high radon level solutions

[jb3]

Curious what some of you have done in your houses/garages to deal with radon if you had it. I just had my house and attached garage, plus a freestanding outbuilding tested, and its all high above acceptable levels.

Been reading up on fans but interested in what others have done to solve a similar problem

 

[kd3pc]

there are usually requirements set by the state and fed as to mitigation.

One house we had, had a hole drilled in the basement floor with 3" PVC installed that was a powered vent to the third story above the roof line.

Should be handled by a pro, and then retested to make sure it is working.

 

[sr71]

same as kd…. motor runs 24/7 for around 10 years… then you replace.

 

[Todd.Brock]

Yep... 895 bucks gets you a sump pump cover, 4" PVC out to a fan and disconnect, electrical run to power it up, and PVC pipes up the house to 2 ft above the roof line. Mine is tucked away from view behind the chimney. There is a power fan that is fairly quiet that runs 24/7. Just moves the radon out
Of the house.

 

[Shootingblanks]

Had a professional outfit that punched two holes in basement floor and excavated with 4" PVC ran outside of basement wall by a motor that runs 24/7 attached at base and vented above roof line. There is a gauge on the pvc pipe inside the basement that indicates that pump is functioning and drawing the radon out.

 

[Morrison]

 

[383 240z]

Had it done to my last house. Cost about $1000. The did the 4" pipe deal as well. Little manometer to show you that it is drawing. I don't buy it though. A single 4" pipe over in the corner of a large single room is going to clear all the Radon? It was in an old home, all dry fit stone walls and a thin concrete floor. Build date was 1855.

Odd thing was the guys installing it said flat out that Radon is almost as big of a scam as global warming. $1000 total, $50 worth of materials 3 hours work. Only had it done because it was a condition of sale when we left that house. Keith

 

[matt_i]

I think the established limit is 4.0 (whatever concentration units are used, ppm, ppb ?)

You might hear it described fancily like sub-slab mitigation. Basically the fan is deadheaded against the soil on the intake/suction side of the pump via a system of pipes, usually 4" PVC. It provides a "path of lesser resistance" to flow the permeating gas outside to the atmosphere. That means it doesn't automatically make it zero but it will reduce the level, as measured by instruments. If it doesn't go below 4.0 they usually add more tap points or look for other issues like cracks in the basement slab, etc.

The good news is it can be a commonly-inspectable item at a home sale, especially if your area is known to have higher levels of radon in the soil. If you have it done now, the expense is already paid to add peace of mind for the next owner and you as the seller don't have to jump thru a lot of hoops on yet another contingency to be punched out.

One thing, when the measurement instrument is running its test, they demand that no doors or windows be opened for X amount of hours otherwise it spikes the test low and it voids a standardized result. So if you threw open the garage doors every time you went out there or had an old leaky red barn I don't think you'd ever have to worry. There are obvious reasons to want to control the climate, however, in a garage or shop.

The main thing for me, is if you have an unfinished basement, attempt to have the installers run the pipes in ways that doesn't preclude where you'd want to build any walls or doors, etc. They mostly seem pretty good about following established framing but there are bound to be a few going for shortest distance between A and B.

 

[Showkey]

There does seem to be some testing irregularities out there..........sold a house in Northern IL with nothing but clay soils no gravel no rock . It past when I bought it.........now.......It failed radon test during inspection. ????
$1000 at closing solved the "problem" suspect the new owner never did the remediation.

Now I live in an area with granite rock every where. Boulders in my yard the size of small cars. Radon remediation already installed and many homes in the area have systems. There is a lot of sand around as well those homes usually pass without systems.

My radon system did have a problem.......the knobs that installed the system for the prior owner installed the vent in the roof near a valley. The constant warm air venting in the winter melts the snow causing an ice dam to form on the roof and the melting snow refreezes further down the valley. This caused water to leak in the garage roof. Moved the vent to a side wall and the ice dam problem solved. It is hard to find good help in some trades.

