Water heater installation
Gas connections, venting and combustion air on a replacement.
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Gas line services: sizing, installation, testing and appliance connections
Gas piping is not general plumbing. It is sized by calculation, joined to a standard, pressure tested, permitted and inspected, and if you can smell gas right now, the first call is not to us.
Lines are open right now:
(833) 472-2088
Smell gas? Leave and call your utility first, then us.
Smell gas? Leave first
Get out, then call your utility or 911.
Sized by calculation
Total demand, pipe length and pressure drop.
Pressure tested
Every installation proved before it is used.
Permitted work
Gas piping is inspected in Idaho jurisdictions.
Read this first
If you suspect a gas leak right now
Leave the building. Take everyone with you. Do not stay inside to investigate.
Do not operate anything electrical. No light switches, no thermostats, no garage door opener, no appliances. Do not use a phone inside the building.
Do not light anything. No matches, no lighters, no smoking.
Leave doors open behind you if you can do so without delay, and move well away from the building.
From outside, call your gas utility’s emergency line or 911. Utilities respond to reported gas odours as an emergency and they respond around the clock at no charge. Your provider’s emergency number is on your bill and on their website. They will make the situation safe and shut off supply if needed.
Then call a plumber. Once the utility has made it safe, the repair, the pressure test and the restoration of service are ours to do. That order matters: we are not the emergency response for an active leak, and no plumber should tell you otherwise.
Signs worth acting on. The added odourant smell, a hissing or roaring sound near piping or a meter, dead vegetation in a line over a buried service, soot or yellow burner flames where they should be blue, and physical symptoms, headache, nausea, dizziness, that improve when you leave the building. Carbon monoxide is a separate hazard from a gas leak and it has no smell at all, which is why working CO alarms matter.
What we do and do not touch
We work on the gas piping inside your property, from the meter or the propane tank regulator to the appliance. The meter itself, the service line from the street and the utility’s regulator belong to your gas provider. On propane, the tank and its regulator belong to your propane supplier. We coordinate with both rather than working around them.
New range, dryer or fire pit? Sizing comes first.
New lines
Extending gas to an appliance, correctly
What gets added most often. A range or cooktop in a kitchen that only ever had electric. A gas dryer. A furnace or boiler replacement. A tankless water heater, which is the one that most often exposes an undersized system. A fire pit, patio heater, outdoor grill or fire feature. A shop heater. A standby generator. A pool or spa heater.
Sizing is arithmetic, not judgement. Every appliance has a BTU input rating. The system is sized on the total connected demand, the developed length of pipe to the furthest appliance, the number of fittings, the available supply pressure and the allowable pressure drop. Get it wrong and the symptoms are ugly: a furnace that short-cycles when the range is lit, a tankless unit that cannot reach temperature, burners that will not stay on. This is precisely why adding a large appliance to an old system is not a matter of teeing into the nearest pipe.
Meter and supply capacity. Sometimes the house piping is fine and the meter is the limit. That is a conversation with the utility, and it is better had before the appliance is delivered than after.
Materials. Black steel pipe with threaded fittings is the traditional and still common choice. Corrugated stainless steel tubing is faster to run through finished space and has specific requirements including electrical bonding. Approved plastic for buried outdoor runs with proper tracer and depth. Copper is permitted in some situations and not others. Which material is used depends on the location, the code adopted locally and the gas type.
Details that matter. A shut-off valve at each appliance within reach. Sediment traps where required. Approved flexible connectors of the right length, not chained together. Proper support and protection where pipe passes through framing. Correct handling of any run through unvented or concealed space. Bonding on CSST.
Then it gets tested. Pressure tested at the required pressure for the required duration, purged, and every joint leak-checked with solution or a detector before the appliance is lit and commissioned.
Existing systems
Leaks, failed tests and old piping
Pressure testing. The definitive check on a gas system. The piping is isolated, pressurised with air or inert gas and monitored, a drop over the test period proves a leak exists somewhere in that section. Testing is also what a utility or an inspector will require before service is restored to a system that has been shut off.
