Moved into new (to us, built in 1980) house 2 years ago. Installed an Airthings radon meter a year ago. Levels get up to 400 Bq/m3 when all the windows are closed. Finally had a radon mitigation system installed. Will hopefully get to much safer level below 100 Bq/m3.
Anyone want to explain how these work? Radon’s a nonissue where I live so I never gave it a second thought.
Put a pipe into the space under the foundation of the house. It’s not a huge void, but whatever space is there will have a mix of normal air and gases like radon.
Hook up a fan to the pipe. It pulls gas out of that space, pushing the radon out into the yard where it can dissipate into the neighborhood instead of reaching a higher concentration inside your house.
Hmm, I wonder if new builds have radon-collection trenches dug before they pour the foundation. It would make sense vs. retrofitting a fan system, but it would add some cost for the extra digging and making sure you don’t just fill the mini trenches with your concrete pour.
Yes, all new construction is required to have a service port installed in the slab so a system can be added easily in the future if required.
Never seen that, but I’m in NW Florida and originally from Tulsa. No radon issues to speak of, especially down here where we don’t have any rocks bigger than pea greavel.
So how does that single port hoover up all the radon, or at least a significant part of it? Still a little lost on that bit. And how does it get through a concrete foundation in the first place? That ain’t sidewalk concrete they pour, it’s thick and fine.
There is always a layer of crushed stone under the concrete slab, so the one port can pull air from underneath the entire slab. Air can always find a way through the concrete, the sump pump pit is a huge hole through the slab that also needs to be sealed.
A large portion of Canada is basically built on solid granite with little dirt. Our own house needed blasting through rock to dig the foundation.