Cooking Gas Outage

This is a problem when some irate tenant calls ConEd to cause trouble and says "I smell gas." Almost no building this age can pass a "pressure test" and as a result ConEd cuts gas to the building.

@30yrs - What are your thoughts on Local Law 152? I just looked up our building’s first compliance deadline and am frustrated that this was not on our Managing Agent’s radar at all.

I have no direct experience. I think buildings in Manhattan need to be inspected in 2021. My guess is the vast majority of buildings will do nothing until then. However my understanding is that it doesn't require a pressure test, but a visual inspection of all exposed piping plus a "sniffer test" (there are electronic "sniffers" - at least that's what the guys at Brooklyn Union Gas called them when I was consulting there - which test for the presence of gas. In my best Sheldon Cooper voice:"Fun Fact - natural gas doesn't actually have an odor. The utility companies add Ethyl Mercaptan so if there is a gas leak you will smell it and complain.") in public areas such as hallways, etc.

We recently dealt with a situation where contractor and architect fudged plans to avoid a pressure test in a reno because they were afraid the line would fail. We caught it and forced the issue and mercifully the line passed, but this put the issue on our board’s radar. Apparently board that we voted out was just fine with ignoring this issue because they’d rather risk the building’s blowing up than spending the money to fix it. Shareholder ignorance is bliss indeed.

@30 years - the initial shutoff was caused after Dalan failed to properly supervise contractors working in the laundry room, and Coned issued the shutoff upon a failed inspection. After 7 months, Dalan has not yet began any construction to repair or replace the failed lines.