I was talking to a builder client about another topic and he mentioned he was doing Radon remediation in home. I was curious since I had never tested for it. I basically live on a big 'ole chunk of granite in West Georgia.

I bought a radon detector and set it in the basement. The reading got as high as 12 pCi/L. You are supposed to fix it at 4 and then even recommend steps between 2 and 4 pCi/L.

Radon can cause lung cancer.

Has anyone done Radon remediation in their home? Suggestions?

nvm. this is basement talk.

I had never heard of it either, before moving to CO. It's a serious consideration (especially if you ever want to sell your house). Remediation can get very spendy. A friend was able to successfully get his well below safe levels from pretty high levels- he had some sort of ventilation system with pipes and a fan installed.

We're in Montana and had our house tested when we bought it. No issues in our house. Asbestos from the Libby mine is probably a bigger concern.

Radon can get into well water as well.

Yeah radon is heavy, so unless you sleep in your basement i wouldn't worry about it. Our house (in nm) tested slightly above the mitigation threshold on one of the sensors when we bought it, but the testing criteria were to have the house shut up tight with hvac off for like 24 hours. We sleep upstairs and I'd rather not have that ugly pvc thing hanging off the side of my house so we decided not to worry about it

docb said:

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I have a radon device on my home in Steamboat Springs. It is essentially a fan that vents the air collecting under the house. It is not some high tech device.

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this.. it's a fan and some PVC. Can DIY, otherwise, it's $1k or so (maybe $1500 now)

Radon is heavy, so only needed if you have a basement you spend a lot of time in.

Our house in Breck has a radon device in the lower garage. A fan with some PVC pipe.

Also, now that I KNOW it's there and high, I can't enjoy using the basement. It's in the back of my head, so now I'm stuck trying to reduce it.

Mitigation system is super easy to install if the PVC to a sump pit or under the slab already exists and you have a nearby electrical outlet. You can buy (Festa brand) the hardware on Amazon. With a PVC saw and a few minutes, they are super easy to install.

Mitigation systems are highly efficacious.

I installed mine in a new build while the house was under construction. Kit was $211 + cost of a PVC hand saw.

AgResearch said:

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Mitigation system is super easy to install if the PVC to a sump pit or under the slab already exists and you have a nearby electrical outlet. You can buy (Festa brand) the hardware on Amazon. With a PVC saw and a few minutes, they are super easy to install.

Mitigation systems are highly efficacious.

I installed mine in a new build while the house was under construction. Kit was $211 + cost of a PVC hand saw.

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this again.

This is very easy DIY (assuming sump pump already exists).. paying $2k is way overpriced IMO.

Not sure why some people seemed to think I didn't think it's a good idea to install one, that is not what I was saying.

There is a lot of radon in GA. I tested my house prior to purchsing it as part of my dd and spent about $2k on a remediation system. It is worth the piece of mind, imho.

The system I have consists of a fan in the attic connected to 6" pvc (maybe 4"). The pvc runs through the slab on grade where the contractor cored in 3 location and removed 5 gallons of material to create a pocket (filled with crushed stone) under the slab. The fan creates negative pressure under the slab, the radon never gets into the basement and is pulled through the pvc and expelled through the roof.

My radon test registered 11.0 pCi/L before system was installed and practically 0 afterwards.

It's pretty common in Colorado. We have the pipe installed in the unfinished part of the basement. Goes up to the garage and through the ceiling. Had the seller install it after the inspection. It was about 1k in 2015

Which radon detector did you purchase? Do you recommend it? I've seen some that are left in place for a month, then the sample is forwarded to a lab for analysis.

waryman said:

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Which radon detector did you purchase? Do you recommend it? I've seen some that are left in place for a month, then the sample is forwarded to a lab for analysis.

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Search it up by the state you are in. 48 hours should be sufficient where you seal it up and send it to the lab.

waryman said:

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Which radon detector did you purchase? Do you recommend it? I've seen some that are left in place for a month, then the sample is forwarded to a lab for analysis.

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I didn't want to mess with a lab plus I want to watch it. Pretty sure I have a problem based on where I live. This takes readings every 10 minutes. Plus I'll just sell it if I don't want it anymore. Seems to work very well and the reviews all recommended it.

https://a.co/d/bUuW8US

Tony Franklins Other Shoe said:

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waryman said:

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Which radon detector did you purchase? Do you recommend it? I've seen some that are left in place for a month, then the sample is forwarded to a lab for analysis.

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Search it up by the state you are in. 48 hours should be sufficient where you seal it up and send it to the lab.

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that's short term.

A long term is 90 days. Short term can be compromised by open windows and such.

We had a mitigation system in crawl space of the basement for the house we bought. Recently had it tested in the basement and it was back up to 15-20 at some points in the day. They've come and made some adjustments and I'm now reading 4.8 down in the family room in the basement but we jsut had 4 inches of snow. It's been in the 1.5-2.5 range lately.

Talking to the radon company, it's about $1750 to install a 2nd system in my house. It's a large basement (3000sqft).

Sorry to hear about your radon scare, I went through this myself a few years ago after we bought a house with a basement. I bought a radon detector and was finding a long term avg of about 8 pCi/L. EPA says take action at 4 pCi/L. Rest of the house was fine, didn't address it immediately as we didn't go down there much. When we decided to finish the main basement area and turn it into a big play room for the kids, radon was back on my mind.

Attempt #1
I figured most of the radon was probably coming up from the open sump pit. So I sealed the pit airtight and ran a 2" vent line outside. No fan. This dropped the long term down to right at 4 pCi/L. This was nice improvement, but with the kids being down there a lot now, and playing on the floor, often laying on their bellies I was still concerned.

Attempt #2
There was a 3" PVC pipe coming out of the basement floor and venting out to the roof, so some type of foundation vent. Maybe even a passive radon vent. So I put a radon fan on it, no change, not even a little.

Attempt #3
I put a radon fan on the 2" vent line installed in Attempt #1. Long term radon levels dropped to around 0.6 pCi/L). My biggest concern is if the fan sucked out the water from the floor drain, or if the floor drain dried out, the fan could suck air from within the house. Putting the house in a negative pressure. Since I have a gas furnace this could potentially suck flue gasses back down. I previously installed a fresh air intake on my furnace return air, so my house runs at a slight positive pressure and has a small percentage of fresh air coming in anytime the HVAC runs. Also, my french drains daylight to the basement window wells, so pretty steady source of inflow air for the fan. I used the smallest readily available fan I could find and have CO detectors on all levels of the house linked to my phone. I also have a dehumidifier dumping into floor drain. It moves less air than our dryer, so probably me over thinking, but that's what I do. Spent less than $200 on everything. No problems for several years now.

Any advice about visiting the Atlanta Zoo?