With proper modesty I have to reveal a talent I possess in order to properly deliver this story. For years I have been able to smell the scent of natural gas in dwellings, even small leaks were noticed by this nose of mine. Why just last week when installing an ice-maker water line I discovered a leak on a fairly recent gas line serving a new furnace. Thankfully it was not large enough to cause an explosion; however it was not a good situation, to say the least.

     Here is where the theme of this newsletter comes in: Two Scents. I had just installed a new gas line for a space heater in a very nice home in the city. As commonly practiced plumbers will ‘gauge’ the gas meter, shutting off all appliances and marking the ½ pound needle on the gas meter. There should be no movement on that needle thus showing there are no leaks. To my surprise this needle moved! I used a gas leak detector on all of my new piping; it showed no leaks at all. I then checked the house gas lines; I found 4 different leaks in various joints. I repaired each of these leaks; still I was not able to get a good meter test. This was a blow to my so-called talent for smelling gas, and then the obvious answer came to me: The previous tenant had cats! These cats had sprayed their scent all over this dwelling, especially in the basement. It had rendered my nose useless, and the deliberate attempt of the gas company to add the smell of rotten eggs to their product for safety. The scent of the cats totally hid the scent of gas.

         What I learned from this is: The safest way to detect a gas leak is to have natural gas (or Propane) detectors in the dwelling; they install just like a smoke detector, the cats would not stop those, they will stop a nose!

                                           Thanks, JJ