Can still smell gas!

[mervynmouse]

Moved in to a new house a few weeks ago and I've noticed a faint smell of gas in my bedroom. It seems to be coming up through gaps in the floorboards, directly above cupboard where gas meter is.

I called transco out last week and they checked everything thoroughly and said there was no problem.

Why can I still smell it?! It's driving me a bit mad, I am sure I am not imagining it. Is it possible that there is a faint odour but that it's not dangerous enough to be picked up by their detector thing?

Grateful for any advice.

The gas company will almost certainly have put a pressure measure (manometer) on the pipework, then turned off the meter. The only "pass" for such a tests is "no discernable drop in pressure" meaning no leak. this is a test of the pipework within your house, on your side of the meter.

If you are in an old house, or semi or a terrace, there might be a leak from next door. There are not supposed to be any old supply pipes left live. If your house is old and the incoming pipe is steel, it might be rusty. Upstream of the meter the gas co owns and replaces it. Modern ones are yellow plastic underground.

If you can smell gas or flue fumes from your boiler inside the house, then there is a serious fault that needs fixing. It is possible that you have an appliance such as a gas fire or cooker that leaks when it is turned on, but the gas co would have detected if it leaked when turned off.

Ask around friends and neighbours for a recommended local Gas safe engineer and tell him your concerns. Yellow pages and "Check a Recommended Trade" websites are not good sources as they are paid by the advertiser trader.

Have a good clean under, behind and around cooker, fridge and sink because these smells are sometimes food or cooking related.

If you can still smell it, call them out again. BUT this time ignore any advice to open windows and doors.

We had to have them out 3 times to find and fix the leak in my larder.

Ditto everything Piglet said.
Gas Safe Registered engineer should test pipework your side of meter and appliances.
it could be an appliance.
It could be before it gets to meter - the supplier's problem.

We had similar which used to drive me crazy. The smell was in cupboard under the stairs, where the meter is.
My husband is a gas engineer - there was no gas leak our side.
The supplier came out and tested before the meter and checked extensively outside the property. No leak was ever found and I never got to bottom of it.

Eventually smell disappeared ( it seemed to take years) perhaps some pocket of smelly gas slowly leaking through the ground and into our house? Could smell it in that cupboard because it is a small shut up space.

Could it possibly be mice? Mice wee apparently can smell like gas. So I'm told.

I had this in a previous house... Drove me nuts. The engineers point blank denied there was any leak at all. Then the old guy who used to service our boiler told me that he always believes a woman who says there's a seep over a man who says there isn't. He reckoned, in his 50 years experience, he'd found women to have a much more reliable ability to detect gas leaks. Also had all kinds of interesting theories about how and why. Sadly, it didn't mean he could find the source in our case, and he guessed it was seeping out through the casing of the meter, but it did make me feel better about it!

Thanks for all the replies. I don't think it's cooking smells, mice a possible but I am pretty certain its gas. Sounds like this could be the start of a long process! In the meantime, is it dangerous to be sleeping in the room? The smell doesn't fill the whole room, it's just a patch by the door, over cupboard under stairs. And it's not constant, sometimes more noticeable than others.

It is a Victorian terrace by the way, my money is on rusted pipes or similar. The boiler is pretty new and on other side of house. And yes the transco chap did test the appliances, including a new gas fire I had put in recently. Although now considering he may have damaged pipes putting that in? Anyway, thanks, will follow up with engineer.

It is also worth checking any drainpipes or airbricks. We had gas people out as not long after we moved into our 1930s house I was sure I could smell gas (we had already had the 2 gas fires condemned and removed) and I was there with 2 small kids so out they came, man couldn't smell it but checked everything and took ages over it all but couldn't find anything so then he noticed there was a little drain thing outside next to the wall for that room and it was in a flowerbed (yep well thought out) next to an airbrick. He suggested we cleared it a bit and see if that helped. it did.

I was sure it was gas, it smelt so like gas to me I would have put money on it but it turns out it wasn't (or a huge coincidence)

update- called gas people out again and I was right, small leak in pipe under bedroom floorboards going to fireplace which had been capped off some years ago. The man said it wasn't unusual for them to get second or third call backs, especially if original visit was in middle of night which mine was.

He had to cut gas off and gave me customer helpline number which gives you registered engineers in your area. Should just be a matter of cutting pipe going upstairs as it's no longer used or necessary.

Do rather wish I had washed my hair before I had no hot water but pleased I am not going mad!

Thanks again for advice