Passing a Gas Inspection in St. Louis: What Homeowners Should Know

A gas inspection in St. Louis can mean four different things, and we could not find one municipal rule that applies to every home in the metro. Spire, St. Louis County, the City and individual suburbs each check different items. Confirm what applies to your address with Spire and your local building office before you spend money.

What counts as a gas inspection in St. Louis?

The phrase covers separate events that happen for separate reasons:

Spire's inspections page says its indoor inspections take about 10 minutes, are free to the customer and are required about every three years. Its tariff adds that pipe and equipment beyond the meter belong to the customer and must be kept safe at the customer's expense.

Is there a rule that applies in every St. Louis municipality?

Not one we could verify. St. Louis County runs residential occupancy permits for unincorporated areas and for municipalities that contract with it, triggered by a change of occupant. The City of St. Louis has its own Housing Conservation inspection, which the city describes as a basic code inspection. Other suburbs write their own checklists, and a few, such as Brentwood, publish them.

Treat Brentwood as one example, not a template. Its December 2021 guide asks for a visual furnace and water heater inspection, working utilities, a separate gas shutoff at each gas appliance outside the housing and before the coupling, and a carbon monoxide alarm where gas appliances exist. For Mehlville or any other address, ask your building office for its own checklist.

A sale adds another layer. Many general home inspectors check gas appliances by eye and by smell, and a visual check is not the same as a pressure test of the piping. If a buyer's inspector flags a smell, a loose connector or a missing shutoff, a technician can test and repair it before the closing date.

What tends to fail a gas-related check?

The same few items show up on local checklists and in the trade:

• A missing or hard-to-reach shutoff valve at the furnace, water heater, range or dryer
• A flue pipe that does not slope up toward the chimney
• A relief valve discharge pipe that stops short or points the wrong way
• No carbon monoxide alarm, or an expired one
• A gas smell or a leak at a union, flex connector or valve

The last item is a safety problem first and a paperwork problem second. Smell gas? Get out, avoid switches and flames, and phone 911 or Spire's emergency line, 800-887-4173, once you are outside. Spire says investigating a gas smell costs the customer nothing.

Why a sniff test and a pressure test find different leaks

A nose finds a leak that is active enough to put odorant into the air you breathe. A pressure test finds the slow ones. A pinhole at a union behind a basement wall or in a ventilated utility room can seep for months without a smell reaching the living space. That is why a buyer's inspector with a gas detector and a technician with a gauge can write up the same house differently.

How a gas piping pressure test runs

The exact pressure and hold time come from the fuel gas code your building office adopted, so ask what it requires instead of assuming. The sequence is the same almost everywhere:

1. Isolate the house piping from the meter and close each appliance valve, so the test covers only the pipe.
2. Connect a gauge at a test tee or an open fitting.
3. Bring the piping to the pressure the adopted code calls for.
4. Watch the needle for the full hold time. A falling needle means a leak, though a big temperature swing in the space can nudge a reading.
5. If it falls, check each joint, union, valve and connector with leak-detection solution or an electronic detector, then repair the fault and retest.
6. Reopen the valves, relight any pilots, confirm every burner lights cleanly, and ask for the test result in writing.

Worked example: a flagged water heater before a closing

This is an illustration, not a real job. A buyer's report lists "gas odor at water heater" and "no accessible shutoff." Here is how those lines usually break down.

The honest trade-offs

Replacing an old flex connector is cheap and quick, but many connector makers say not to reuse one after an appliance has been moved, so do not let anyone just retighten it. Repairing a leaking union is usually enough; replacing a long run of aged piping is a bigger job and worth it only if a test keeps failing in several places.

Timing is the part people miss. A repair can happen quickly, but the reinspection depends on the building office's or Spire's calendar. Do not schedule a closing for the day after the repair.

Who can repair gas piping, and does it need a permit?

That is a licensing question, and the answer is local. Missouri has no statewide HVAC or mechanical contractor license. Cities and counties license these trades, and gas piping may fall under plumbing licensing in some jurisdictions, with a permit pulled by whoever does the work.

Do not assume. Ask any contractor, including us, for the license number that covers gas piping where you live, and ask who pulls the permit. Put the answer in the written quote. Our furnace repair page explains how we diagnose appliance problems, and furnace maintenance covers the annual safety check.

Questions to put to your building office

• Which inspection does my sale or move-in trigger, and is it a visual check or a pressure test?
• Which license covers gas piping repair here, and does the repair need a permit?
• Who pulls that permit, and is it in the written quote?
• How do I book the reinspection, and what does it cost?

From the reviews: leaks found, fixed and retested

Two Google reviewers describe gas problems. Frederick E. wrote that after a gas inspection, Kenan found the leaks, fixed them and tested the pressure, and the work passed Spire's inspection.

A second reviewer, a local business, wrote that their gas had been shut off because of a leak, that Kenan showed up on the day of the call at the promised time, and that the whole process was talked through with them. Neither review names a city, so treat them as customer experiences, not a promise about your address.

Before your inspection day

Clear access to the furnace, water heater and shutoffs. Check that the alarms work. Do not tackle gas fittings yourself, since a mistake there can leave a leak. If an inspector or Spire flagged a problem, a technician can find the source, repair it and test the pressure.

Talk to a specialist at (321) 478-0693 for a gas-related furnace or water heater check. We are open 24 hours, and we give you a clear, upfront quote before work starts. Mehlville is about 55 minutes from our base near Spanish Lake in normal traffic, so call first to confirm scheduling.