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Radon
Jan 23, 2021 21:37:48 GMT -6
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Post by benmnwi on Jan 23, 2021 21:37:48 GMT -6
Anyone know much about this invisible gas that can cause cancer? I bought a tester and the results showed my house is above the recommended limit, so I'm looking for radon mitigation advice. When we moved here I had a guy come in and test my house then and he had similar results, but I thought he was just trying to sell me crap so I didn't believe the results. The recent test last week confirmed things though, so I will need to do something.
My wife works at a cancer unit at mayo, so I have no chance at convincing her leaving things as they are is good enough. Just wondering if anyone else dealt with this and what is recommended or not recommended.
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Post by kooch on Jan 23, 2021 21:46:59 GMT -6
We had our place tested when we thought we might finally finish out the basement. I guess that's where it settles mostly. It was high, so we had them do the thing before we put real living quarters down there. In my place, they made my sump (bone dry since we moved in almost 20 years ago) into a vacuum and just have it under constant negative pressure to pull air out through a pipe.
Colorless, odorless, so what do I know? Maybe I had zero.
I think it cost me $1,500 for the mitigation. I doubt a guy could sell a house around here without having it done.
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Radon
Jan 23, 2021 21:48:27 GMT -6
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Post by Reagan on Jan 23, 2021 21:48:27 GMT -6
My house had a mitigation system before I bought it. Pretty common around here.
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Radon
Jan 23, 2021 21:51:02 GMT -6
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Post by Catscratch on Jan 23, 2021 21:51:02 GMT -6
Had it installed before the slab. Contractor basically did it for free at that point of the build. It's common here but random. One house might be clean, the one next to it high.
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Radon
Jan 23, 2021 21:55:00 GMT -6
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Post by benmnwi on Jan 23, 2021 21:55:00 GMT -6
Yeah, that's about what I've heard. It seems that if I ever sell my house I'll likely need radon mitigation to sell it, so it would make sense to do it now.
I have no sump pump hole, so I'm assuming drilling a hole and pressurizing it will be expensive.
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Post by Foggy on Jan 24, 2021 9:43:59 GMT -6
When I had our new house built in New Ulm.....about 2001.......I had a neat radon system put in. The concrete forms for the basement had two chambers.....one to drain the foundation and one for radon. Then we had plastic tubes laid across the are where the slab was to go.....and they tied into the same concert forms / with the chambers in it. Also had a sump with an tube running up though the attic.....with an air pump in the attic that sucked air from the foundation and out the stack.
I had to show our foundation contractor how to assemble the whole thing and at first he was kinda negative. I'm told that they built allot of homes like this in the area after I built mine. They all liked the way the entire system worked. It was made by Certainteed Corp.....the same people that make a lot of shingles and siding products.
That floor on my home was really interesting. Had the forms I said......was well insulated.....full of rebar......and had a heating coil system in it. I also had a wood shop in one area.....and had a below floor tube system for my shops vacuum.
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Radon
Jan 24, 2021 9:57:12 GMT -6
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Post by badgerfowl on Jan 24, 2021 9:57:12 GMT -6
When I had our new house built in New Ulm.....about 2001.......I had a neat radon system put in. The concrete forms for the basement had two chambers.....one to drain the foundation and one for radon. Then we had plastic tubes laid across the are where the slab was to go.....and they tied into the same concert forms / with the chambers in it. Also had a sump with an tube running up though the attic.....with an air pump in the attic that sucked air from the foundation and out the stack. I had to show our foundation contractor how to assemble the whole thing and at first he was kinda negative. I'm told that they built allot of homes like this in the area after I built mine. They all liked the way the entire system worked. It was made by Certainteed Corp.....the same people that make a lot of shingles and siding products. That floor on my home was really interesting. Had the forms I said......was well insulated.....full of rebar......and had a heating coil system in it. I also had a wood shop in one area.....and had a below floor tube system for my shops vacuum. Form a drain?
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Radon
Jan 24, 2021 10:33:13 GMT -6
Post by Foggy on Jan 24, 2021 10:33:13 GMT -6
When I had our new house built in New Ulm.....about 2001.......I had a neat radon system put in. The concrete forms for the basement had two chambers.....one to drain the foundation and one for radon. Then we had plastic tubes laid across the are where the slab was to go.....and they tied into the same concert forms / with the chambers in it. Also had a sump with an tube running up though the attic.....with an air pump in the attic that sucked air from the foundation and out the stack. I had to show our foundation contractor how to assemble the whole thing and at first he was kinda negative. I'm told that they built allot of homes like this in the area after I built mine. They all liked the way the entire system worked. It was made by Certainteed Corp.....the same people that make a lot of shingles and siding products. That floor on my home was really interesting. Had the forms I said......was well insulated.....full of rebar......and had a heating coil system in it. I also had a wood shop in one area.....and had a below floor tube system for my shops vacuum. Form a drain? I dont really remember the name for it.....but it was made by Certainteed Corp. It was pretty well engineered with all the proper connectors at the corners and such. I was impressed....but you had to read the instructions to get it right. The contractor was not good at reading.....so I kinda took this on.....and after he was done scoffing at the set up....he came to really like it and build other homes that way. Kinda interesting.....and off topic. But back in the early 70's the company I worked for (called Elixir Industries) partnered with Certaineed Coporation to be the first company to offer vinyl siding for mobile homes. At that time most of the siding was aluminum siding.....with a few wood sided homes.....but that was too heavy so aluminum was the choice. Certainteed had a "fair" system developed for mobile homes that was thought that it would stay on during transit.....which was an issue. I think we did about three homes in two days at Marshfield homes in Wisconsin. As it was NEW......the guys putting it on were not receptive to the idea at all.....and we had to watch every fastener to make sure it was done correctly. The siding never took hold at that point as it took too long to attach and didn't stay on as well as hoped in transit. I suppose a few years later they perfected the system.....but that was after I had moved on to do other things.
