Gas Line Repair & Installation in Santa Fe, NM
Gas work in New Mexico is licensed work. A smell, a hiss, or a heater that soots at 7,200 feet is not a YouTube project. We pressure-test, repair or replace pipe, hook ranges, heaters, and dryers, and we do not leave a joint we have not checked. If you smell gas, leave, then call 505-316-4231 and the utility if it is strong.
Gas work in New Mexico is licensed work. A smell, a hiss, or a heater that soots at 7,200 feet is not a YouTube project. We pressure-test, repair or replace pipe, hook ranges, heaters, and dryers, and we do not leave a joint we have not checked. If you smell gas, leave, then call 505-316-4231 and the utility if it is strong.
Content reviewed 2026-10-01.
Altitude changes combustion, not the leak physics
A leak is a leak. What altitude changes is how the appliance burns after the pipe is sound. We test both. CSST bonding and proper supports are code, not extras.
Permits on new lines
New gas pipe and many relocations need a permit and a pressure test the inspector wants to see. We file it. A “friend with a wrench” is how a sale dies.
We pressure-test. We do not relight and leave
A gas leak is not a feeling. We use a detector and a soap test, and if we open the system we pressure-test it before we walk away. A joint that holds at the moment you light the pilot can still be a leak at operating pressure. Sediment traps and drip legs exist because the gas in a long steel run drops scale into the valve. We install them where the appliance manual and the code want them. We do not skip them to save twenty minutes on a water heater swap.
CSST, steel, and the bond
Corrugated stainless is common in remodels because it bends through the places black steel will not. It has to be bonded, it has to be protected where it can be pierced, and it has to be the product the manufacturer still supports. We do not bury a connector that was meant to be a final whip, and we do not run CSST where it can be hit by a shelf or a car. Black steel is the right material for a lot of exposed runs. The choice is about the route and the listing, not about which one photographs better.
Appliances, regulators, and altitude
A new range, a new heater, or a pool heater added onto an old meter can be more load than the regulator and the pipe were sized for. We add up the BTUs before we tie in. At 7,200 feet the appliance also has to be set for the air. A line that is the right size feeding an orifice that is wrong will still run rich. Gas work and combustion setup are the same visit when we install the appliance. They are not a plumber and “someone else for the flame” unless you want two trips and a gap where the appliance is piped and not safe to fire.
Permits and the shutoff you can reach
A new gas line or a moved appliance in Santa Fe is permitted. Each appliance gets a shutoff you can reach without moving the appliance. We do not hide a valve behind a drawer and we do not leave a capped stub that is still charged because “you might add a grill.” If you will add a grill, we pipe it and we valve it. If you will not, we do not leave a future leak in the wall. The test, the inspection, and the labels are part of the quote. License 384927.
What we will not do with gas
We will not use water-pipe fittings on a gas line. We will not reuse a flared fitting that has already been made up. We will not light an appliance in a room with no combustion air because the closet was finished around it. We will not tell you a rotten flexible connector is “fine for now” if it is the connector on a range that gets pulled out for cleaning. If we smell gas and we cannot make it safe, the valve stays off and we say so. Call 505-316-4231. If you already smell a strong odor, leave and call the gas company from outside, then call us for the repair.
How a gas job is sequenced
We kill the appliance valve, and the meter valve if the work is on the trunk. The line is opened only after the pressure is off. New pipe is cut, threaded or pressed with fittings listed for gas, and supported so it is not hanging on a valve. Drip legs go in where the drop to an appliance wants them. A shutoff lands within reach of the appliance. We cap anything we are not connecting today. Then we pressure-test the section we touched, with a gauge we can watch, for long enough that a slow leak has time to show. Soap is the second test at the joints after the gas is back. A detector is the third. Lighting the appliance is last, and only after the orifice and the vent make sense for this elevation.
Additions people underestimate
A range and a heater and a dryer and a fireplace on a half-inch trunk is a sizing problem, not a “just tee it in” problem. We add the BTUs. If the meter or the regulator is the limit, we say so before we run pipe that cannot be fed. A grill stub on a deck needs a valve outside and a line that is protected from the weather and from a shovel. We do not leave a uncapped future in the wall. If the historic street side is the only place a vent can terminate, that is a design review conversation and it happens before the pipe is in.
The paper
Permit when the city or the county requires it, which is the normal case for a new line. Inspection before concealing. We do not bury a gas joint in a wall we just closed because the inspector was booked for Thursday and you wanted the cabinet back. You can live with an open bay for two days. You cannot easily live with a leak in a closed bay. License 384927. If the odor is strong right now, leave the house and call the utility from outside.
Sizing, bonding, and the inspection we wait for
Tell us every appliance on the line, not only the one you are adding. A tankless heater added to a house that already has a furnace, a range, and a dryer is the classic undersized trunk. We measure the run and we size it. CSST gets bonded the way the manufacturer lists, not the way a forum remembers. Steel gets supported and it gets a drip leg at the drop. The test is a gauge, a wait, and then soap and a detector after the gas is back. We do not accept “I don’t smell anything” as the test. Permits in the city are normal. Concealed piping stays visible until it is inspected. If you are in the county, the counter is different and the license is the same 384927. Historic houses that need a vent or a meter moved where the street can see it get that conversation before we cut stucco. We will not light a fireplace, a pool heater, or a range that has no shutoff you can reach. We will not connect gas to an appliance that is not installed yet and leave it charged. A future grill gets a valve and a cap, or it does not get a pipe. If you smell gas before we arrive, the utility is the first call from outside. We are the repair after the building is safe to enter.
List every appliance, even the ones that work
The furnace, the heater, the range, the dryer, the fireplace, the grill stub. A line sized for the new tankless and forgetful of the furnace will starve the furnace the first morning both fire. We add BTUs on paper before we add a tee. If a appliance is going away, say that too, because it changes the size and it changes whether we cap or remove. Sediment traps stay in the quote. They are not optional flavor. The test and the permit stay in the quote. If you are comparing a bid that has neither, you are comparing different jobs.
What we actually get called for
Not a generic list — these are the failures this climate and housing stock produce.
Odor at a union
We soap and meter. We do not sniff and shrug.
New range, old valve
Hookup includes the shutoff and leak test, not just a flare nut.
Flexible connector past its life
We replace dated connectors when we are already in the cabinet.
CO alarm after a heater service
Combustion and venting, not only the pipe.
How a job runs
Make safe
Shut the cock. Ventilate. No pilots until it is clean.
Find and repair
Joints, valves, or a run of pipe.
Pressure test
Documented when the job requires it.
Questions people ask before they call
Is a gas smell always a leak?
Treat it as one until a meter says no. Dead animals and sewer gas fool people. We bring instruments.
Can you run gas to a new fire pit or heater?
Yes, sized and permitted. Outdoor lines have burial and material rules we follow.
Do you work with the gas utility?
We work from the house side of their meter. Meter and street issues are theirs.
City pages that stay
Gas Plumbing stays on this URL. Santa Fe, Los Alamos, and Española each have one plumber page. Other towns 308 here or to those three. Call 505-316-4231.
Need gas plumbing?
Lobo Tech · NM license 384927 · 1259 Coriander Rd, Santa Fe · 505-316-4231