I think that, if you’re going to talk about a situation where your house could have exploded, you should start off with some clarity.
The house didn’t explode.
So, the story:
Last Friday was the scheduled appointment for the gas company to come to the house and check the gas meter in the basement. I had this done at my prior house and it seemed like a huge waste of time. The technician takes this hissing box with a hose on the end of it to the basement where he waves it around near the gas meter and then that’s it. The appointment window is 4 hours long and you have to be home – and be a responsible adult.
Which, for me, seems like a lot.
But I work from home on Friday’s and set the appointment up. The dude arrived right after I let the dogs out so that worked out. I guided him to the basement and he did the “wave the hissing box with a hose around” for a bit, and then went “humph” when it beeped. It kept beeping whenever he waved it near where the pipe came into the house.
The box had found something.
He did a little more testing, then told me that he thought that there was a leak in the service line and that the gas was traveling along the outside of the pipe into the house. Not a lot, but enough that it needed to be addressed.
He went outside and tracked down where the service line was, next to the mailbox. He did some more checking, then turned off the gas entirely.
So much for my mac and cheese on the stove.
He then made some calls and told me that a crew would be out to replace the service line – hopefully today.
Then was on his way.
I let the dogs back in and got back to work. Jim had a half day in the office and when he got home he came upstairs to my office and asked if we were getting a new gas meter. Apparently, the crew had shown up with no prior call this time and were already digging up the front yard. And one of the guys had followed Jim into the garage to get access to the basement.
We went out and talked to the crew and got the gist. They would need to dig up the lines near our mailbox and on the other side of the street and would replace a section of the line. Then, another technician would come out later to turn everything back on.
I got back to work again and Jim took a nap. When the crew was done they gave me the update and were on their way.
When I logged off for the day I let the dogs out again and the last technician showed up. He checked the new gas meter, lit the pilot lights on the furnace and gas heater, and then came up to light the stove.
And here is where I thought we would have an explosion. He turned on all the burners and left one of them on “light”. And then we waited.
He stood right there at the stove and as the burner continued to click I started to step back. Then I started to smell gas and wondered what I would look like without eyebrows.
Still, we waited. By this point, I was at the door to the kitchen and wondered if I would hurt my shoulder when I dove out of the doorway from the inevitable explosion.
And then, a quiet “whump” and all the burners lit. He turned them all off and was on his way.
The yard is a little torn up, but the house didn’t explode at all.
Call it a win.