 

[MattVette89]

Odd thing was the guys installing it said flat out that Radon is almost as big of a scam as global warming. $1000 total, $50 worth of materials 3 hours work. Only had it done because it was a condition of sale when we left that house. Keith

I think the cost might be a scam, but radon exposure is reported to be the second leading cause of lung cancer in the US behind smoking. That being said, I was supposed to install the system 9 years ago and never did. Shame on me.

 

[jb3]

The problem im having is the limit is 4.0, house basement is a 6.5, garage 5.2, and outbuilding in the 4.5 range. The garage is a dirt floor, so concrete might eliminate the risk there, but im looking at two systems for the house basement and outbuilding, which both already have concrete

Area has a lot of granite, same deal as above with car sized boulders everywhere and field stone foundation.

What is the purpose of bringing the heavy radon to the top of the house? Giving it more area to disperse as it falls?

 

[finn]

House in Il came in at 4.1 vs a 4.0 target max, so we had to do the $1k remediation.

The vendor also sealed the perimeter floor / wall joint and installed a poly vapor barrier under the laundry room.

Bad part is that we would have probably passed if the house wasn't sealed up for the better part of 6 months prior, as we were away.

 

[rlitman]

What is the purpose of bringing the heavy radon to the top of the house? Giving it more area to disperse as it falls?

Basically. In areas where radon comes up from the ground, it dissipates outdoors to safe levels in no time. But when it comes up into a poorly ventilated basement, it can collect to dangerous levels.

The ventilation system does NOT ventilate the basement. The pipe goes to a sump under the basement floor, and pulls air from the ground under the basement. That keeps the radon rich air in the ground diluted. Along with that, the basement is then sealed up tight to keep radon out.

 

[IlliniJeeper]

Our test came back at 40.6. The unit is pCi/L (picoCuries/liter). So essentially how radioactive a given volume of air/sample is.

We live in an area famous for its gravel pits, so it's not a big surprise. Everyone in our neighborhood has a remediation system. Small price to pay for peace of mind. Lung cancer *****.

 

[dlhindiana]

Just had a system installed. My number was 65. No sump. 4" PVC in two locations. Will be testing next week to see what the new # is.

 

[BFBOB]

It may seem a PITA, but it's really no joke. Radon is a gas, and it's radioactive. Do you really want to get a radioactive substance IN YOUR LUNGS?? I don't know exactly how the standards were developed, but it's a small price to pay to get the stuff out of your house. The more sharply pointed heads can argue about how much is too much. Since it occurs naturally and percolates out of the ground, there's no prevention, no way to seal it out. Dissipation is the answer, and it really is a cheap fix compared to "fixing" lung cancer.
Write the check and breathe easy.

 

[darwyn]

Ours tested at 17, so we had the pipe put in as mentioned above. It tested at 16 then, so we had another pipe put in and a bigger pump. No change. They wanted to put in a third pipe, but we were already $2000 in and no effect. I've been kind of sitting on it since then.

 

[BFBOB]

What is the purpose of bringing the heavy radon to the top of the house? Giving it more area to disperse as it falls?

In still air, you'd have a point. Outdoors, the air is never completely still. The radon disperses and dissipates until the concentration is low enough that it poses no danger. Eventually, through radioactive decay, it ceases to be radioactive and turns into nice, inert lead. No problem breathing that!

(JOKE!! Again, it's a question of concentration. Breathing the odd lead atom floating around in the air is much less of a threat than the odd still-radioactive radon atom.)

 

[tc-cad]

I went to Menards bought kit. Around $100. Made Sump Pump cover with holes for air PVC and water PVC holes. Ran the air pvc up and out the side of the house in front of the bushes added a long pvc extension. Level went from 12.5 to less than 0.5.

TC-CAD

 

[astroracer]

My house uses the furnace blower and earth tubes to pull in fresh outside air. The blower runs 24/7 and, when we built it in '85, we calculated a complete air exchange in less then 3 hours. This is not a good option on an existing build but may be a good one to think about on new builds.
Mark

 

[mschmitz]

I installed a radon fan myself. Rented a 4" concrete hole saw and cut a hole in my basement floor. I cleaned-out around 8 gallons of gravel/soil under the slab (a large shop-vac works well for this) and attached PVC pipe, sealed hole with expanding foam. Ran PVC outside and attached a radon ran. Dramatically dropped my readings from around 14 ppm to < 1. Probably $300 for parts and saw rental.