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Post by smsmith on Jan 24, 2021 11:09:24 GMT -6
If I recall correctly, I had to pay for a radon mitigation system when I sold my old place. I think it was added to the paper work for the sale...cost me around $1200
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Radon
Jan 24, 2021 13:12:54 GMT -6
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Post by badgerfowl on Jan 24, 2021 13:12:54 GMT -6
I dont really remember the name for it.....but it was made by Certainteed Corp. It was pretty well engineered with all the proper connectors at the corners and such. I was impressed....but you had to read the instructions to get it right. The contractor was not good at reading.....so I kinda took this on.....and after he was done scoffing at the set up....he came to really like it and build other homes that way. Kinda interesting.....and off topic. But back in the early 70's the company I worked for (called Elixir Industries) partnered with Certaineed Coporation to be the first company to offer vinyl siding for mobile homes. At that time most of the siding was aluminum siding.....with a few wood sided homes.....but that was too heavy so aluminum was the choice. Certainteed had a "fair" system developed for mobile homes that was thought that it would stay on during transit.....which was an issue. I think we did about three homes in two days at Marshfield homes in Wisconsin. As it was NEW......the guys putting it on were not receptive to the idea at all.....and we had to watch every fastener to make sure it was done correctly. The siding never took hold at that point as it took too long to attach and didn't stay on as well as hoped in transit. I suppose a few years later they perfected the system.....but that was after I had moved on to do other things. When I worked concrete for the summer in 2004 we spent two weeks doing footings. Flatwork otherwise. We did a few that required form a drain. Gray plastic rectangle shaped as I recall. Pretty sure it’s made by certain teed.
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Coda1
Full Member
Posts: 242
Likes: 303
Location: Hunting north of Staples, MN
Zone: 3B
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Radon
Jan 24, 2021 14:38:17 GMT -6
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Post by Coda1 on Jan 24, 2021 14:38:17 GMT -6
I had a coworker who said his sister died fairly young of lung cancer and had never smoked or had any significant exposure to second hand smoke. Their parents tested the home she grew up in and it had high radon levels. Maybe there was another cause but that sounded like the most likely. All of the radon mitigation systems I've heard of either use the sump hole or a new drilled hole to install a fan to draw air from under the basement and blow it outside.
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Radon
Jan 24, 2021 15:34:11 GMT -6
Post by Foggy on Jan 24, 2021 15:34:11 GMT -6
I had a coworker who said his sister died fairly young of lung cancer and had never smoked or had any significant exposure to second hand smoke. Their parents tested the home she grew up in and it had high radon levels. Maybe there was another cause but that sounded like the most likely. All of the radon mitigation systems I've heard of either use the sump hole or a new drilled hole to install a fan to draw air from under the basement and blow it outside. Yep. I had the whole foundation prepped for radon mitigation.....but did not install the power fan to suck from that sump until we had done a test about 6 months after we moved in. Sure enough we had high radon. We had one sump for a sump pump (water) and another sump for radon mitigation.....If I remember correctly. Our area is / was highly susepctable to this and many homes at that time could not be sold without the mitigation system installed. I'm glad I went the extra miles to get a good system installed as it was a big selling point for my home when we moved. (A Doctor bought it). My wife and I still say it was the best home we ever owned. We spent allot of time designing that place and allot of effort to build it right. was a hard move to make.
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Post by Foggy on Jan 24, 2021 15:42:34 GMT -6
^^^ Regarding that pic above......that sure looks like the product I used.
As a side note.....we lived on the top of a large ridge / hill on a woodland area running thru New Ulm. Great spot. We were gone for a week at the lake up notth......and our 1" water line sheared off where the line came into the foundation wall of the house.......and leaked like crazy for almost a week. We had a $700 + water bill due to the leak. Lukilly the leak was outside the house......and the ground was absolutely saturated and water was "squirting" in little streams through the mortar in the blocks when I got home......and I had a floor drain that collected the water. The other water went into that "form a drain" footings and out via the vinyl tube over the side of the hill. via gravity. ( I really didn't need a sump pump).
At the bottom of the hill .....nearly 500 feet away......my neighbors yard was wet. Other than the big water bill......we dodged a big bullet there.
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