think that I could smell natural gas in the air. When it happens I always stopped cold in my tracks and sniffed the air again but no smell. So I went on about my business doing yard work or whatever. Then came this winter. I'm not outside much during the winter except to shovel snow but there have been two more times while shoveling snow that I thought I smelled gas. I would again stop and sniff the air but again no smell. Well this week the snow all melted and the wife takes the dog for a walk and comes in and says she smells gas again. I go out side and this time the smell is very strong. I go inside and call the gas company. About 15 minutes later a guy in a truck stops by and I go out to talk to him and show him where we smell the gas. He gets a big whiff of it and is convinced right away that a underground valve must be leaking. Well it turns out that the leaking valve is buried in my front yard. He tells me that it has to be fixed right away. The next couple of hours a line of trucks and backhoes line my street as they dig up my front yard...pump out the water from the hole and replace the underground valve. The guy tells me that they will be back another time to repair my yard. He said it should be sometime before I have to mow. So now my yard that I work so hard to make look nice looks like a bomb hit it with little flags marking the other underground utilities and big orange cones around a pile of mud.
Yes I'm glad it wasn't a more serious problem...but you don't understand...my yard What a mess!
Lesson learned....even if you think you smell gas....call somebody!

Sounds like no fun at all, Tom. On the bright side, the destruction was limited to your yard...



(San Bruno CA)

Yikes!!!!

Glad it got fixed!!!

Glad you figured it out.

One time while working in a (pet food) factory almost all of us almost fainted from gas (no dog jokes here). We called the fire dept. and they could not detect anything from the factory itself and suggested that a truck rolling down the highway could have emitted gas that got sucked into the air conditioning system (yeah, sounds pretty far fetched to me too).

Make them make it good as new

Aw man, that stinks!

Pictures???

I'm glad they got it fixed. That reminded me of about 13 years ago. We had someone pounding and yelling at the front door. It was a fireman telling us to leave the area immediately. We gather our son and the dog and went to a friends house. About a mile away there had been a break in a major gas line. It sounded like a jet engine from our house. Do to the wind direction we couldn't smell anything. We were able to return home about 10 hours later. Gas leaks aren't to be taken lightly. I hope they repair the lawn to your satisfaction.

what a bummer, Tom. But it's a blessing that you got it fixed. Pictures! We want pictures!

When I was about 11 my Dad was stationed at Little Rock Air Force Base. We lived in a trailer park for a few months until my folks bought their first new home. (4 bedrooms, 2 baths for something like $13,000 ... this was 1972) It seems like the house went without a yard for a loong time.

Anyway ... more than once we kids noticed small bubbles coming up through the mud after a rain. I remember being able to light a small "perpetual flame" on that spot of ground sometimes. I'm pretty sure we told our parents about it, but I honestly don't remember if anything was ever done to fix the problem.

Sorry about the front yard but I'm sure glad they found the problem.

Sorry about that, but a question if I may, does the repair of your front yard will leave it as it was before? I mean with grass and flowers if any?

Toni, yes they are suppose to come back and level the dirt and spread grass seed but it will then be up to me to water and fertilize it back to health. About two years ago we had a water main break in a different section of our yard. Again the city came and dug it all up, then about a month later they came back out to reseed it. It never has grown back to match the rest of the yard though. I think they use cheap seed. I knew the city had utilities under my yard and I agreed to it when I bought the property. It's just one of those things.

Photos of my mess. Note...this is their idea of a finished job until they come back to reseed.

I was expecting a big spot, line must not be very deep.

My yard is full of tractor tire ruts and the occasional paddy from the critters. Sometimes they get out and like to make deposits. I just take the skid steer and close the ruts. Something will grow back.