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Gas Line Repair in Swarthmore, PA
In Swarthmore the mains connection is the norm at 71% of households, with under 1% on tank propane. Knowing which you have is the first step and it takes one look at the wall.
Read this first
A buried service line and a meter sit on most properties in Swarthmore, where 71% of homes are on mains gas. Federal rules end the utility's service line at the meter outlet, so everything downstream of the meter is the owner's to maintain and repair.
Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey table B25040; the service line boundary is 49 CFR § 192.3.
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, and do not call us — we are a referral service, not an emergency line. The full list, in order.
How Swarthmore is supplied
The meter is the boundary the federal rules draw: a service line terminates at the meter outlet, or at the connection to customer piping if that is further downstream. Everything past it is customer piping.
Ownership and maintenance responsibility follow tariff and state regulation rather than that definition, and they do not always land in the same place. Ask where your utility’s responsibility ends before you need to know.
| Households in Swarthmore | Share |
|---|---|
| Utility (mains) gas | 71% |
| Bottled or tank propane | under 1% |
| Electricity | 16% |
| Fuel oil and kerosene | 11% |
| Wood and everything else | 1% |
Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, table B25040 (house heating fuel), 2023 release. Universe: 3,727 occupied housing units. What B25040 measures is the heating fuel, not the connection. It is the closest published proxy for whether there is a buried service line here, and it is a proxy. Service line definition: 49 CFR § 192.3, via PHMSA interpretation PI-12-0003.
Across Pennsylvania as a whole, 50% of households are on mains gas and 5% on tank propane. Swarthmore sits 21 points above the state on mains and 5 points below it on propane. The state number would tell you something true about the state and very little about here, which is why it is not the number above.
Before anyone digs on the property
Excavation damage remains the leading cause of pipeline incidents according to PHMSA. That is not a fact about pipelines so much as a fact about gardening, and the prevention is one free call to 8-1-1 before the first spade goes in.
Source: PHMSA, 811 Day.
What to ask whoever quotes it
If any part of the job is in the ground, ask when they are calling 8-1-1 and whether a private line may be in the way. Both answers should come before the excavation, not during it.
Other Pennsylvania towns we route in
- Danielsville 1% mains gas · 9% tank propane
- Chester 50% mains gas · 1% tank propane
- Blue Ridge Summit 2% mains gas · 0% tank propane
- Lansdale 50% mains gas · 3% tank propane
- Boyertown 15% mains gas · 10% tank propane
Checking a plumber in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania has no state license for plumbers. Its Department of Labor and Industry states it has no jurisdiction and keeps no records of which municipalities require one, so the only reliable answer is your own city or township. Start here. Ask the contractor which municipality licenses them and confirm it with that office before work begins.
Gas work is separately permitted and separately licensed in most jurisdictions, so ask specifically about gas rather than plumbing in general.
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. Non-emergency work in Swarthmore goes through this number as well.
Call (888) 752-8038