Hello,
We just received our Radon level test back for a house property we are purchasing and the level came back at a average of 4.5 pCi/L. We have a one year old son. Should we just add a mitigation fan and retest?
thank you
I think installing above the peak/ridge line is probably best but not thrilled about gable vent being nearby. Don’t want any gas finding its way into the attic. Not crazy about the look of the pipe running up the side of the house.
The back of the house with lower exhaust is less of an eye sore but close to a bathroom fan exhaust. Even though air flows out of the bathroom fan exhaust I am not sure if it’s ideal for the radon gas exhaust to be so close.
When we bought our house (built in 2012) it had very high radon (in the 20s) so I installed a sub slab system which consistently brought the readings down to around 1. We later installed a whole House fan that we run only when many of the windows are open and our radon has spiked into the twenties again. I have sealed the basement walls and floors and caulked all visible cracks and penetrations, and installed a higher flow rate radon fan (Fantech Rn4-4EC) but the radon readings have remained stubbornly at around 10.
Other information: poured slab and foundation walls, single penetration radon system, basement has sub slab French drain system.
Do you y'all have any ideas about what else I can do about this? We would really like to continue using the whole House fan, if possible.
Thanks so much!
For the house we are interested, There is mitigation system already installed. But, we have to waive off inspections ( upto certain dollar value) due to sellers market. But, at private viewing, I used aranet radon plus to take 3 samples and they are 2.4 pCi/L, 1.4 pCi/L and 1.8 pCi/L.
I understand I need much more sample measurements, but does the measurements that I did at least de-risks the mitigation or any unknowns? Replacing Fan and sump pump cover is not too much work, but laying the piping in basement for new radon mitigation is much more expensive.
Hello! I’m going back and forth with a radon mitigation company and our landlord right now about the installation of our system, and wanted to get a second opinion on their proposed approach.
We live in a 3-story townhome, and while I originally hoped we could run the pipe up to the roofline, it seems like there isn’t a good way to do so, and so the company has proposed a different route, through our mud room and garage, to ultimately vent out horizontally over the top of the garage. They initially wanted to put the vent maybe 5-6 feet horizontally and vertically level with our bedroom window (see photos, including our mirroring unit where they took the same approach), until I got a supervisor to agree that that wasn’t safe.
I’ve attached pictures of our layout. The current plan is to run the pipe from the crawl space, up through the mudroom floor, outside to the back patio of the unit where the fan would be, and then back into the garage, up through the roof of the garage, and then out at least 10 feet from our bedroom window.
I included pictures of what I originally assumed would happen, but they said they weren’t able to do this because the pipe can’t block windows even by a tiny bit, and because that much pipe/that many bends would be too hard on the system. Also, we have a rooftop patio, so the vent would have to be far enough around the corner to not be an issue for the patio or the operable bathroom window.
I’m hoping some who are more knowledgeable than me can advise on whether the company’s proposed approach is the best option, if I’m overlooking anything, and if this is a safe distance from our living space to where we could have complete peace of mind that radon isn’t re-entering the property.
Thanks so much in advance for your help!
It’s been a year since I installed my mitigation system in my 1947 house - built on clay and sand. I drilled the 4” hole, excavated the pit and decided on the GX5 as it was touted to pull through tough soil. My basement floor is just a 2” ‘rat-slab’ poured directly on the dirt. House is 40’x40’ and basement levels reached as high as 40pCi/L before mitigation. The GX5 brought it down to 0.5 the next day!
The problem: it’s noisy, and with a semi-finished basement the only logical place to put it was near my bedroom. Maybe I don’t need this much suction. Any suggestions on quieter fans that succeeded on similar soil?
Hi, i recently closed on my new home and it's agreed the seller will install radon mitigation system and pay for it post closing. The home has already built in pipe for radon mitigation system that goes out the roof, so i'd like to have an internal mitigation system since we have a pipe for aesthetic reason. However, when i met with the mitigation system company today, they said the pipe is located behind an already finished area in the basement. If the cost to install, runs more expensive than expected, will the seller still be responsible for paying? Do i have the right to demand internal system instead of out door one?
So, Ive done some digging into this already and was just hoping for some confirmation. I'm currently installing my own Radon Mitigation System. The house is older and without drain tile. Beneath the slab in the basement is packed dirt/clay. Based on my square footage of the basement, Ive opted for the RadonAway GX4 fan. Because of the lack of drain tile, I'll have to dig a void underneath the slap so that the system will actually work. Based on the research I have done, the void has to be about 4-5 5-gallon pails of dirt removed.
My question is, with this void, is there any drawbacks to filling it in with river rock? I'm nervous of having that big of a void underneath and pretty close to the foundation footers. With the river rock, in my mind, it would still allow for airflow while giving some support for the concrete slab as well as the foundation footers. Unless I am just being paranoid about it?
What’s a good piece of equipment I can buy online to test my basement for radon exposure? I am in the process of finishing the space and want to check if I need a mitigation system. No sump pit but there are 2 french drain holes in the slab. Looking for something off Amazon/ebay/major retailer I can use
I’m looking for some advice. I have an existing radon mitigation system/fan, but my entire basement has a roughly 1–2 inch gap between the concrete slab and the cinder-block foundation walls.
Is this something that can be properly sealed with backer rod + polyurethane sealant, or is a 1–2 inch gap too large for that approach? I’ve seen recommendations for backer rod and sealant for smaller gaps, but I’m not sure what the proper approach is for something this large.
Also, is this generally a reasonable DIY project, or would you recommend having a radon mitigation contractor handle it?
For some context, my 1-month average radon level is around 3.1 pCi/L. That’s still below the EPA action level of 4.0 pCi/L, but given that I already have an active radon mitigation fan, the level seems a little higher than I would have expected.
