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Hi
I was wondering if anyone has done any radon mitigation lately. I’m kind of in a bind time wise. My wife and I are considering purchasing a great little 2 story brick house with a full basement. Even though it’s 70 years old it’s in great shape. However, during the home inspection we learned that the radon levels were too high. The test came back at 31.6 and 4.0 is the limit. We live in Pittsburgh.
I guess I’m worried that the solution may be worse than the problem. As I understand it we have two courses of action. One involves digging under the footing to place a vent pipe out of the house. I’m worried that rooting around under the footing may cause settling in the future.
The second option is to vent totally vertically, puncturing the roof. I wouldn’t be concerned if it was an asphalt roof, but the roof is clay tile!
Lastly, it’s my understanding that the fan would be on ALL the time. How noisey are these things? We have 7 days to decide what to do before we lose this house to someone else. I’d apprecitate any comments from anyone who has installed a mitigation system, or especially someone who lives with one!
Thanks,
Carl Bolton
[email protected]
Replies
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I had one of these fans installed in my house our levels were a bit lower 9.0 if I remember correctly. The mitigation company installed a pipe, that goes into my basement floor and out the side of my house where a fan pulls the air from under the house up a vent pipe that runs up the side of my house (like a gutter down spout). I think that the course of action depends on the levels, again my levels are much lower than yours. If the fan being on bothers you, I have to be honest and tell you that we cant even here it running. Good luck.
*Carl,Don't worry about it so much. Radon mitigation, in most cases, is fairly simple for those in that business. Especially, if no crawl spaces are present. Like any other trade, be sure you afford the best mitigator in town!! Usually they are a bit more expensive, but you want a system that will absolutely bring that level down to well below 4 and be as aesthetically pleasing as it is practical for your home design. The fan noise won't be a problem and the cost to operate the fan equals that of a ceiling paddle fan.Thank goodness you had the insight to test your new old home.Stephan
*I did a lot of painting on a house that had the same type of set-up that Happy describes. I disagree a bit about the fan noise. You didn't hear the fan if you were around the corner from it, and certainly you didn't hear it inside, but if you are within a few feet you definitely heard it. Not too bad...it didn't drown out conversation or anything, but I wouldn't want it next to my deck.Rich Beckman
*If your basement floor is a slab on gravel they sometimes can just poke a hole thru the slab and pull air from there. The fan has to be bigger (and a bit noisier, the biggest ones can sound like a vacuum running). When they did my house they suggested to start with the simplest option first, then re-test, and go from there. My level dropped from 26 to .02 and we stopped there (using the smallest fan available).Have one or two abatement firms out to quote the job for you and to discuss the options in more detail (especially after they have seen the construction of the place, which makes a difference on which options are possible for you).They don't have to evacuate the air in your basement, only provide a slight negative pressure under your slab. Just enough to draw the gas out that way instead of your living space.
*FWIW, I've never seen a mitigation fan that sounded like a vacuum cleaner. Where was that? Three Rivers Stadium? (Bet they don't have a radon problem there anymore!)As others have indicated, don't sweat it; its pretty routine (esp in the Pgh area, assuming you can find anyone back at work after the Patriots disaster; I'm still semi-depressed and I haven't lived in the 'burgh for 5 years!)Typically, the fan supposedly draws about as much juice as a 40 watt (?) light bulb.
*Thanks everyone for your help. I think we'll live with it for a few months and then decide which is the best course of action to take. As I said in my original email, I'm more apprehensive of the fan noise and pipe routing than the radon itself!Bob, yeah the defeat was a black cloud hanging around this town! I was torn. I'm originally from New England so I was psyched to see the Pats beat the Raiders. BUT, being true to my new "hometown" I was routing for the Steelers. I knew it was bad mojo to have hats printed up with "afc champions" on it even before the game was played! (I saw these on fans the day before the game)thanks again guys.cb
*It would be to your family's benefit to get the radon mitigated. I had the fan installed in the garage (it is very quiet) and vented out the side of the garage (not through the roof). The original level was 12. In my case, I had a poured concrete basement with a crawl space underneath the family room. They put heavy duty plastic sealing over the crawl space and ran the pipe down through the concrete floor to pull the radon up and out. The fan operation cost is negligible and the cost of installation was the less than $700. By the way, I required that the seller of the house pay for the mitigation ( I paid for the test), so my costs has been for the fan operation. The company even came back and repaired the plastic after I had a small flood (a long story) for free.On the other hand, if you NEVER go into the basement and the levels on the main level of the house are normal, you may get by with doing nothing. If you punch "radon" into your search engine, you will probably find out [email protected]
*Carl,My understanding si that the sellr usually absorbs the cost of radon mitigation.Is this a FSBO? An "As Is?"Even if it's as is, now that the seller knows the readon reading, they would have to disclose that to any subsequent potentialk buyers, so they have a disincentive to blow you off if you ask them to do the remediation (or ask for a price adjustment.)There is some controversy about whether radon at those levels is really a health hazard, and if so, how long an exposure it takes for there to be effects. I suggest remediation: if for no other reason, when you go to sell your buyer is going to ask you to remediate.Every deal is different though, check with someone with local real estate knowledge and expertize.(I can give you a name in the North Hills, if you like.)
*If you smoke, don't bother w/ the remediation, not worth the money.Don
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Hi
I was wondering if anyone has done any radon mitigation lately. I'm kind of in a bind time wise. My wife and I are considering purchasing a great little 2 story brick house with a full basement. Even though it's 70 years old it's in great shape. However, during the home inspection we learned that the radon levels were too high. The test came back at 31.6 and 4.0 is the limit. We live in Pittsburgh.
I guess I'm worried that the solution may be worse than the problem. As I understand it we have two courses of action. One involves digging under the footing to place a vent pipe out of the house. I'm worried that rooting around under the footing may cause settling in the future.
The second option is to vent totally vertically, puncturing the roof. I wouldn't be concerned if it was an asphalt roof, but the roof is clay tile!
Lastly, it's my understanding that the fan would be on ALL the time. How noisey are these things? We have 7 days to decide what to do before we lose this house to someone else. I'd apprecitate any comments from anyone who has installed a mitigation system, or especially someone who lives with one!
Thanks,
Carl Bolton
[email protected]