Plenty of Australian home cooks want to switch from electric to gas. Faster heat, better wok work, more responsive control. But here is the bit nobody tells you upfront — adding a gas cooktop to a house that has only ever had electric cooking is not a swap-the-appliance job. It is a small infrastructure project, and most of it is legally restricted to a licensed gas fitter.
Knowing what is involved before you start saves you from the painful midway moment where you realise the quote is three times what you expected.
First question — is mains gas available to your house?
If you have never had gas appliances, you might not have a gas connection at the street. Two ways to check:
- Walk along the front of your property and look for a gas meter (small box, usually near the water meter)
- Check your most recent council rates notice or look up your address with your local gas distributor
If there is no gas connection, you have two options. Connect to mains gas (the distributor runs a line from the street to a new meter on your property — typically $1,500 to $4,000 in established suburbs, more in older or trickier sites). Or use bottled LPG (a 45kg cylinder lives outside, swapped or refilled every few months). LPG is the simpler install but ongoing fuel cost is higher.
What the gas fitter has to do inside the house
This is the part most people underestimate. A new gas line has to be run from the meter (or LPG cylinder) to where the cooktop will sit. This usually means:
- Drilling through brick or weatherboard to enter the house
- Running copper or steel piping through wall cavities or under the floor
- Installing an isolation valve at the cooktop point
- Pressure testing the new line
- Issuing a Certificate of Compliance (legally required)
None of this is DIY. Australian law restricts gas pipework to licensed gas fitters in every state. The fines if you DIY and something goes wrong are significant, and your home insurance will not cover damage caused by unlicensed gas work. Worse, a faulty installation is a real fire and explosion risk.
If you are in the Brisbane area, CS Plumbing Services handles gas connections and cooktop installations as part of their licensed gas fitting work — they can scope the job and quote the full pipe run, not just the connection point.
What you can sort out yourself before the gas fitter arrives
Three things to lock in early so the gas fitter is not waiting on you:
The cooktop itself. Buy or at least decide on the model before the fitter quotes — different cooktops have different gas flow requirements. The MJ rating on the spec sheet matters. A 5-burner commercial-style cooktop needs more flow than a basic 4-burner.
The exact cabinet location. The gas fitter needs to know where the gas line terminates. If you are still deciding on cabinetry layout, lock that first.
Rangehood ducting. Gas cooking puts more moisture and heat into the kitchen than electric. A ducted rangehood (vented to outside) is way better than recirculating. Plan the duct path while the kitchen is open.
The realistic timeline and cost
Best case (existing gas connection, simple pipe run, easy access): half a day on site, $800 to $1,500 plus the cooktop and rangehood.
Realistic case (new gas connection from street, longer pipe run through walls, plus rangehood ducting): 1-2 weeks total elapsed time including the distributor’s connection schedule, $4,000 to $8,000 all in.
Worst case (older home with limited access, gas connection requiring footpath excavation, structural work for ducting): four weeks plus, $10,000+.
Get two quotes. Make sure both quotes break out the gas line work, the connection charge from the distributor, the cooktop install, and the rangehood install. A single line item for “gas cooktop install — $4,500” tells you nothing about what is or is not included.