Gas line installation cost

Gas work gets priced two ways, and the published cost guides print both: by the linear foot of new run, and by the hookup. Neither is a quote. This is what four of them said when we read them on 2026-10-18.

The whole-job figures disagree more than the line items do, because each guide counts a different job. Fixr puts the national range at $500–2,000. Thumbtack's data runs $268–841 for the middle of the market and splits it: hooking an appliance to a line that is already there at $243–823, and supplying a new line to an appliance at $431–1,609. Bob Vila prints $120–1,350. The generator figure is the gas-line portion only, which ThePricer quotes from January 2026 data; the generator, the transfer switch and the electrical work are separate trades on the same invoice.

Load and length set the pipe size. Gas pipe is sized from the total BTU per hour of every appliance that can fire at once and the developed length of the longest run from the meter. Under the longest-length method (IFGC 2024 §402.4.1) each section is sized on the load it carries, read at that one longest length, so adding a large appliance at the far end can push the main up a size as well as the new branch. Run your own numbers through the gas pipe size calculator before pricing the pipe. A whole-house tankless is the usual trigger, which is why the tankless cost guide treats the gas line as the first gate.

Access sets the hours. An open basement ceiling with joists running the right way is the cheap case. Finished drywall, a slab, or a range wall where a cabinet has to come out to reach the stub is the expensive one, and it is labour, not pipe.

Outdoor runs add a trench. The International Fuel Gas Code (IFGC 2021) sets underground piping at a minimum of 12 in. below grade in 404.12, and lets individual lines to outdoor lights, grills and other appliances sit at 8 in. under 404.12.1 where the authority having jurisdiction (AHJ) approves it and the route is not exposed to damage. A generator pad across the yard is a trench and a restoration line, and often a different pipe material for the buried section.

The meter may not carry the new load. Whether the existing meter and service can supply the added BTU load is the utility's call, and so is the fee and the lead time if it cannot. The guides above print $250–600 where a utility bills a new meter, and both note that the utility often covers it. Send the utility the new connected load early; a generator job that waits on a meter is the slowest job in the van.

Black iron is cheap pipe and expensive labour: every length is cut, threaded, doped and made up, and every change of direction is a fitting. Corrugated stainless steel tubing (CSST) pulls through framing in long continuous lengths with a fitting at each end, which is where it saves its money. The guides price the two installed bands close together, so the choice usually comes down to the route.

What the per-foot figure leaves out on CSST is the bond. IFGC 2021 310.2 applies to CSST that is not listed with an arc-resistant jacket: the whole system has to be electrically continuous and bonded to the electrical service grounding electrode system, or to the lightning protection grounding electrode system where there is one. The jumper is not smaller than 6 AWG copper (310.2.2), no longer than 75 ft (310.2.3), attached at a metallic pipe, pipe fitting or CSST fitting (310.2.1) with a clamp listed to UL 467.

Most cities require a permit for a new gas line, and the guides put the permit at $50–300. The fee schedule is the AHJ's own; the plumbing permit cost guide explains how those schedules are built, and the permit checklist builder lists what to have ready before the inspector arrives. The inspection the permit buys is mostly the pressure test, and IFGC 2021 Section 406 is specific about it.

The cost guides that list the test on its own put it at $75–100; on a permitted job it is usually inside the installer's price, because the inspector expects to see the gauge holding.

Who may do the work is a state and local question with no single answer. Some states license gas fitting separately from plumbing, some fold it into the plumbing licence, and some AHJs let homeowners permit work on their own house. Check the state licensing board and the AHJ before you quote, and check which code they adopted: the sections here are the IFGC 2021, some jurisdictions use NFPA 54 instead, and the adopted edition and any local amendment are set by the AHJ.

On a short indoor run most of the price is hours, so it pays to know what an hour is. The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts 2025 median pay for plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters at $63,800 per year / $30.67 per hour. That is a wage: what reaches the fitter's pay, before any of the cost of employing them, running the van or keeping the licence and insurance current.

The billed rates the cost guides print are a different number. Fixr lists plumbers at $75–130 an hour and Bob Vila at $45–200. The distance between the wage and those bands is payroll burden, overhead, unbillable drive and quote time, and margin; the plumber hourly rate guide builds it up layer by layer. Never quote the wage figure to a customer as a price.

Bob Vila works the same 30 ft range line at its own per-foot figure and lands at the top of that band. For your own price, start from the hours, the fittings count and your shop rate in the job price calculator rather than a per-foot figure, then compare the result against the band. If it lands well under, look for the trench, the bond or the meter you left out.