Anyone involved in Radon Mitigation? Have a client that might need some mitigation in the Houston area and looking for some contacts and general information on most practical methods for this area.

any help appreciated.

I doubt you will find anybody in the Houston area with much experience. It is pretty much nonexistent as a problem down here because we don't have hard rock bedrock near the surface and we don't have basements except in large commercial buildings.

AgTech88 said:

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Anyone involved in Radon Mitigation? Have a client that might need some mitigation in the Houston area and looking for some contacts and general information on most practical methods for this area.

any help appreciated.

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Are you looking for design, consulting or actual mitigation services?

I thought radon required coal to be in the area?

It's more prevalent in areas with metaporphic geology, but does not mean it's not present in areas like the gulf coast.

You might have better luck looking in the Austin/San Antonio area for companies who specialize in it.

Bradley.Kohr.II said:

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I thought radon required coal to be in the area?

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It can be generated by any material containing radioactive elements like uranium, thorium, or radium. Most commonly it is in hard rock bedrocks like granite or metamorphic rocks like gneiss or schist, but it can also be in coal or other formations where the radioactive elements can accumulate. The other component necessary to allow it to be a human health issue is that it needs a way into an occupied area and low circulation such that it can accumulate. That happens readily in basements cut into bare rock or in basements with openings into the soil. It is much less common in houses with slab on grade foundations over alluvial sediments that are far from their source rock (like gulf coast soils). It would take a fairly unique scenario to create potentially hazardous radon accumulation in a Texas gulf coast setting, but it isn't impossible.

We are starting to see more and more of the multifamily projects requiring this primarily due to previous site use / buried structures etc.

With regards to sub-grade to foundation below grade mitigation, we either expect to see:
A) an embedded vent pipe system enclosed with Stego type vapor barrier; the vent pipes run up into wall space with an exhaust fan in attic/roof to dispel potential vapors
or
B) a mat system laid out and pinned in place prior to pouring for redirecting gases to venting system.

A few links FYI
https://americanradonmitigation.com/radon-soil-gas-mat-for-new-construction/
https://radonpds.com/build-radon-ready/
https://www.radonaway.com/vapormat
https://radonreductioninc.com/radon-systems/quality/vent-pipe/
https://www.epa.gov/radon/radon-resistant-construction-basics-and-techniques
https://www.mecx.net/

We've done similar to what was posted above on all of our new multi-family projects which have primarily been along the Texas coast. Basically just a few ~4x4x2' deep pits of gravel and a ~3"-4" sand cushion under the vapor barrier below slab with pvc pipes sunk into the pits and run up into the attic space. If we were to get detectable Radon readings in any finished units we would then punch the pipes through the roof and add a ventilation system, luckily we haven't had to do that yet. We use Phase Engineering out of Houston to do Radon testing at completion of construction on all of our projects.

Edited to add: If we were building in an area where we expected to actually find radon we would likely use something like the mat systems linked above.