If you smell gas, do not use this site. Leave the building on foot, do not use a phone, a light switch or anything else that could ignite, and call 911 and your gas utility from somewhere else. Do not call us — we are a referral service and we are not an emergency line. What to do, in order.

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Gas Line Repair in Iowa

Across the 28 Iowa towns we route calls in, 57% of households are on mains gas and 15% on bottled or tank propane. Those are two different arrangements with two different answers about who owns the pipe.

Read this first

Across the 28 Iowa towns covered here, 57% of households are on mains gas and 15% on bottled or tank propane. On mains gas the utility's regulated line ends at the meter outlet; a propane tank has no such boundary.

Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey table B25040; the service line boundary is 49 CFR § 192.3.

GaslineSafe is a referral service, not a contractor and not an emergency service. If you suspect a leak, leave and call 911 and your gas utility — not us. Otherwise we connect homeowners with independent contractors. Contractors are required to hold whatever credential their state or municipality demands, and gas work is separately licensed in most of them; every state page sets out who licenses plumbers there and where to check. We carry out no work, we do not set prices, and we never charge homeowners anything — the contractors in our network pay us when we route them a call.

If you smell gas right now

Leave the building on foot. Do not use a phone or a light switch inside. Call 911 and your gas utility from somewhere else — not us. The full list, in order.

Source: PHMSA, Pipeline Leak Recognition and What to Do.

How Iowa is supplied

Households in IowaShareHomes
Utility (mains) gas57%17,624
Bottled or tank propane15%4,602

Weighted across 31,176 occupied homes. The spread inside the state is the point: Arnolds Park is highest on mains at 80%, and Ocheyedan has the largest propane share at 72%. A state figure describes neither.

Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, table B25040 (house heating fuel), 2023 release. B25040 records what heats the house, which is the best available guide to whether a property has mains gas or a tank — it does not count service lines directly.

The two arrangements, and why the difference is not cosmetic

Of the 28 towns we route in here, 23 are mostly on mains gas, 5 have a substantial propane share, 0 are split between the two and 0 use very little gas of any kind.

On a mains connection, 49 CFR § 192.3 ends the regulated service line at "the outlet of the customer meter or at the connection to a customer’s piping, whichever is further downstream" — so part of the system is the operator’s. On propane there is no service line and no meter boundary, and the whole installation is the property owner’s.

Source: 49 CFR § 192.3, via PHMSA interpretation PI-12-0003.

Before anyone digs, anywhere in Iowa

PHMSA describes excavation damage as the leading cause of pipeline incidents, and puts a caller’s chance of avoiding one at 99 percent. 8-1-1 is nationwide, toll-free and free to use. Ask what they will and will not mark — privately owned buried line frequently is not.

Source: PHMSA, 811 Day.

Checking a plumber in Iowa

Iowa licenses are issued by the Iowa Plumbing and Mechanical Systems Board, which publishes a public search you can use before work begins.

Gas work is separately permitted and separately licensed in most jurisdictions, so ask specifically about gas rather than plumbing in general.

Towns we route in Iowa

For repair work, not for a suspected leak.If you can smell gas, leave and call 911 or your utility from outside; this is the wrong number for that. For everything else — a line, a meter, an appliance connection — we will route you to a contractor covering your area, free of charge to you. Gas work heads this site; other plumbing is handled too.

Call (888) 752-8038
Call (888) 752-8038