When to call the gas company
Fri, 29 January 2010
We’ve occasionally been catching a whiff of gas coming from “somewhere” in the street at the front of the house.
Being the proactive responsible types we’ve, er, ignored it until now. After all, it wasn’t that strong a smell. However, yesterday a neighbour passed by and commented that he noticed a fairly strong gas smell coming from our meter cover at the side of the roadway.
No longer in denial, Jenn grasped the nettle and called the imaginatively titled “The Gas Company” (no, really) this morning. They said someone would swing by sometime today.
Sure enough, a chap in a nice white truck called and it didn’t take him long to diagnose the problem – the pipe coming from our gas meter was corroded and leaking. Because it was our side of the meter, it was – you guessed it – our responsibility to get fixed. Bugger.
Ok, not the end of the world. These houses are fairly old and eventually things wear out and need replacing. No, the trouble was that now that the gas company knows that there’s a leak, they can’t just leave it. No, they had to turn it off. At 3pm on a Friday afternoon. Ooops.
As the gas man left he pointed out it wasn’t the best day to call them and that Monday mornings are a better time – you have the whole week to get it fixed at non-weekend rates.
So, no hot water and no heating or hob-cooking for a few days. It could have been worse – he said people call them out to check leaks on Christmas Eve and are then left with raw turkey the next day.
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