Locating a leak. Section by section isolation to narrow which run is losing pressure, then leak detection solution or an electronic detector on the joints. Buried outdoor runs are harder and need tracing and sometimes excavation.
Common leak points. Threaded joints that have loosened or corroded, old flexible connectors, appliance shut-off valves, unions that have been disturbed, corroded buried steel, and joints that were never made properly in the first place. Corrosion where pipe passes through a slab or into damp soil is a recurring finding.
Old and abandoned piping. Older Idaho houses frequently have capped stubs from removed appliances, or lines that once served a wall furnace or an old water heater. Abandoned gas piping should be properly capped or removed rather than left as an unknown, and a house-wide test will find any that leaks.
Corroded buried lines. A run to a detached garage, a shop or a pool heater that was installed decades ago in steel is a candidate for replacement rather than repair once it starts leaking.
After a shut-off. When a utility has red-tagged or shut off a system, restoring service means fixing the fault, passing a test, and re-lighting appliances properly. Appliances should be relit and checked rather than simply turned back on.
Earthquake and impact damage. Any event that may have moved piping, a vehicle striking a meter, ground movement, a fire, warrants a test rather than an assumption.
Appliances misbehaving together means an undersized system.
Connections and paperwork
Appliance work, propane properties and what the inspection covers
Appliance connections. Ranges, cooktops, dryers, furnaces, boilers, water heaters, tankless units, fireplaces, grills, generators and shop heaters. Each needs the right valve, the right connector, correct sizing back through the system, and combustion air and venting appropriate to the appliance. Venting is not an afterthought, a gas appliance vented badly is a carbon monoxide hazard, and it is checked as part of the job.
Conversions. Natural gas and propane appliances are not interchangeable without the correct conversion kit and orifice, and not every appliance can be converted. Moving a house from electric to gas, or from propane to natural gas where a main becomes available, is a project involving the utility, the piping and each appliance.
Propane properties. Very common across rural Idaho, the mountain valleys, the western border communities, rural eastern Idaho and much of the Panhandle. Propane runs at a different pressure than natural gas, requires different sizing, and the tank and its regulator belong to the propane supplier. Buried propane lines, second-stage regulators and long runs to outbuildings are routine work on these properties.
Permits and inspection. Gas piping work is permitted in Idaho jurisdictions and it is inspected. The inspection typically covers materials, sizing, support, protection, valves and sediment traps, CSST bonding, and a witnessed pressure test. The contractor pulls the permit and books the inspection.
Why the paperwork matters here more than elsewhere. Unpermitted gas work is a genuine safety and liability problem, not a technicality. It also causes trouble at sale, and insurers ask about it after an incident. If a quote for gas work does not mention a permit, ask why.
Carbon monoxide alarms. Worth having on every level of a house with gas appliances, tested and in date. We will say if we see an installation that concerns us.
Outside the building
Fire pits, generators, shops and frozen regulators
Buried runs to outbuildings and features. Approved materials, proper burial depth, tracer wire so the next person can find it, protection where it comes out of the ground, and a shut-off at the far end. Utility locates before any excavation, without exception, gas, power, communications, water and irrigation all share that ground.
Fire pits, patio heaters and outdoor kitchens. Popular and straightforward when planned with the landscaping rather than retrofitted through a finished patio. Outdoor appliances need weather-rated components and correctly placed shut-offs.
Standby generators. The gas demand is substantial and it is often what pushes a system over capacity. Sizing has to account for the generator running simultaneously with heating and hot water, which is precisely the scenario in an outage. Coordination with the electrical contractor matters.
Shops, barns and detached garages. Heaters in unheated outbuildings, long runs, and often propane rather than natural gas. Sizing over distance is the main design question.
Winter conditions. Regulators and meters can ice up in freezing fog or heavy snow, and clearing snow away from a meter and a regulator vent is genuinely worth doing. Snow and ice sliding off a roof can damage a meter set or a vent termination, a real problem in the mountain valleys and the Panhandle. Never use a heat source or an implement on an iced regulator; call the utility.
