A Champlin family had a new roof installed and, a couple of weeks later, started noticing a gas smell around their detached garage. The odor was faint enough to be easy to second-guess, but strong enough that they wanted someone to look at it.
The homeowners, Joe and Sarah, live right down the road from us in Champlin. Their detached garage doubles as a workshop — dad does taxidermy out there, and their 13-year-old son had been welding in the same space. We took the call in October 2026 and sent Wayne out to find the source of the smell, which is exactly the kind of Emergency Plumbing call we do not leave unresolved.
Key Takeaways
- THE CHALLENGENatural gas had been leaking into a detached garage attic for roughly two weeks, and nobody had identified where the smell was coming from.
- THE REPAIROur technician traced the odor by hand, opened the garage attic access, found a roofing nail driven through the gas line, and shut the gas down immediately.
- THE RESULTThe leak was stopped and the line repaired the same visit, with no injuries and no damage to the structure.
Gas odors do not get a wait-and-see response from us. We send a technician, we find the source, and we show the homeowner what we found before anything else happens. In this case the roof work was the clue worth chasing, because fasteners driven through a roof deck can reach anything running near it.
Project Summary
| Client Profile: | Joe and Sarah, homeowners with a detached garage workshop |
| Project Location: | Champlin, Minnesota |
| Primary Objective: | Identify the source of a persistent gas odor and make the property safe, handled through our Champlin Plumbing Services |
| Leak Detection Method: | Hand-applied bubble solution on gas piping plus attic access inspection, part of our everyday Plumbing Repairs work |
| Key Outcome: | Leak located, gas shut off on the spot, and the damaged line repaired in the same visit |
Tracing a Gas Odor in Champlin
Wayne arrived knowing only that the homeowners were smelling gas and that the house had a new roof. The gas line ran out to the detached garage, which gave him a place to start, but the smell was not obvious enough at ground level to point at one spot.
He worked the piping with bubble solution rather than an electronic detector. Electronic sniffers find gas, but they do not give the homeowner anything to look at — bubbles show the exact spot, and the customer can see it with their own eyes. After working the accessible runs without a clear result, he picked up a slight whiff near the garage and decided to open the attic access.
Bubble Testing Found the Leak
Opening the attic hatch settled it. The space was full of gas odor, and the leak was audible — a roofing nail had been driven through the gas line during the roof replacement, and gas had been escaping into that attic for about two weeks. Wayne shut the gas off before discussing anything else, then showed the homeowners what he had found and repaired the damaged line.
"Wayne came to our rescue today with a serious gas leak. The company was able to get us scheduled quickly, he was prompt, thorough and kept me updated at every step of the process. He was clear and upfront about pricing and took pictures so we could see the issue. We are very grateful to him for keeping our family safe in a scary situation!" - (Joe and Sarah, Homeowners)
Photos of the nail and the damaged pipe went to the homeowners so they had documentation of what happened and when. Gas work sits alongside the rest of what our licensed team handles across the northwest metro, from Plumbing Services to Heating Services, which is why one call can cover a problem that starts as "something smells wrong" and ends up being a gas line.
Gas Shut Off, Family Safe
The leak stopped the moment the gas was shut down, and the line was repaired on the same visit. The homeowners saw a higher gas bill for that billing period because of the two weeks of escaped fuel, but the garage was no longer accumulating gas in the attic.
What stands out about this one is what did not happen. A light switch had been flipped in that garage dozens of times over two weeks, and a teenager had been welding under the same roof. The family told us they would be calling us with anything else, and they left a five-star review describing the visit.
Smell Gas Near Your Champlin Home?
We are a family-owned company based in Brooklyn Park, and we run gas, plumbing, and HVAC calls throughout Champlin and the northwest Twin Cities. Our team holds the gas fitter licensing required for this work, and we are available 24/7 when something is wrong and you need an answer the same day.
Smelling gas, or had roofing, siding, or deck work done recently and noticed an odor since? Leave the building, call from outside, and then call us.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should I do if I smell gas at my Champlin home?
Leave the building first and call from outside. Do not flip light switches, use appliances, or run anything that could create a spark, and do not try to find the leak yourself. Call your gas utility and a licensed professional — we take gas odor calls 24/7 and will locate the source before anything else happens.
Can a new roof cause a gas leak?
It can, and that is exactly what happened on this Champlin job. A roofing nail was driven through a gas line running to a detached garage, and gas escaped into the garage attic for about two weeks before anyone pinned down the smell. Any trade working with fasteners near piping can create this situation, which is why a new odor after exterior work is worth a call.
How do you find a gas leak you cannot see?
We apply a bubble solution to the gas piping and watch for bubbling at the leak point. Electronic detectors work too, but bubbles let us point at the exact spot and show you what we found, and we photograph it so you have a record. When accessible piping checks out, we open up the spaces the line runs through — in this case the garage attic, where the leak was both smellable and audible.