Does this seem like a reasonable place for a radon test system to be set up? Garage door on the left, front door right ahead, vent just above.
Long story short, came home from a trip to find the property management company installed mitigation systems in every single unit around us. Had to fight the office to get our units results (testing done last summer) that were just under 4.0. We begged for a mitigation system as we have health issues & concerns, they said we could pay out of pocket to install one on the rental, and best they would agree to is retesting.
I know radon spikes in cooler weather, and best to avoid any fresh air coming & going. Seems like they're setting us up for failure testing in a heat wave right next to our only 2 entrances. 3 bed 2 bath duplex with plenty of other places to put it...
But also I have no idea what I'm talking about so if this is standard practice and not a concern, please give me some peace of mind! Thank you!!
We've had the Corenthium home since April of this year.
Our long term is 53 bq/m3 which isn't a big concern. Spikes up to 150 in high barometric pressure all the way down to sub 20s in other periods.
However I got curious and have a 195cfm inline fan laying around so I duct taped it to an inspection port of my french drain to pull air from around the slab instead of underneath just to see if that would have an impact. Got the idea from a local subreddit.
After 5 days here is what I found.
It doesn't seem to be powerful enough to suck the radon out of the house if it's already there, but it seems to slightly reduce the amount that can get in.
When I installed it we were around 50 and didn't notice a significant reduction after 48 hours so I thought oh well, experiment failed. Lately, pressure went down with thunderstorms in the last couple days so I expected it to go down, however since April I check the meter several times a day and I have never seen it at zero ever, a couple times under 10 but that's about it.
This picture was taken at 9:30pm and it's currently 12:40am still reading 0.
I plan on leaving the fan on and keep monitoring in the next couple weeks when barometric pressure spikes up again and see what happens.
Of course, I mean meaningfully better. e.g. doesn't have to be 2x better, but hopefully more than 1.05x better. I moved into a new house recently (new to me) and quickly discovered that I needed mitigation. Went with a reputable company that did a traditional system install. While there seemed to be a temporary improvement, I guess that is hard to quantity give the daily/weekly fluctuation. I still frequently see values measured in the basement in the 4-6 pCi/L range (24 hr avg) with an Airthings Corentium. I'd like to explore options for better mitigation. Will installing a second system in a different part of basement make a meaningful difference?
Worth noting that I am having a drain tile system (along 3 of the 4 perimeter walls) with a sump pump put in next week to help with a little bit of water intrusion we had with some heavy rain. I have heard that could make the radon system more effective, but I'm not sure I understand why it would help.
A few days ago I posted this showing that the concentrated radon levels directly next to the exhaust at ground level really aren't all that high.
Next I stuck my Correntium up in the rim joist right where the pipe exits to see if there was any sort of backflow. That gave a reading of around 1pci. Slightly higher than the average at my normal measuring location but still low.
My entire system is located in a coat closet I built around my sump and we keep the door shut. If there were any leaks in the system radon should pool on the floor of that closet. There I measured an average around 2.5pci. That's pretty consistent with the level I measured directly on the concrete floor in my open laundry room as well, so doesn't seem to indicate any leaks.
My normal measuring location is eye-level in the basement, and there it stays around 0.5pci after being around 8.6pci pre-mitgation.
I just finished installing a sub-slab suction system, now need to run my vent up and away from open windows. I’m thinking I’ll run pipe on the path in red, wondering if folks have advice for support/clamp hardware for this?
I can’t quite wrap my head around everything. Wood panel siding on lower level, corrugated steel siding on upper level.
Thanks in advance!
Single point in older home, with rocky, clay soil, 6 hour job... quoting $4000. It sounds high compared to what I've seen here. Any suggestions for what I should be looking for, asking regarding this price?
Edited to add details: Slab foundation. No basement. Described as making a hole in the closet through slab, removing dirt to create a hole, installing vents and fan out through roof - single story house. Location is Alabama.
Installed an Airthings almost a month ago after having one of those short term radon test kits come back at 8 pCi/l. Since the test kit I sealed up a large cut in our basement slab where a shower drain was roughed in. Basement is unfinished right now, concrete slab and poured walls, passive radon system. Everything was looking good until the last week where we had a few spikes up to 4.1 pCi/l and now it’s remaining elevated. I can’t figure out why, nothing inside the house has changed and the weather has been very consistent (see picture of my weather station). Maybe ground water levels are increasing due to our rainy season? That’s the only thing I can think of.
I recently had my builder-installed passive radon system converted to an active system by Midwest Radon Services and I'm looking for advice from anyone who's dealt with a similar situation.
Because the levels stayed elevated for a couple of months, I decided to convert the passive system to an active one.
It's now been about 7 days since the installation, and my EcoQube is still averaging around 10 pCi/L over the last few days.
I contacted Midwest Radon Services, and they replied:
>
However, they also said there would be:
I'm not trying to blame the contractor but genuinely want to understand whether this is a normal scenario or whether I should push for more explanation before paying for additional work. Or should I simply contact other contractors for this?
Any advice from radon professionals or homeowners who have gone through this would be appreciated. Thank you!
If you were gone for 6 months, how long would it take for the system to get from high levels back to the mitigated level?
With the differences between US and Canada code, specifically exhausting radon over the roofline versus at ground level, I know there has been some interest in what levels near the exhaust outlet would look like. My basement long-term average was 8.62pc before mitigation, and hovers around 0.6pci after mitigation.
My radon exhausts near the ground from the dryer vent seen in the pictures. As you can see the area is very protected from wind by the fence and AC condenser.
After leaving my Correntium within 3ft of the exhaust for a few days, the average was around 4pci. Honestly lower than I expected and not dangerous.