Appliance venting in snow country. Sidewall vent terminations on furnaces, boilers and tankless heaters must stay clear of drifted snow. Blocked terminations shut appliances down at best and cause a combustion hazard at worst, and we look at termination height when installing anything vented.
Seasonal properties. Gas appliances in a cabin being closed up need shutting down properly, and relighting and checking on reopening. See cabin and seasonal home winterization.
Failed a test or been shut off? We handle the restoration.
How it runs
Calculated, installed, tested, inspected
Gas work follows a fixed sequence, and no part of it is optional.
1. Load calculation and design
Every existing and proposed appliance’s BTU input totalled, developed pipe length measured, and the system sized against available pressure. If the meter or the supply is the limiting factor, that is identified before anything is bought.
2. Permit and installation
Permit pulled, approved materials run with correct support and protection, appliance shut-offs and sediment traps fitted, with CSST bonding where used, and buried runs installed with tracer and locates called in first.
3. Test, purge, commission, inspect
Pressure tested for the required duration, purged, joints leak-checked, appliances lit and combustion and venting verified, and the inspection witnessed by the jurisdiction.
Coverage
Gas and propane across the state
Natural gas work concentrates in the Treasure Valley, Pocatello, Idaho Falls and the larger Panhandle communities. Propane is the norm across the mountain valleys, the western border farming communities, rural eastern Idaho and much of the Panhandle, and the sizing and regulator arrangements differ, we work on both, in all 82 communities we cover.
Questions
Gas line questions
Leave the building with everyone in it. Do not touch light switches, thermostats or appliances, do not use a phone inside, and do not light anything.
From outside and well clear, call your gas utility’s emergency line or 911. Utilities treat reported gas odours as an emergency and respond around the clock at no charge. Once they have made it safe, a plumber handles the repair, the pressure test and restoring service.
Yes, and it starts with a load calculation rather than a look at the nearest pipe. The new appliance’s BTU demand is added to everything already connected, and the system is checked against pipe size, length and available pressure.
Sometimes the branch is all that changes. Sometimes the run from the meter has to be upsized, and occasionally the meter itself needs the utility’s attention.
In Idaho jurisdictions, generally yes, with an inspection that includes a witnessed pressure test.
This is not a formality on gas. Unpermitted gas piping is a safety and liability problem, it causes trouble at sale, and insurers ask about it after an incident. The contractor pulls the permit and arranges the inspection.
That is the classic symptom of an undersized gas system: total demand exceeds what the piping can deliver, so pressure drops at the furthest or largest appliance.
It is diagnosed by calculating connected load against pipe size and developed length, and by measuring pressure under load. The fix is upsizing the relevant section rather than adjusting the appliance.
By pressure testing sections to establish which run is losing pressure, then leak-checking joints with solution or an electronic detector.
Common findings are loosened or corroded threaded joints, old flexible connectors, appliance valves, and corroded buried steel. Abandoned capped stubs from removed appliances turn up regularly in older houses.
Yes, and they are the majority of what we see on rural properties. Propane runs at a different pressure, sizes differently, and involves second-stage regulators.
The tank and its regulator belong to your propane supplier, so we coordinate with them rather than working around them. Buried runs to shops and outbuildings are routine.
Some can with the correct manufacturer conversion kit and orifice; some cannot. It depends entirely on the appliance.
It is not a matter of adjusting a valve, wrong gas at wrong pressure is a safety problem. If a property is switching supply, each appliance has to be assessed individually.
It can be. Iced regulator vents and snow loading on a meter set cause real problems, and snow sliding off a roof onto a meter is a recurring issue in the mountain valleys and the Panhandle.
Clear snow away gently by hand where you safely can. Never chip ice off a regulator or apply heat to it, call your gas utility, which handles this as a routine winter call.
Generator or shop heater? Demand is bigger than people expect.
Sized, tested and signed off
Gas work with a permit, a pressure test and an inspection behind it. Call any hour, anywhere in Idaho.
(833) 472-2088