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No inspections required afterwards that I know off. He gave me the radon test I just have to do it. And there is some sort of collar on both sides of the pipe that leaves the garage and enters it. And he guarantees under 4.0. And he sealed all of the cracks that run around the perimeter of the basement floor. Aames Radon
I was really happy with him and his work.
I would tell you that building permits and final inspections of the work by the Township are required. Both a building and electrical permit are required. Unless the mitigator is a licensed electrician he is required to have the electrical portion of the system performed by a licensed electrician. The reason for the final inspections by the township is to insure the system has been installed according to code.....if no permits were obtained and there is a fire from faulty electrical work your insurance company will not be responsible because you didn't did get the required permits and inspections. While you can be happy with the individual and his work if he didn't follow protocol you didn't get all the protection your supposed to get.
The question I ask, is if the Radon is bad in my house, how is it in my yard or on the street. Likely the same. Radon is an inert gas, meaning it is unlikely to react with anything. Dont worry about it.
Your house traps the gas and concentrates it. Your yard has um....lots of ventilation.
The question I ask, is if the Radon is bad in my house, how is it in my yard or on the street. Likely the same. Radon is an inert gas, meaning it is unlikely to react with anything. Dont worry about it.
Radon disipates into the atmosphere when not in an enclosed area......however.....there is background radiation from sources other than radon, like the sun......about 0.6 pCi/l in most areas. You can take the uneducated stance of "don't worry about it"........but you might have difficulty convincing those who lived in homes with elevated levels of radon who are laying in the hospital who have never smoked but are going through chemotherapy for lung cancer ?
I got my radon certification (meaning a 40 hour class and a very long exam) in 1993. I have been a professional home inspector since 1989. ...
I would not hesitate buying a house with a mitigation system installed.
Barking Spider,
We're under contract for a pre-1980 home that just failed a radon test (with an avg of > 11 and some readings > 25). The home is built on a slab. What type of remediation should we require the owner to do to close the sale? Will fans, etc. do the trick if the radon is coming up through the slab?
Also, this home is located on a mini-farm where we'd intended to grow vegetables and fruits. Should we be worried about contact with the soil, and eating food raised here? There's lots of info about inhaled radon, but little about its presence in the food chain.
If the house has a mitigation system installed by a certified radon mitigation contractor, you should be fine.
They will break a hole in the slab and place a large plastic pipe TEE fitting in the hole. They will then run a 3" or 4" PVC pipe from the hole up and to the outside. Somewhere in that pipe they will install a fan. That should take care of it.
With a house that is getting those readings, they may have to have more than one entry point, or maybe more than one system. You can only be sure if the system is working by doing a re-test a couple days after the system is up and running. Be sure they use a electronic continuous radon monitor to do the re-test.
If it was me, I would ask that a certified radon contractor do the work, that it's re-tested after installation, and confirmed the levels are below 4.0 pico curies per liter. You should be good to go after that.
Hope this helps
I have a house with a radon issue.... well, HAD a radon issue. We had to add a fan to the already existing passive system and the numbers went down significantly and are in the normal range.
If you're looking for a house with no radon, you probably need to look in an entirely different part of the country!! If a house in one neighborhood has a high radon level then other houses in the area will likely have the same problem (unless, of course they have a system in place to send it out of the house).
I would have no concern growing veggies in the soil near a house with elevated radon levels.
As far as nearby homes also having radon, i have a funny story. A few years ago I tested a house and found levels in the 40's. A week later I was called to inspect a house on the same street, just further up the hill. In fact the back yards touched each other (the road curved). The backs of each house were probably less than 500 feet away from each other. So I suggest they test it.
I run the test. The house is vacant, so I have a pretty good idea no one is going to go around and open windows, etc. The test comes back less than 4.0.
I double check the data (my test monitor checks and reports each hour) and see nothing out of the ordinary during the test period. My client told me they had come by the house a few times during the test period "just to check on things" and verified all the windows and doors were shut. I am confident the test was a good one.
My guess, there must be a huge shelf of rock under the 2nd house blocking the radon from entering. This house is in a very rocky area.
A year or so later I tested a house on the same street, but much further down the hill. The levels in that house were in the high 20's. Go figure.
My guess, there must be a huge shelf of rock under the 2nd house blocking the radon from entering. This house is in a very rocky area.
The property we are buying is in a mountainous region where there's also plenty of rock under (and sometimes on) the ground. We're getting ready to test an adjacent building being used as an artist's studio, and after reading your story I won't be at all shocked if it's negative.
You can take the uneducated stance of "don't worry about it"........but you might have difficulty convincing those who lived in homes with elevated levels of radon who are laying in the hospital who have never smoked but are going through chemotherapy for lung cancer ?
Statements like that are a great example of the pathtic BS put forth by junk science folks who can prattle meaningless ancedotes all day long but can't actually prove any of the conclusions that things like that clearly and intentionaly imply
For those of us that actually took science and engineering courses long after high school....Give us a break huh
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What about radon in soil and food plants?
