Radon Testing

[John Terefenko]

Anyone have radon testing done in their house??? If so what is involved??? Selling a house and one of the new requirements is to have a Radon Test. I am sure the pro will do a better test but Has anyone used those test kits from Home Depot or lowes??? How accurate are they and what is involved in that???

[Mel Fulks]

Don't remember the brand ,but we used one you buy ,expose, and mail in for result. We were a 4 plus but have not taken any action beyond airing house frequently by using fireplace and briefly opening windows. Land around neighborhood was once a granite quary and that is often a radon indicator.

[John Ziebron]

Hi John,
In my last home I made the purchase contingent on having a below acceptable level of radon. The test results were high so the sellers ended up paying about $1000 to have a radon mitigation system installed. In my current home I bought a test kit and checked myself. You can buy different test kits but the longer the test the more accurate the results are. I would go with a 4 day minimum, but a week test would be better. Sending it off to get the lab results was included in the price, but I'm not sure if that's true on all kits nowadays. You have to hang the kit in your basement or crawlspace a certain height from the floor. Best results are obtained if the air in that location is not disturbed.

It is always a good idea to have the radon level checked in your home, especially if one has kids. Many people don't realize that radon is the leading cause of lung cancer for non smokers. And just because neighbors on each side of you don't have elevated levels doesn't mean that your home won't. Good luck with your testing.

[John Terefenko]

What is the method of mitigation that is used today?? No sump pump in this house and basement is dry. Want to do this in my house now too but i have a sump pump and is the mitigation different?? Thanks.

By the way the sellers have put that contingency in their contract also.

[Allan Speers]

Oh boy, this is a topic I know really well. (Unfortunately.)

John, if all you want to do is meet the requirements for selling your house, then get the town to do it. (around here it's fee.) The results will be completely erroneous, but you might get lucky and pass.

Here's the actual deal:

Radon gas can be very high one day, and almost non-existant the next. To do an accurate test, you must keep the container open for around a month. - and then again the next month, and so on. Also, placement is critical, as certain parts of the room can give bad results. (You can find instructions online about this.) I have watched first-hand, a woman from the town place a test-absorper in EXACTLY the wrong spot, based on the device's own instructions. Then she collected it the next day, even though the manufacturer's site recommended at least 2 weeks. so...

Now, if anyone wants ACCURATE testing, buy a couple of the "Safety Siren Pro Series 3" meter/ alarms. Put them in 2 different areas of your basement. These are very accurate, and you will likely see the numbers vary on a daily basis.

Also don't forget to test your water, if you have a well ! (Radon on well water is not directly correlated with radon gas in the air.)

---------------------------

If you do end up with radon, the normal practice is to install a blower system, in sort of a french drain dingus. However, this continually pulls in cold air in the winter & hot/humid in the summer, which stinks. What I did, although not usually recommended, was to seal all the concrete with "Radon Seal" solution. This worked surprisingly well. (I figured that if it didn't work 100%, it would still help, and also stop humidity, which it definitely does do.)

Then I put down a layer of high-quality (solvent-based) epoxy paint.
Shockingly, as the epoxy cured, I saw hundreds of little air bubble coming up from under the concrete! It looked like the surface of the moon. I had to re-apply the epoxy 3-4 times before I got them all sealed. At that point, the radon level dropped dramatically, well below the "safe" limit.

YMMV. The pros will all tell you that you MUST use a blower system. I didn't have to, FWIW.


Also, if you have radon in your water: If it's really bad, you have to use aeration. (external.) this is quite expensive.
If it's mild, you can remove the radon with a low-cost charcoal filter. - You're supposed to keep this filter in an isolated area, and pretty much stay away from it except when you are changing the charcoal!

I kid you not. :eek:



- that's all I got.

[George Bokros]

When I had my mitigation system installed they drilled through the floor for the vent pipe. I do have a sump pump but they told me that this how it is being done now. They did seal the sump well with a lid though.

[Brian Tymchak]

I used a couple of those mail-in kits from HD just to get an idea if I had the issue or not. I can't comment on accuracy as I did not have a pro do the test as well to compare. The process is simple but takes time. I believe the minimum exposure time is 96 hrs. Then you mail the kit in. You can pre-register the test online and then get results via email. I also believe they expedite processing for real-estate transactions.

