r/radon

Recently completed an accustar alpha track test with 4 kits over 5 months, as well as a 30 day period with the airthings corentium. Im getting different results (180 with accustar vs 90 with airthings). Which would you consider the most accurate? Results could also vary since the duration wasn’t the same for both tests but I’m curious if one of these is considered more reliable. Am currently looking into a remediation system regardless. Thanks!

We did two charcoal tests a few weeks apart, 3.6 and 3.8 pCi/L. I misunderstood and did them both in finished basement where we don’t spend a ton of time. Because of allergies year around, we don’t open windows a lot although the basement laundry room window has been cracked since we moved in several years ago.

1. Do I need to retest on main floor? 2. Do we need remediation? Thanks in advance.

We have a 1940s house in Colorado with a vented crawlspace (dirt floor, about 4-feet high) where the atmospheric furnace is located. When we bought the house, the 2-day radon monitoring was 2.3 in January in the living area. We got a long-term monitor that has shown 2.15-2.20 as annual averages.

Since 2.0-4.0 is the "consider" mitigation, we're considering it. Here are the options as we see it:

Option 1: Live with it as is for another ten years or so and then get a high-efficiency furnace (sealed combustion), close the crawlspace vents, and add submembrane radon mitigation.

Option 2: Do Option 1 now, which would mean replacing a furnace installed in 2019 that still works fine.

Option 3: Add a submembrane radon mitigation now with the open vents. Two radon mitigation companies said they can do this, but that they'd never done it before. One other company didn't recommend doing it (largely it seemed because it would get dirtier faster and because he'd never done it like that before?).

Option 4: Do nothing because 2.2 is low enough and none of the three radon mitigation companies consulted can guarantee below 2.7, although they all think they would be able to get 0.5-1.5. One company even said he would recommend doing nothing, especially since we have a whole-house air purifier attached to the furnace that apparently filters out a lot of the radon progeny?

Options we ruled out 1. We don't want to add vent fans in the crawlspace because apparently this can drop the temperature more in the winter, and we fear the uninsulated pipes in the crawlspace could freeze. 2. We also ruled out an ERV because one of the companies said that it wouldn't work well with our furnace system (but I forget why).

I just thought I'd get your thoughts on these options... specifically if there are any options we missed or if there are reasons to reconsider one of the options we ruled out?

We have a mostly above-ground basement, dirt is on the front side, the back is fully above grade, and the two sides slope down. The basement is fully finished, minus two utility rooms, one being in a below-grade corner (electrical and ejector pump pit), and the other being above grade (water tank and well pressure tank). We had a lab test done, placed in a closet space that is against the below-grade side of the house, and measured 3.6 pi/L. We got a monitor and is also averaging 2.9-3.8, depending on where we place it in the bottom level. We have a living space, a guest bedroom, a gym, and an office. The office is now going to be used 8-4 M-F. Is this too close for comfort? What kind of options for mitigation are there (Eastern US?), and what are we looking like cost-wise?

What would cause this? I have never seen radon so high before and it spiked just as I patched the cracked concrete in my flooring.

My unfinished basement tested at just above 4 pCi/L. I only spend an hour or two a week down there depending on projects, but I'd still like to decrease that a bit.

There is absolutely no ventilation in the basement and the windows on the habitable floors are never ever opened. So I'm not surprised at the test results and probably a little ventilation will go a long way.

Since my furnace takes combustion air directly from the utility room in the unfinished basement and vents it outside, I'm thinking I could rig up a smart switch to run the induced draft motor only (independent of the furnace board) for just like a few hours a day. The furnace also happens to be near the worst source, the dirt crawl space.

Do you think this will have a meaningful impact? Seems worth a shot before doing more.

Hello reddit community - I was hoping to get feedback on two questions below. For context: I had a radon system installed. One of the pictures here shows how it was originally installed, with a hole in the brick wall above the pipe. You could see through into an inside wall cavity, and loose bricks were originally just placed there. The contractor also ran the electrical cord through this same hole and plugged it into a pre-existing outlet on the inside of the home. I asked the contractor to come back and he glued wooden pieces onto the wall to cover this - this is the second picture.

1. Regarding the electrical — I spoke with my city's building department and looked into the applicable code. The current setup, with a flexible cord run through a hole in the wall, appears to violate the 2023 National Electrical Code Article 400.12(2), which explicitly prohibits flexible cords from being run through holes in walls. Is this normal to just run the electrical through the same hole that you cut for the radon pipe? How much of a potential hazard is this? worried that when I sell the home down the line, this will get flagged
2. Regarding the hole in the brick penetration — is glued-on wood really a permanent solution here? Won't this eventually cause water damage once the wood cracks or warps from weather exposure?

https://preview.redd.it/79kwwwnhi71h1.png?width=1179&format=png&auto=webp&s=5a9af647a8f462f0b087a9dca03226b2e748fdf4

https://preview.redd.it/oxafpzcii71h1.png?width=452&format=png&auto=webp&s=f1bbc2cd04d2f6c59e02321f32da55670096dc40

My family and I are moving to the springs in the briargate area in June . We decided to rent for now and thankfully we found a home we loved and ordered a radon test. Well the house level was at 3.6. The owner said their passive whole home ventilation was off and that they purchased a test from the health department to do another test . My test was by Aspen Radon. Should I worry ? I’ve never had to deal with Radon before . How can I lower the home levels naturally? We can’t get out of our lease unless it’s 4 or higher. Plus I really like the house . What you guys think? Also the house has no basement and all rooms are upstairs. Built in 2022 . Thanks

Situation:

Hawaii three-level home with a lowest level “walkout basement” (surrounded by earth three sides, fourth side completely free of earthwork surroundings) with a window wall.

This level has its own central air conditioning unit.

AirThings monitoring of this level over a period of several years has returned Long Term Averages in the range of 4.5-5.5, without any mitigation efforts such as periodic opening of windows.

After recent extraordinary rains saturated soils, radon jumped on 7 day averages above 20.

Opened several windows yesterday. After 24 hours of ventilation (passive, no fans), the one-day average plummeted from over 20 to 0.37.

Question: does this suggest that radon concentrations might (subject to confirmatory testing over time) be manageable simply by incorporating a periodic window opening routine?

I’m in bit of a pickle. I have been getting quotes for a radon mitigation system for my house. I knew the levels were high since I have a tester and I have said I want a quote for a system. One company said sure let’s come out and do a test to be sure and I said stupidly said ok sounds good, they leave this box for a few days and come back and report back the levels. The guy who dropped the box off was new so he didn’t have the ability to quote the system or answer my questions so they sent another guy who just left when I didn’t answer the doorbell right away so I never got a quote. Now a bill shows up for $150 for testing. I call the company and play nice and they say yes you have to pay it but we will deduct it from the cost of the system which is $1,650 total. The other quotes I received were around $1,500. Now I am just not sure if it’s worth to pay the $1,650 and not risk the trouble or I tell them to pound sand. I never signed anything either. Any advice here?