DIY guideGas

Find the gas shutoff and label it

Find the shutoff at your meter, tag it and know which way is off. Turn it only if the gas utility tells you to.

6 steps

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Go to where the gas comes into the house, often on a side or back wall outside.
Smell gas or hear hissing? Leave, and call the gas utility from outside.
On the pipe coming up out of the ground into the meter, find a valve with a flat tab or a short lever.
Along the pipe is on. A quarter turn, so it sits across the pipe, is off. Don't turn it now.
Turn it only if the gas utility or the fire department tells you to.
Tie a bright tag or a strip of tape on the pipe beside it, so anyone can find it fast.
Take a photo of it, and show everyone in the house. Tell Handyman too, so it's on your home's emergency card.
Smell gas or hear hissing? Leave the house now and call the gas utility from outside.
Once it's off, only the gas utility turns it back on.

You smell gas or hear hissing: leave the house and call the gas utility from outside
The meter, its pipes or the shutoff are rusted, bent or damaged
You can't find the shutoff: ask your gas utility where it is

Handyman says: Smell gas? Get out, then call the gas utility.

Free for every home. Handyman asks a few questions, then books a pro it trusts.