I tested my basement and adjacent crawl space as I have a basement shop and I expect to be spending a lot more time there as I get closer to retirement. For a real-estate transaction, check if there are requirements about where to test. Basements will almost always test higher since they are in the ground and usually have a lot less ventilation. Living areas above a basement should test a lot lower.

[Brian Tymchak]

By the way the sellers have put that contingency in their contract also.

Since you are going to end up spending money either way (if the tests come back above 4 pCI/L), any possibility of negotiating on the purchase prices to reflect the cost of mitigation? That takes the pressure off the sale and the buyers get what they want if they put the money towards that.

[Dan Hintz]

Our house purchase was contingent on it, as well. "Pro" came in, installed a few meters, came back some number of days later to collect. He said we needed to leave the house sealed as much as possible... in our case, we weren't living in the house yet, so that wasn't an issue. Got a nice graph showing the day-to-day variances of it, but in the end the average was above the limit, so the sellers had a mitigation blower installed (about $1k) in the sump pit. That was already sealed, so any air it pulls in from the outside gets exhausted to the outside, so no net loss of heat/cold (other than what leaks through the wall of the pipe). Now that I have a couple coats of Dry-Lok down, I wouldn't mind seeing the results of a new test (and a third when I get the basement walls sealed with some closed-cell foam).

[John Terefenko]

I just don't know if this is another one of those overhyped things that contractors jumped on and ran with. I have not seen medical reports that this actually causes the cancer they say. If they are using data that is found from miners then that is skewed to the tenth power. Their exposure is much more than you will in a life time. My Realtor was telling me in NJ last year the winter was very brutal and cold. He said most homes sold in the spring had Radon problems and a lot of mitigation was going on. Those companies did well. Come the summer things dropped off because homes were now opened.

The buyer is going to have the test done. I want to do my own testing to compare notes if it gets to that and then if there is any negotiating we will see. I think this is another one of those things that a buyer should fix himself because he can have it done to his specs. I am going to do the bare minimum when it comes to correcting things. Will see how this goes

[Wade Lippman]

I have run several DIY tests and find them to be consistent with the professional ones. However, the buyer might not be willing to accept your tests. My experience is that the buyer does his own tests.

In my case, remediation was drilling a hole in the floor and sucking air out of the gravel. The perimeter was sealed with caulk. My radon dropped from 6 to 0.5. When I turn the fan off, it goes back up to 6.0; so it is the fan rather than the sealing. (I have no idea how effective sealing the floor is, but it is an expensive experiment.) The fan is rather loud; nearly as loud as a cheap bathroom exhaust.

I actually got outbid on my house; but then the buyer insisted it being remediated before closing. The seller refused, and I picked it up for $20,000 less than my previous offer. Go figure.
Oh, remediation was $900.

[Brian Tymchak]

I actually got outbid on my house; but then the buyer insisted it being remediated before closing. The seller refused, and I picked it up for $20,000 less than my previous offer. Go figure.


That never happens to me... :(

[Mel Fulks]

We were told by a guy who does "radon mitigation" that basements can be the source. Even the gravel under the concrete can be a radon source. The stuff they sell to fill the shrinkage cracks between walls and slab can help block it.

[Matt Schroeder]

I tested my basement and came back with a 14. I had a mitigation company come in and test, and they also got 14 (they didn't know I tested before, so it seemed a fair test). They sealed the sump, drilled through the floor, and plumbed it to a fan on the outside of the house. The sump is in the middle of the basement, so the floor drilling was at a corner to greatly simplify the vent run. Tests after have consistently been 1 or below, both short term (3 or so days) and long term (90+ days). I continue to test every couple years just to be sure, using Accustar Labs products.

Secondary benefit is a reduction in humidity and musty smell in the basement; that may just be sealing the sump, or maybe it is a combination of that and the fan. I'll take it either way.

Matt

[Lloyd Kerry]

When I hear all the confusion, rumors, test and remediation cost estimates, I wonder if I would do just as well opening a couple windows an hour each day (I know.. winter... but I'm in eastern Canada- I know winter) :-)