Gas Line Repair in Bluffton, SC

Smell gas?

Leave the house first, then call from outside. Dominion Energy South Carolina’s gas leak line is (800) 815-0083, and 911 is always right.

Who has gas

About 3 in 10 homes inside the town limits heat with natural gas and 7 in 10 with electricity. In ZIP 29909 (Sun City and Okatie), gas leads, at about 6 in 10 homes; in ZIP 29910, about 2 in 10 (as of 2024).

Who owns what

Dominion Energy South Carolina brings gas to the meter. The pipe after the meter, to the range, dryer, grill or generator, is the owner’s, and a plumber repairs it.

Before digging

Call 811 at least 3 full working days ahead, before a trench for a new line or a fence post near an old one.

Permit office

Inside the town limits, the Town of Bluffton at 20 Bridge Street; outside them, Beaufort County building codes.

Is gas on your street?

Dominion has a gas availability checker on its website; a "maybe" or "no" answer is when to ask about a propane tank instead.

Natural gas is given a rotten-egg smell so a leak is easy to notice. If you smell it, leave the house first and call from outside, from a neighbor’s or from your car. Don’t flip switches, run the garage door, light anything or use a doorbell on the way out. Call Dominion Energy South Carolina’s gas leak line at (800) 815-0083, or 911 if the smell is strong or someone feels sick.

Once Dominion has checked the meter and made it safe, the plumbers on this page repair the leak if it is in the pipe after the meter. R.S. Andrews also points to dead or discolored grass over a buried line as a sign of an underground leak, and Dyess Air & Plumbing, Howell-Chase and R.S. Andrews answer emergencies around the clock.

A repair fixes a leaking joint, fitting or connector in a line that is otherwise sound. A gas line replacement swaps out a longer run, such as a corroded pipe or a line damaged by digging. Gas line installation is a new run to a stove, dryer, fireplace, outdoor grill, fire pit, pool heater or generator; R.S. Andrews lists new lines for a stove, fireplace or outdoor grill, and Dyess Air & Plumbing and Howell-Chase list gas line repair and gas line installation as separate services on their sites.

Bluffton’s housing is young: about 6 in 10 homes inside the town limits were built in 2010 or later, so most gas lines here are newer and the common jobs are new connections, such as a gas grill or generator added to a house that already has gas, rather than old pipe that has rotted out. Ask which pipe material the plumber will use and who tests the line afterward.

Dominion Energy South Carolina asks you to call 811 at least 3 full working days before digging, for a fence, a tree, a pool or a trench for a new gas line. The locate marks the utility’s lines, not the pipe from the meter to your back-yard grill, which is yours; a plumber who installs a new line knows where the old one runs. A gas line cut by a shovel is a leak: leave the area and call the Dominion leak line at (800) 815-0083.

Most of the town’s homes heat with electricity, so a gas line is a choice in new houses and not a given. Dominion Energy South Carolina’s website has a tool to check for gas availability at an address; if it says maybe or no, ask the plumber about running a line from a propane tank instead. In ZIP 29909, around Sun City Hilton Head and Okatie, gas leads, at about 6 in 10 homes; in ZIP 29910, around Old Town, Belfair and the Bluffton side of US 278, about 2 in 10 do.

Utilities differ by neighborhood, so the Bluffton utilities guide is the place to see who provides what at your address.

Plumbing and gas work needs a permit. Inside the town limits, the permit comes from the Town of Bluffton’s Growth Management office at 20 Bridge Street; the Town’s minor projects application lists plumbing and gas among its work types and asks for the contractor’s SC LLR license number and Town business license number. Plumbing work also needs the contractor’s notarized Mechanical Certificate.

Much of the area with a Bluffton address is outside the town limits and there the permit comes from Beaufort County’s building codes office. The county’s posted procedure for swapping in a gas tankless water heater, the closest posted example, has the contractor apply with state and county license numbers, then a pressure test on the new gas piping and a final inspection; ask whether your job gets the same. The plumber pulls the permit, so ask whether the quote includes it. Check a contractor’s license on the SC LLR license lookup before you sign.

For gas line repair in Okatie, two of the companies here name Okatie as a place they work: R.S. Andrews and ALL Plumbing Company. In a straight line, R.S. Andrews is about 5.4 miles from Okatie Village and ALL Plumbing Company about 7.4. Ask either about gas line replacement in Okatie too, since a replacement is a bigger job with a permit and a pressure test.

Okatie is mostly in ZIP 29909, where natural gas leads, at about 6 in 10 homes, so gas line work there is more often a repair or an extension of an existing line than a first-time run. Most of Okatie, including the area around Sun City Hilton Head, sits outside the town limits, so the permit usually comes from Beaufort County; ask the plumber to confirm.

Two companies here say on their own sites that they work in Hardeeville: R.S. Andrews and ALL Plumbing Company. For gas line repair in Hardeeville, and gas line installation in Hardeeville, the shops are about 11.5 to 12.5 miles away in a straight line, ALL Plumbing Company at Buckhead Bay Road being the closest. Ask about travel charges before you book. None of the four names Ridgeland, about 17 to 20 miles away, so ask first.

Hardeeville and Ridgeland are in Jasper County, across the county line, so the Beaufort County and Town of Bluffton permit offices above do not cover gas work there. Ask the plumber which office pulls the permit.

A short repair to a fitting is the smallest job. The price of a replacement or a new line grows with the length of the run, whether it goes through a wall, a slab or a yard, how many appliances it feeds, and the permit and pressure test. Trenching through a finished lawn or patio costs more than running pipe in an open attic or crawl space.

Howell-Chase lists no service-call or dispatch fees. Get two written quotes for a replacement or new line, and ask what is included: the permit, the pressure test, digging and patching. For other plumbing work, see the best plumbers in Bluffton, water heater repair in Bluffton and frozen pipe repair in Bluffton; on the island, see the best plumbers on Hilton Head.