 

[redrunner]

Helped the radon guy put it in my old house he only charged me 1300 and I supplied most of the 3" pipe. Same guy put it in my new house before I moved in. Not that much to the system. Hole though the concrete, seal in place, pipe to the attic and attach the fan then out the roof.

I put a system in my 34x60 when I put the building up. You can buy the entire kit....fan, vac tube to ensure draw and roof flashing at Menards.

It is not rocket science. Test before install, get results, retest after install. My first house went from 13.4 to under 3 within 24 hours after the install was done.

 

[engineer2]

I put my own sub-slab depressurization system in. You don't need a professional. Dropped the radon from 4 picocuries per liter to around 1.5 to 2. Ran the 4" PVC pipe up the plumbing chase, so it is totally hidden. Also have a 3" pipe on the sump pump pit with a manual valve to throttle it down. In hindsight a 1.5" pipe would have been fine for this.

My Fantech fan is in the attic and lasted 8 years. It IS easily rebuildable despite what Fantech tells you. EBM-Papst motor got water in it and just needed new bearings. Sealed it up a whole lot better than Fantech did.

I have a digital radon detector to keep an eye on the levels. I put a 3-speed ceiling fan control in the basement to vary the fan speed as needed and can check it via my home made manometer using vinyl tubing and ATF (ATF is red and works well). Usually run it on medium speed.

 

[boobag]

radon is a scam many times around here in illinois. they place the tester in the sump pit where there is no air flow at all. and then the reading comes out a little above the limit. really dumb.

 

[engineer2]

Not sure of the exact method, but you need to test in the room away from walls, corners, air vents, and air leaks from windows. Mitigation is to protect occupants, not the spiders in the sump pit. If you go to sell your house, high radon can queer the deal.

 

[IlliniJeeper]

radon is a scam many times around here in illinois. they place the tester in the sump pit where there is no air flow at all. and then the reading comes out a little above the limit. really dumb.

We did our own test, set out in the basement living room. Plenty of airflow, and where we spend a lot of our time. The EPA publishes a map that shows areas at high risk for elevated Radon levels. Most of Illinois is in the elevated area.

From what I hear, if you have a lot of coal mining in your area, you likely have radon issues in basements.

 

[bimmer1980]

Any garage guy worth his salt should be able to install a radon mitigation system.....

It really is quite simple. I have installed two so far... one at my house and one at my B-i-law's house.....

The most expensive part is the fan and then the pipe. After that it is your labor to install.

It can be tricky to find a suitable location to cut through the wall and an unobtrusive spot to have the fan and the pipe.....

Other than that, a hammer drill to knock the hole in the concrete floor and start measuring, cutting and gluing the pipe together....

The system does lower the levels quite quickly after installation, but it does take a little time for the system to completely stabilize....

best of luck on your install....

 

[66HertzClone]

I have a digital radon detector to keep an eye on the levels. I put a 3-speed ceiling fan control in the basement to vary the fan speed as needed and can check it via my home made manometer using vinyl tubing and ATF (ATF is red and works well). Usually run it on medium speed.

Could you post a link to the meter you mentioned?

We had an addition built recently, included a basement. A spring was discovered when the excavation was done, we have two sump pump wells in that section. When tested for Radon it was high enough to require ventilation, thankfully a 4" pipe had been installed during the construction so it was just a matter of cutting the hole and connecting it up. The old section of the basement still tests well below the threshold level, kind of weird to think just a few feet makes that much difference.

 

[Showkey]

Any garage guy worth his salt should be able to install a radon mitigation system.....

It really is quite simple. I have installed two so far... one at my house and one at my B-i-law's house.....

The most expensive part is the fan and then the pipe. After that it is your labor to install.

