Gas Line Installation and
Repair in Palo Alto, CA
New lines for ranges, barbecues, pool heaters, fire pits and dryers, plus valve work and seismic shutoff valves. Every line is pressure tested and permitted, and one of our employees attends the inspection. JetPipe is a family owned, licensed C-36 plumbing contractor.
New Lines, Extensions and Valve Work
Most commonly a house that has always cooked on electric and wants gas, which means a new run rather than a connection. Cabinet layout decides the route more than distance does.
A permanent line means never carrying a propane tank again. Routing under a patio is easier before the patio exists, so it is worth asking early if any landscaping is planned.
Bigger appliances that pull more than a range does, which makes sizing the line the part that matters. An undersized run starves everything else on the system.
Smaller additions, same rules. Permitted, pressure tested, inspected.
Shutoff valves that have seized, and automatic valves that close the gas when the ground moves hard enough.
In Palo Alto the Gas Comes From the City Utility
Palo Alto is unusual: the city itself owns and runs the electric, gas, water and wastewater utilities through City of Palo Alto Utilities (CPAU). That means the gas here comes from the City's own gas utility rather than a private utility company, and a gas problem goes to the City, not to the number your neighbors in Sunnyvale would call.
The meter and the service line up to it belong to the utility. The piping after the meter belongs to the homeowner, and that is the part we work on. In the older parts of town it is often original black iron, with old flex connectors on ranges and fireplaces that have not been touched in decades.
Permits go through the City's online portal. Our permit department pulls the permit and one of our employees attends the inspection. Instant permits exist for licensed contractors, but only for a simple like-for-like gas tank water heater swap, so gas line work generally goes through regular review, and we confirm what applies at the estimate. Palo Alto's code also asks about electric readiness when a gas appliance is added or replaced; we confirm what applies at the estimate.
An Automatic Valve Closes the Gas When Nobody Is Home to Do It
A seismic shutoff valve sits on the house side of the gas meter and closes automatically when shaking passes a set threshold. The reason it exists is simple. After a serious quake, the danger to a house is often not the shaking. It is the gas still flowing into a line that cracked during it, and the person who would have gone outside and turned it off by hand is frequently not there.
New construction across much of this area already requires one, and insurers sometimes ask for one on an existing house. Plenty of houses here predate the requirement entirely, so the valve was never fitted and nobody has thought about it since.
Fitting one is a short job on an accessible meter. We size the valve to your line, install it to code, leak test afterward, and show you how to reset it if it ever trips.
Capping a Line You No Longer Need
Not every gas call adds a line. A good number of them remove one, because the house is moving an appliance over to electric and the old run has to be capped properly rather than left with a valve on the end and a hope.
This comes up most often with water heaters, where the house is switching to a heat pump unit and the gas line that fed the old tank has no further use. We handle both halves of that job, so the capping is not a separate visit from a separate company.
Leave the House, Then Call the Gas Utility
If there is a smell of gas in the house, leave it before doing anything else. Do not switch lights on or off on the way out. Once you are outside, call the City's gas utility emergency line or 911. That call is theirs, not ours.
Once the utility has made the property safe and identified where the problem sits, if it is on the house side of the meter, that is the part we repair.
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Gas Line Work Across Palo Alto
We are based in Sunnyvale and serve Palo Alto homes, so a job here is a short drive rather than a trip across the valley.
Professorville, Old Palo Alto, Crescent Park, Downtown North, University South, College Terrace, Barron Park, Midtown, Charleston Meadows, Greenmeadow, Fairmeadow, Green Gables, Palo Verde
The map shows where we work most weeks, not a fence. We are based in Sunnyvale and serve Palo Alto homes regularly. One call tells you whether we can reach you and when.
We cook on electric and want a gas range. How big a job is that?
Mostly a question of route. In a slab-on-grade Eichler with radiant heat in the floor, gas cannot simply run under the slab, so the line usually goes through the attic or along the exterior, and we plan it around the slab. In an older Professorville or Crescent Park house, the route depends on what is behind the walls and what black iron is already there. We walk it before quoting.
Can you run a line out to a barbecue or a fire pit?
Outdoor lines are a regular job here, especially with the remodels and outdoor kitchens going in around Palo Alto. A permanent line ends the tank swapping, and the cost depends on the distance and what the line has to cross. If you are planning a patio or landscaping, running the gas first is far cheaper than running it after.
Is a seismic shutoff valve required, or just a good idea?
Required in some cases and wise in nearly all. New construction generally requires one, and insurers sometimes ask for one on an older property, so a remodel or rebuild may bring it up. Where it is not required, it is still the cheapest protection available against the thing that causes most of the damage after a quake. We confirm what applies at the estimate.
Who is responsible for the gas line, the utility or me?
The City’s gas utility owns the meter and the service line up to it. After the meter, the piping is the homeowner’s, which covers everything inside the walls and every line running out to an appliance in the yard. That is the side we work on, and in older Palo Alto houses it is often original black iron.
How do you know a new line is sound before it is used?
Pressure testing comes first. Every line we install is tested and held before it goes into service. Our permit department pulls the permit through the City’s online portal, and one of our employees attends the city inspection before anything is closed up. Gas work is one place where nothing gets taken on trust, including our own.
Can my existing gas line handle another appliance?
Not automatically. Every gas system has a capacity, and a new range, fireplace or pool heater added to a line already close to its limit will starve whatever else is running at the same time. We calculate the load across the whole house before quoting, which sometimes means upsizing a section rather than only running the new branch. Palo Alto’s code also asks about electric readiness when a gas appliance is added or replaced; we confirm what applies at the estimate.