Gas Leak Detection & Repair in Beaverton, OR

NW Natural serves Beaverton, and while the utility responds to reported leaks and can shut off service, locating the exact failure point and completing a repair is licensed plumbing work. The steel gas lines running to Beaverton's older neighborhoods -- Cedar Hills, Garden Home, and Highland Beaverton among them -- are often the same age as the copper supply lines now failing with pinhole corrosion throughout the same blocks, sixty or more years in the ground with appliance connectors that have long outlived their rated service life unnoticed.

Unlike a pinhole leak, a gas leak rarely leaves a slow water-bill trail to reveal it. Usually it is a faint rotten-egg smell near a meter or appliance, a hissing sound, or in bad cases, a dead patch of grass over a buried line. That smell is a signal to leave the house immediately, not to investigate room by room.

What to Do First If You Smell Gas

Leave the house immediately. Do not flip a light switch, use a phone indoors, or search for the source with a lighter or match. If you can reach the meter without lingering, shut the gas off with a wrench, a quarter turn so the valve sits perpendicular to the pipe. Call NW Natural from outside, then call (503) 974-3329. Only NW Natural can restore service to the meter once a repair is complete, which is why we coordinate with them directly rather than around them.

Where Gas Leaks Most Often Start in Beaverton

Flexible appliance connectors to a stove, dryer, or water heater have a service life, and a common failure point is a fixture swapped with the old connector reused. Meter sets on older tract homes in Cedar Hills and Garden Home sometimes carry thread sealant never rated for current line pressure. Buried steel service lines corrode in Washington County soil the same way anywhere else, showing up as a smell in the yard or dead grass in a straight line. Once NW Natural confirms it is safe to proceed, we pressure-test the line in sections and use a combustible gas detector along every joint and connection, tracing buried yard lines with the same acoustic methods used on buried water leaks. Repairs beyond a simple connector swap are permitted work, and we pull those permits so the fix is documented and inspected.

For most gas leak calls in Beaverton -- particularly in the older neighborhoods of Cedar Hills, Garden Home, and Highland Beaverton -- we bring the same detection equipment used for water leak calls. Call (503) 974-3329 for same-day scheduling throughout Washington County.

Frequently Asked Questions