It can be tricky to find a suitable location to cut through the wall and an unobtrusive spot to have the fan and the pipe.....

Other than that, a hammer drill to knock the hole in the concrete floor and start measuring, cutting and gluing the pipe together....

The system does lower the levels quite quickly after installation, but it does take a little time for the system to completely stabilize....

best of luck on your install....

It can be a DIY project if your living there. If it is for sale and part of the sale contract is passing the test or installing the the system so it will pass the test. The bank may demand a "professional" install.

For me I do not want to be in that install loop........because if it fails a year later they can make a claim against the professional not me. For the money saved I do not want the future responsibility. Same goes for well and septic tests, banks are very particular on who and when was it tested.

 

[CJ7VFR]

Where I live in Central New Jersey, the Radon level has to be below 4.0 or you are required to install a remediation system if you want to sell your house.

When we bought our current home in 2010, the owners had to do the Radon test with the hockey puck looking thing in the basement.

They were told not to move it, or put a fan near it, and they were told not to open any doors or windows in the basement for 3 days during the test, and they were even told not to open the inside basement door to go down into the basement! Not even to wash their clothes! The Radon people said it would skew the test, and give a false low reading.

Anyway, the first test came back at 3.8. Even though that was below the 4.0 level that would require remediation, the Radon people wanted to do the test again, because they said the owners must have done something like open the doors or windows up. Yeah, right.

So, they did the test again, and again it came back at 3.8. The Radon people where not happy that it showed up as below acceptable levels, and they wanted to install a remediation system anyway, and charge the home owners $1500!!!

Since we were in the process of buying the house, we both (us as the buyers and them as the sellers) got our real estate lawyers involved, and they put a stop to the Radon people ripping off the seller of the house.

Even as long as a year after my wife and I moved into the house, we would get a few calls a month saying we should have the Radon system installed because it was too close to 4.0 to be safe. And every time the price got less and less. The last time they called us, the price was down to just over $500.

I think the whole thing is a bit of a scam too. If opening and closing just the basement door or one of the basement windows would skew the test and give a false low reading, according the Radon people who did the test, then how can the Radon be a problem when people are in and out of the basement multiple times a day? This alone would remediate the Radon to a point that it would never register anywhere near a 4.0 level.

I could see if you lived in your basement, and you were down there like 18 hours a day, with the doors and windows shut tight, that it could, potentially, be a problem. But for the average home owner, who goes in and out of their basement all the time, I just don't see it as anything more than a money-making machine for local and state governments.

Jim

 

[Casey69]

we installed a fan in our attic & routed pvc through the roof. supposedly, fans mounted in the attic last longer than those sitting outside the home. also looks better to have all the pvc running through the house as opposed to on the exterior.

the fan pulls the radon from our sump pit, which has drain tile surrounding the house & under the slab. ran us $800 to have a company do it & they warrantied it to be <4 pCi/L after the install, or they'd come out & install more drawpoints &/or a bigger fan.

drawback is that they have to seal off your sump pit(s). not a big deal if you don't have a sump pump, but would make it a slight pita to r&r a sump pump.

our's was 17 pCi/L before we installed it!

 

[engineer2]

Could you post a link to the meter you mentioned?

I bought a Safety Siren Pro Series3 Radon Gas Detector. Been working flawlessly for several years now. Linky: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000CEAY64/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Around here no one would know if you did it yourself or if a professional did it. As long as it works. If the bank asks, you could say "XYZ company did it but I think they went out of business." That may not fly in some areas with strict building codes and inspectors.

You are not even required to install one, but it could interfere with the sale of your home if the potential buyer decides to make an "under 4 pc/l test result" contingent on the sale.

Radon is funny. You could be at an obscene level and your neighbor might be near zero.

The Fantech fan lasted 4 years and got noisy. Called Fantech and they said "not repairable, buy a new one." So I took it apart and replaced the motor bearings and sealed it up better. Since you are pulling from under the slab, the air is saturated with moisture and the fan spends its life soaking wet. Water got into the bearings.