Low Level of Gas Inside House?

I would like some advice from more experienced home owners.

I had a gas fireplace repairman come to my house to diagnose a possible gas leak in the system. Thankfully, it turned out there was no leak.

However, the repairman's explosive gas detector peaked up a low level of gas of some sort throughout the house. He could not pinpoint the origin with the detector (he tried the usual suspects like the gas range, the HVAC units, the radon remediation device, the gas meter, etc.). There was just a low level, but audible warning throughout the house with the upper floors being a bit higher than the lower levels.

When he took the detector outside, it went silent, but as soon as he brought it inside, it started to blip a bit.

Both my plug-in carbon monoxide and his hand-carry units registered no CO.

He told me that it could be anything and surmised that it might be from remodeling or repainting (I had the whole house repainted a couple of months ago with low- and zero-voc paint). He told me that I should just open the windows and ventilate the house.

What should I do about this? On the one hand, I don't want to panic over nothing, but at the same time, I had three very young children including a newborn and I don't want to ignore a possible health risk.

I'd appreciate any thought or advice.

 

Air the house out, close it up normal, wait 24 hours and then retest. If it still registers I'd call the gas company.

If you can smell anything like rotten eggs then I would call the gas company immediately.

 

There is no smell of rotten egg at all, so I don't think it's natural gas.

Whatever it is (or was), it's odorless at least inside the house. And it's also at a very low level.

In any case, the repair guy is gone, so I have no way of "retesting." He told me his gas detection wand costs about $350. I don't think I'd want to buy that just yet.

 

Besides, Carbon Monoxide, natural gas and radon, is there another type of gas that is found inside homes? One that would trip the explosive gas detecting wand?

 

I agree and gas isn't something to take lightly even at low levels...I'd take his advice pronto. Hope you can get to the bottom of it asap.

 

Thanks for the reply. This was a fireplace repairman, not a indoor air quality specialist. He found no gas leak from the fireplace unlike the Washington Gas "emergency response" guy. I am inclined the believe the repairman about the fireplace -- he'd been happy to charge me to fix if there was something wrong I am sure. But he told me I had no leak, nothing to fix.

He told me that while his explosive gas detection wand is exactly that -- something that detects explosive gas -- it also detects any other imbalance in the air composition. He demonstrated this by blowing very hard into the detector, which indeed then produced an alarm (apparently the high CO2 content tripped the device).

Whatever was inside the house, he told me the level was very very low and very generalized (i.e. throughout the house rather than from any single source).

Nonetheless, I am considering hiring an indoor air quality specialist to checkout the air composition indoors after I call Washington Gas to get someone out to retest fireplace and gas lines.

BTW, again, there is NO scent of any kind indoors.