Existing customers smelt gas in their upstairs bathroom and did exactly the right thing: they rang the gas emergency line. Cadent found the pipework losing pressure and capped the supply at the meter. Then they rang us, and we were there the same day.
Elderly customers of ours in Edgbaston smelt gas in their upstairs bathroom and called the National Gas Emergency Service. Cadent attended, found a 20 mbar pressure drop on the pipework inside the house and capped the supply at the meter outlet to make it safe. That left them with no heating or hot water, so they rang us, and we attended the same day. We traced the leak to the old steel gas pipe in the property, capped that pipe off and kept the supply to the boiler. The installation passed a tightness test with no leaks, we recommissioned it, and they had heating and hot water back that day. The gas hob was on the old pipe, so it now needs a new supply; the customers are deciding between that and an electric hob.
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Gas trace and repair: £99 for the first hour in office hours. Pipework repairs are quoted on site before we carry on.
No travel charge within 10 miles of B20 2JS. Further out, £2 per mile may apply — always agreed before anything is booked. Full price list
Smell gas now? Do not use this form or wait for a reply. Call the National Gas Emergency Service free on 0800 111 999 (24 hours). Open doors and windows, do not switch electrics on or off, do not smoke or use naked flames, and turn the gas off at the meter if it is safe to do so (not if the meter is in a cellar). Once the supply has been made safe, we can trace and repair the fault.
The customers smelt gas in their upstairs bathroom. They did the right thing straight away and rang the National Gas Emergency Service. Cadent, the gas network for the West Midlands, attended and tested the pipework inside the house. It lost 20 mbar of pressure, which means gas was escaping, so they capped the supply at the meter outlet and left a warning notice, part of which is in the first photo.
That is as far as the emergency service goes. They make the property safe, but finding and fixing a leak on the pipework after the meter is a job for a Gas Safe registered engineer. With the gas off there was no heating and no hot water, so the customers rang us. They are existing customers, and we got there the same day.
We traced the leak to the old steel gas pipe in the property. Steel was the standard for gas pipe in older homes, and it is often run through walls and under floors where it is hard to get at. Rather than chase a leak along a pipe of that age, the safe repair was to take it out of service.
We capped off the old steel pipe and kept the supply to the boiler. With a temporary bond fitted across the pipe before anything was cut, as in the second photo, the work was done safely. We then tightness tested the installation: no pressure drop. With that confirmed, we recommissioned it and the customers had heating and hot water back the same day.
The gas hob was fed from the old steel pipe, so it is now disconnected. To use it again it needs a new gas supply run to it. We explained the two options: a new pipe run to the hob, or switching to an electric hob, which needs no gas pipe at all. The customers are thinking it over and will let us know which they would prefer.
Open doors and windows, do not switch electrics on or off, do not smoke or use naked flames, and turn the gas off at the meter if it is safe to do so. Call the National Gas Emergency Service free on 0800 111 999. Once they have made it safe, call a Gas Safe registered engineer to find and repair the leak. Our gas leak detection page explains who does what.
Gas trace and repair is £99 for the first hour in office hours. Pipework repairs are quoted on site before we carry on, and nothing extra is done without your say-so. Details are on our price list.
Open doors and windows, do not switch electrics on or off, do not smoke or use naked flames, and turn the gas off at the meter if it is safe to do so. Then call the National Gas Emergency Service free on 0800 111 999, ideally from outside. They will come out and make the property safe. If they find a leak on the pipework after the meter, you then need a Gas Safe registered engineer to find and fix it.
Their job is the supply up to and including the meter. If the pipework inside the property is losing pressure, they isolate it, cap it at the meter outlet and leave a warning notice. Finding and repairing the leak on your own pipework is the householder's responsibility and needs a Gas Safe registered engineer. Do not turn the supply back on yourself.
Not automatically. Plenty of older homes still have steel gas pipe that is perfectly sound. But it is often buried in walls and floors, where it can corrode over the decades and is hard to inspect. When a leak is found on it, taking that pipe out of service and running new pipe where it is needed is usually safer than patching it. A tightness test tells you whether what is left is sound.
Often, yes. If the leaking section can be isolated and capped, the rest of the installation can be tightness tested and recommissioned on the same visit, as it was here. Anything that was fed from the capped pipe stays off until it has a new supply.
Job attended and photographed by our engineers, October 2026. Written up by Saeed Iqbal, the engineer who leads Synergy Gas & Plumbing (Gas Safe registered 594385). More of our work in the area is on our Edgbaston page, and every job we write up is on the case studies index.
£99 first hour
Gas trace and repair: £99 for the first hour in office hours. Pipework repairs are quoted on site before we carry on.
No travel charge within 10 miles of B20 2JS. Further out, £2 per mile may apply — always agreed before anything is booked.
The boiler had locked out on low pressure and the customer could not find the filling loop to top it up. We found it behind the boxing, restored the pressure and checked for leaks, then got the heating going with new batteries in the wireless thermostat.
Read the case studyThe diverter valve was packed with sludge and came off the van on the first visit. The plate heat exchanger behind it was blocked too, so it was ordered and fitted on a return visit. Landlord and tenant both sorted.
Read the case studyHeat exchanger stripped and cleaned on a Viessmann that is showing its age, then the Tempest cylinder serviced on the same visit. Customer given a straight view on when to start planning a replacement boiler.
Read the case studyIf you can smell gas now, call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999 first. Once the supply is safe, we will tell you honestly when we can get to you, and agree the price before any work goes ahead.
