Is a gas tech supposed to check for leaks in the house before turning off the gas to do a pressure test?

-We had Atmos Energy tech support over to our house to check the meter for a leak but he came in the house and turned off the gas valves to the water heater as well as to the kitchen stove and gas drier. He did not, however, first check to see if there were any leaks around the threaded connections to the appliances, stove, drier and water heater first. Instead he proceeded to just turn off the gas valves in the house and went out to the meter and used his gas leak sniffer to see if the gas meter had a leak and found none then he turned off the gas from the main line and disconnected the meter and put pressure in the line to the house. He found a leak, He said it was a small leak, but a leak nonetheless. He then reconnected the meter and tightened up the all the points of connection to and from the meter and painted the meter with grey paint. He told us he had to red tag the meter and that we had to pay a professional plumber to check for the leak. Why? He had the gadget in his hand. Wasn't he supposed to first check for leaks to our household gas appliances while the gas was still on both at the meter and in the home first just to be sure because it seems to me ruling out these things first before shutting off the gas would save us time and money. So my question also includes, Should we call Atmos Energy back and ask them to turn on the gas and check for leaks in the back of the stove and the gas drier and the water heater just to see if maybe the threaded connections might be leaking before making us spend hundreds of dollars to get a private plumber to do the same thing for 80.00 an hour when the Atmos emergency technicians do it for free? I mean why was he in such a hurry to just do the meter not the stuff in our house which by the way if they were leaking maybe a little tightening up with a pipe wrench would do the trick?To test for gas Leakage, you turn off the gas at the gas meter, then remove a test nipple from the meter, and attach a manometer to it.The Manometer is a "U" tube which is graduated in Inches or bars of PressureAnd it is set at Zero with water at the zero mark. Then the gas meter is opened slowly, until the water is at the 12 inches mark (Mains pressure). If there is gas leakage in the pipework, The level of the water will slowly drop, and how low, and how fast it drops will tell how bad the leakage is. This test is measured over 2 minutes. If the water level does not drop, then there is no gas leakage.However if it shows a tiny drop in pressure, this is allowable as it is not considered dangeous and can be dispersed by the surrounding air. During this test, all pilot lights etc are turned off as they can leak gas during the test. if the pupework is okay, then it shows that any gas leakage must be on a gas appliance and not in the pipework or the meter.

Hope this explains the test better for you.There is a leak. Any loss in pressure is the sign.



He can't check appliances. He isn't a plumber. He told you to call a licensed plumber for that.
It sounds like it works the same as in the UK. An emergency engineer will attend if you can smell gas etc and will check for leaks but unless he can easily identify whats leaking he will in your words Red Tag it and turn it off and advise you then obtain the services of in the UKs case a Gas Safe plumber/engineer who is registered to find and repair same.