Hi folks,

My son just had a deck put in at his new, and first, home. Beautiful deck, nice job. Underneath the deck is a gas line from the house that connects to a gas grill. There is a leak at the point where a rigid pipe was added under the deck that travels several feet to the connections to the grill. Obviously, the fix is to take apart all of the pipes and connections that go to the grill and put it back together again, but there is only access because of the grade of the house (if you can call it that) at the joint that leaks. I really don't want to start pulling up the new Trex composite decking because I think my daughter-in-law would kill me, so - if I'm unable to tighten the pipe adequately to stop the leak, do you have any recommendations?

Is there an effective sealant to apply? I'm not a big fan of them in the past, but are you aware of any products that might work here?

Or, if I can't adequately stop the leak, should I tell them to turn off the gas at the house and buy a grill with a tank???

Thanks in advance...

 

Welcome to the forums.

If you can't get to it to fix the leak..... it needs to be at least shut off. Look for a shutoff for it inside the house where it exits to the deck. If there is basement access where the line exits to under the deck..... you may be able to abandon the old gas line and have a new one run along the edge of the deck.

Gas lines cannot be repaired with any external compounds or sealants.

 

The gas line should have been pressure tested before concealing it. Does this mean there was no permit for the new deck?

Turn off the gas. It can be very dangerous to leave a gas line leaking as the building explosions on the evening news can confirm. Pull up the deck boards and tighten or replace the leaking joints.

You can NOT leave a known leaking gas line to exist. If you do wish to abandon the leaking line it must be disconnected and capped at the source. A valve is not an approved permenant termination for a gas line. The shutoff valve can stay but it must have a plug installed in it's outlet. This is a safety issue in the future when someone doesn't know what the valve is for and turns it on and the gas leak starts back up again.

 

Hi all,

Thank you for your sage advice...

The plot thickens. First - yes, the deck had all the permits necessary, and inspections every step of the way, as it were. The local gas company even came - they could find no leak. Uhh, you could smell it.

It looks like I was able to fix the leak. I climbed underneath and was able to get just far enough in the mud to be able to tighten the coupling, which just was not tight enough. We are having it pressure tested later this week to be safe.

Thanks again for your help. Great forum! Hope you don't mind if I hang out here for a bit...

 

Good job. Please feel free to hang around.

 

"Uhh, you could smell it."

For those eavesdropping, find out the cause of the gas smell (and fix it) before starting a project that might cover up a possibly leaking gas line.