Homeowners' pick for heating and cooling across northeast Ohio and the Western Reserve
Smelling Gas at Home
You walked past the furnace and caught that rotten-egg smell. Maybe it is faint, maybe it hits you at the basement stairs. Either way, you want to know if it is dangerous and what to do right now. Here is the order we tell every homeowner: get people out first, call for help second, and let the diagnosis wait until the building is safe.
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Written by the Trusted Comfort service team and checked by our field technicians
1. Leave the Building, Then Call 911 or Your Gas Utility
If you smell gas near the furnace, get everyone out of the house first, then call 911 or your gas utility from outside. Do that before anything else, including calling us. Take pets with you and leave the door open behind you if you can do it without stopping to think about it. Stand well away from the house, across the street or at the end of the driveway, and wait there. The gas utility will send someone out to check the line and the meter, and they can shut off supply at the street if that is what the situation calls for. Do not go back inside until they tell you it is safe.
2. What Not to Do on Your Way Out
Do not flip any switches, on or off. That includes light switches, the furnace switch, and the thermostat. Do not use a lighter or strike a match, and do not stay inside to make phone calls. Do not try to find the leak, tighten a fitting, relight a pilot, or shut off a gas valve yourself. Gas piping and gas controls are work for the utility and for a heating technician, not for a homeowner in a hurry. Do not open windows on your way out if that means walking deeper into the smell. Getting out fast matters more than airing the house out, and the utility will handle ventilation when they arrive.
3. Carbon Monoxide Is a Different Warning, Same First Move
Natural gas is odorized so you can smell it. Carbon monoxide has no smell at all, which is why detectors matter. If a CO alarm sounds, treat it exactly like a gas smell: everyone outside, then call 911 from outside. Headaches, nausea, dizziness or drowsiness that ease up once you step outdoors are worth taking seriously, and so is a group of people in the house feeling off at the same time. Put CO alarms on every level of the house and near sleeping areas, and replace them at the interval printed on the unit. An old furnace with a cracked heat exchanger can produce CO without any gas odor to warn you.
4. When to Call Us and What We Check
Once the utility has cleared the house or shut off the furnace, call us for the heating repair side of it. We work on furnaces, boilers and heat pumps for homeowners across Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, New York and West Virginia. On arrival we inspect gas connections at the furnace, the gas valve, the burners and the pilot or ignition assembly, then check the heat exchanger for cracks and confirm the flue is drafting the way it should. Older homes in this region often have furnaces retrofitted into venting that was built for something else, and that shows up in these calls. If a part is unsafe, we tell you plainly and give you the options.
5. What Might Not Be Gas
A few smells get mistaken for gas, and they still deserve a look. A dusty, hot-metal smell in the first week of the heating season is usually dust burning off the heat exchanger and it should fade within an hour or two. A sharp electrical or burning-plastic smell points at a motor, a wire or a control board and should get a service call, not a wait-and-see. A sewer-like smell near a floor drain can be a dry trap. Here is the rule we live by: if you are not certain what you are smelling, treat it as gas. Get out, call the utility, and let someone confirm it. Guessing wrong costs too much.
Smelling Gas at Home — straight answers
Should I turn off the furnace before I leave?
No. Do not touch switches, the thermostat or the gas valve. Any switch can spark. Get everyone outside first and call 911 or the gas utility, then let them shut things down safely.
The smell is very faint. Is that still an emergency?
Treat it as one. A faint odor can mean a small leak or a leak somewhere you cannot smell fully. Step outside, call your gas utility, and let them measure it rather than guessing indoors.
Why do I smell gas only when the furnace starts?
It can point to a burner, gas valve or ignition problem, or to poor venting pulling combustion gases back into the house. Leave and call the utility first, then call us for the heating repair.
How it works
- Step 1
Tell us the symptom
Call or fill in the quote form and describe what changed. Warm air, no air, a smell, a noise, a breaker that keeps tripping. Details on the phone shorten the visit considerably.
- Step 2
We diagnose on site
A technician checks the thermostat, airflow, electrical connections, the outdoor unit and the heat exchanger side before naming a cause. You get the finding in plain words, not a parts list you cannot read.
- Step 3
You approve the repair
We explain what failed, what it takes to fix it, and what happens if you wait. Nothing gets replaced without your say so. Most common repairs are handled the same visit.
- A real person answers
- Open 7 days
- Written quote before work starts
Why homeowners call us
- Old housing stock is normal hereBasements with converted octopus trunk lines, ducts retrofitted around joists, returns that were never sized right. We work in these houses constantly and we size the repair to the house you actually have.
- Long heating seasonsFurnaces in this region run hard from October into April, and lake effect stretches it further. We know what wear looks like at that mileage, from cracked igniters to blower motors that have been dragging for two winters.
- Cooling and heating bothOne crew for air conditioning repair and heating repair. The same ductwork moves air in July and January, so a technician who understands both sides catches problems a single-season contractor tends to walk past.
- Plain talk about repair versus replaceSometimes a part fixes it for years. Sometimes you are putting money into a system that is done. We tell you which one we think you are looking at and why, then leave the decision with you.
- All major brands, gas & electricIndependent service on Carrier, Trane, Lennox, Goodman, York and the rest.
- Straight answersNot worth fixing? We say that out loud, and often it saves you the visit fee.
About this guide
Past the safe checks, it's a job for tools and a meter
Tell us what you tried and what it did. The booking itself takes a minute.
- A real person answers
- Open 7 days
- Written quotes
- All major brands
- Gas & electric
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