Cooktops, heaters and gas lines installed, tested and certified in one visit, and a two minute check on the valve that only matters on one night in twenty years.
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Every property with gas has an isolation valve at the meter. Turning it shuts the gas off to the whole place. It is the thing you reach for if you ever smell gas and can safely get to it, and for most households that is a once-in-a-lifetime event.
Which is precisely the problem. Something you use once every twenty years is something nobody checks, and there are two questions worth answering long before that night arrives.
The first is where it is, and it is worth walking out and looking. Not roughly, not the meter box in general, but which handle. It is a two minute exercise and it removes the worst part of a bad situation, which is standing in the dark trying to work out what you are looking at.
The second is whether it will move. A valve that has sat untouched for two decades can be stiff or seized, and finding that out under pressure is not the moment for it. Do not force it yourself, because a valve that fails while being forced is a worse problem than a stiff one. Ask somebody to check it, and if we are already at the property for anything else, it costs you nothing.
No switches, no phones indoors. Turn it off at the meter only if you can reach it safely, then ring from outside.
Get air moving through the building. Windows and doors open, and then leave anything electrical alone, because a switch, a fan or a doorbell is an ignition source and so is a phone in the room.
If the meter is somewhere you can reach without going past the smell, turn the supply off there. If it is not, leave it and get out.
Make the call from outside. We will tell you plainly if the situation is one for the network's emergency crew rather than for us, and that answer costs you nothing.
A handle or a tap on the meter assembly, shutting off the whole property. That is the one control that stops gas entering the building, and it is the one worth knowing about.
Individual appliances frequently have their own isolation as well, which is useful for a specific problem and not useful in an emergency.
Go and look at yours now rather than reading about it. It takes a minute and it is the entire point of this page.
Nothing stacked in front of it, no locked gate between you and it, and enough room to get a hand on the handle and turn it.
Meters end up behind bins, inside storage cupboards, behind a gate that was added later, or screened by planting that has grown. None of that is unusual and all of it matters at the wrong moment.
It is also worth somebody else in the household knowing, because the person who reads pages like this is not always the person who is home.
And a valve in that state can be stiff or seized. Nothing has moved it since the day it was installed, and outdoor metalwork does not improve with two decades of weather.
That is worth knowing before the night you need it rather than during. A valve that will not turn is functionally the same as not having one.
It is not a fault anybody has caused. It is simply what happens to a mechanism nobody exercises.
A valve that fails while being forced is worse than one that is merely stiff, because now there is gas escaping at the meter and no way to stop it.
Try it gently. If it does not move with reasonable hand pressure, stop, and get it looked at as ordinary work rather than as an emergency.
That is the whole of the advice, and it is the reason this page says test it rather than test it hard.
Exercise it, service it, or replace the valve, depending on what we find. On most properties it is a short job and an inexpensive one.
Where the valve is part of the network's assets rather than yours, we will tell you that and tell you who to call. We are not going to bill you for something that is not yours to fix.
Either way you finish knowing that the control works, which is the outcome that matters.
If we are at the property for any gas work, it costs nothing to include. It is a poor reason for its own call-out and a good thing to add to a visit.
Mention it when you book. It takes a couple of minutes at the end of a job that is happening anyway.
The same applies to showing you where it is and how it works, which is genuinely more valuable than most of what people ask us about.
Adding an appliance is a calculation against total demand rather than a connection. The line has a capacity and so does the meter, and a new cooktop or continuous flow unit has to fit inside both.
Where it does not, appliances starve each other, and a burner that drops off whenever somebody runs a shower is nearly always this rather than a faulty appliance.
Doing the sums first is most of the difference between an installation that works and a callback.
Pipe diameter chosen for the distance and the load. A pressure test that holds. Clearances taken from the manufacturer's instructions rather than from what looked about right. A flue that terminates where it is meant to.
Every one of those is finished and covered before anybody hands over an appliance, and none of them can be checked afterwards without taking something apart.
That is why a certificate is worth more than a working appliance. The appliance proves the gas arrived. The certificate is the only account of how.
Every gas job finishes with a compliance certificate recording who did the work, that they held a licence, and that the installation met the standard on the day.
Keep it with the property papers. It is what an insurer asks for after an incident and what a conveyancer eventually asks for at sale, and it cannot be recreated afterwards.
On a house that changes hands as often as these do, it is also the only thing that tells the next owner what was actually done.
Fixed price agreed before anything starts. These are indicative 2026 ranges.
With any other gas work at the property. Ask when you book.
Where the check finds one that will not operate.
Connected, tested and certified in one visit.
Priced on the run rather than by the hour.
Made safe at any hour, with the cause established afterwards.
And whether you know where your isolation valve is. If the answer is no, we will add it to the visit.
The work itself, plus the meter assembly and the valve if you have asked for it.
Fitted to the Australian Standards and pressure tested before anything is signed off.
The certificate in your hand, and if we checked the valve, you get shown exactly which one it is before we go.
Get outside, leave the switches alone, and ring. A licensed gas fitter can be on the way immediately.
Call 1300 381 569At the meter, in almost every case. It is the handle or tap on the pipework at the meter assembly, and turning it shuts the gas off to the whole property. If you do not know which one it is, that is worth finding out on a quiet afternoon rather than on the night you need it.
That is the question worth asking, and a surprising number of people assume yes. A valve that has not been operated in twenty years can be stiff or seized. Knowing that in advance is a very different situation from discovering it while standing outside in the dark.
You can look at it, confirm which one it is, and make sure you can physically get to it: nothing stacked in front of it, no gate locked between you and it. Whether it turns freely is a thing to have checked rather than to force, because a valve that fails while being forced is a worse problem than a stiff one.
Get everyone outside first. Do not touch a light switch or anything electrical, do not use a phone indoors. Turn the supply off at the meter only if you can reach it safely, then ring from outside.
Yes, and we would rather do that than make a separate visit of it. If we are already at the property for anything gas related, ask and it takes a couple of minutes.
Yes, on every gas job, and on the day rather than in the post. Keep it with the property papers.
An isolation valve check is included with any other gas work at the property. Replacing a seized valve is $200 to $450. An appliance connection is $200 to $500. A new gas point is $500 to $1,200.
Tell us what you need doing, and whether you could find your isolation valve in the dark. If the honest answer is no, say so and we will fix that while we are there.
Installed, tested and certified, with the paperwork handed over on the day.
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