Two kinds of leak, two ways of finding them
Gas piping is tested with pressure and patience. The system is capped, pumped up with air and watched on a gauge. A needle that falls proves a leak, and dividing the piping valve by valve shows which branch it is on. A combustible gas detector and leak solution on that branch's fittings then give up the exact joint. Water is found by ear. Once the meter confirms that water is moving with everything shut, an acoustic sensor on the floor or wall picks up the hiss, and its loudest point marks where to open.
Where leaks start depends on how old a house is and how it was built. Laguna Niguel's median home dates from 1986, so much of the gas and water piping in town is about forty years old. Gas tends to escape at a short list of places: the meter's regulator, a corrugated connector tucked behind the stove or the dryer, a shutoff serving the furnace, fireplace or water heater, and steel pipe buried in a yard or slope whose wrapping has failed. On the water side, a house on a concrete slab with copper beneath it can leak where nobody sees, and the clues are warmth underfoot, carpet damp along an edge or the sound of water with nothing running. About 20 percent of homes here are single-family attached. In those a stain may start next door, or in piping the association maintains, so we follow it to its source before any drywall comes out.
Our C-36 Plumbing license covers the gas repair, and that repair is not finished until a pressure test holds and the reading is written down for you. Where the work needs a permit, we apply through the City of Laguna Niguel's Online Permit Center and meet the inspector. If SoCalGas has locked the meter, our job is to leave the piping repaired and tested so the utility can restore service. A water repair is put under full line pressure and checked, and only then is the slab or drywall patched in the way the written scope sets out. Before either one, you read and approve a written quote.
What a leak call in Laguna Niguel includes
- Gas and water piping both worked under C-36 Plumbing license CSLB #1131308
- Gas odors and running leaks taken under 24-hour emergency response
- The repair quoted in writing and accepted before it begins
- Our written workmanship warranty on each leak we repair
Signs of a gas leak or a water leak you cannot see
- A smell of rotten eggs by the meter, the stove, the dryer or the water heater
- A hiss you can hear near the gas meter or behind an appliance
- Gas or water use climbing on the bill while the household's routine stays the same
- The small leak dial on the water meter spinning with every tap closed
- Flooring that is warm in one place, or carpet wet where nothing was spilled
- A SoCalGas red tag tied to the meter or to one appliance
Outside first, then the phone
For gas: everyone out, then SoCalGas or 911 from the sidewalk, then us. For water: shut the house's main valve, provided getting to it is safe. Calls are answered around the clock.
Narrow it down
Pressure tests on one section after another, followed by a gas detector, acoustic listening or tracer gas, reduce the search to one run of pipe and then to one spot on it.
Repair to the gas and plumbing codes
Gas piping is remade in black steel or CSST, water piping in copper or PEX, and the repaired section goes back under test before it is covered.
Close out
Any permit is inspected and closed, the gas piping stands tested for SoCalGas to relight, and the water is back on.
Why Laguna Niguel calls us to find a leak
We are based in Laguna Niguel. Gas pipe and water pipe sit under the same C-36 license, so the company that finds your leak is the one that repairs it and stands in front of the inspector. Four things define the work.
Gas piping is plumbing work in California
California places gas piping inside the C-36 Plumbing classification. Our repairs are sized to the load of the appliances downstream and pressure tested as the code requires before we pack up.
More than one way to look
Staged pressure tests, an acoustic sensor for slabs and walls, an electronic gas detector, soap solution on any joint left in the open, and, for pipe that is underground, tracer gas. We use whichever the leak calls for.
Red tags resolved
The fault SoCalGas tagged is repaired and the test result written down. The piping then stands ready, and the utility returns to take its lock off the meter and relight.
Permit and inspection in our hands
If the gas repair is permit work, the application is ours to make: to the City for a Laguna Niguel address, to the County of Orange for an unincorporated one such as Ladera Ranch. We attend the inspection and see the permit closed.
What sets the scope of a leak repair
Most of the scope is access. Changing a connector means sliding the stove forward and little else. A gas line inside a finished wall, or a water line under tile or hardwood, takes more care to reach than one behind an access panel or under carpet.
Then comes how much pipe is replaced and where the new pipe runs. A buried gas line across a yard may need a trench, or a new route above ground. A leak under a slab can be opened and fixed in place, or bypassed with new pipe through the walls and attic, and when the same slab has leaked before, the bypass usually makes more sense than another patch. A permit, an inspection and a SoCalGas relight add steps. In an attached home, the association's CC&Rs can decide whose pipe it is, and Laguna Niguel has more than 120 associations.
With the leak located, we write the repair up as a quote. Nothing is opened or replaced until you agree to it.
Leak detection from Laguna Niguel across the county
We are based in Laguna Niguel and trace gas and water leaks throughout Orange County. SoCalGas is the gas utility in every place named below.
Laguna Niguel and San Juan Capistrano
Gas and water leaks in Laguna Niguel's 1980s neighborhoods, and in San Juan Capistrano, where 53 percent of the housing predates 1980 and the piping has had longer to age.
Laguna Beach and Aliso Viejo
Laguna Beach, where 16 percent of homes predate 1940 and old piping turns up behind old walls. And Aliso Viejo, where about a third of the homes sit in buildings with five units or more, so a leak first has to be traced to the right unit.
Laguna Hills, Laguna Woods and Ladera Ranch
Laguna Hills and its houses of the 1970s and 1980s. Laguna Woods Village, where the housing mutuals answer for common areas and our first question is what yours covers. Ladera Ranch, where the housing is newer and permits come from the County of Orange.
The rest of Orange County
Elsewhere in Orange County, from San Clemente north to the county's far edge, a gas odor or a hidden water leak gets the same tests, brought from Laguna Niguel.
Leak facts worth knowing
With a gas smell, the order matters: people out first, phones second. On the way out, leave light switches, garage door openers and appliances alone, and do not stop to look for the source. From outside, call SoCalGas or 911, and then call us.
The rotten-egg smell is put there on purpose. Gas as it comes from the ground is odorless, and the added odorant is what lets a nose catch a leak. A faint smell that comes and goes still counts until a pressure test says otherwise.
A water leak you cannot see can still be confirmed at the meter. Shut every tap, the ice maker, the washer and the irrigation, then go look at the meter's small leak dial. If it is still turning, water is leaving the piping somewhere past the meter.
Permits follow the address. For a gas repair that needs one in Laguna Niguel, the application goes through the City's Online Permit Center. We file it, meet the inspector and confirm the permit is closed.
A red tag stays only as long as the fault does. After the tagged problem is repaired and the piping holds its pressure test, SoCalGas returns, removes the lock and relights the appliances.
24/7 Emergency Plumbing
Burst pipes and flooded rooms treated as emergencies, day and night.
Drain Cleaning & Hydro Jetting
Blocked lines filmed, then opened by cable or jetter.
Water Heater Repair & Install
Tank heaters repaired or replaced, the gas connection tested.
Sewer Repair & Repipe
Failing laterals renewed, and leaking supply lines repiped.
Gas odor: get outside, then call
Call once you are outside and safe. Leaks of either kind, at any Orange County address, are covered from Laguna Niguel by 24-hour emergency response.