I'm going to install a radon mitigation system in my basement. Does anyone have suggestions on a high quality fan? There are many brands advertised, and other than price I have no way of determining which will provide the longest service. iI plan to install it in the attic so it won't be exposed to weather. Thanks for any suggestions.
mleininger, I can't answer your question about a fan (I believe the correct terminology is a vacuum pump), but can share a story with you.
I have a friend who tried to do radon mitigation himself rather than use a company who specializes in radon mitigation. His efforts were very expensive and led to very little radon mitigation. He ended up having to hire a radon mitigation contractor. Once the contractor was finished, the home was well below the EPA guidelines.
My friend feels the efforts and dollars he spent doing it himself were wasted.
Unless you really know what you are doing, I would not gamble my family's health on doing it myself. If I did it myself, I would test every quarter for a couple of years to be sure everything was working as planned.
Bob
Radon?? best get some qualified advice! [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
I have a friend who is a radiation physicist and does this for a living on commercial and industrial projects. She told me what to do but is not familiar with the brands of small equipment used in houses. I was hoping someone who has experience with the home market would suggest a good reliable brand.
I assume you already have the basement and are not going to build it?
My radon mitigation was home brew. My basement slab sits atop 16 inches of washed septic gravel, two inches of rigid 4x8 foam insulation, and a vapor barrier (StegoWrap) with seams sealed with special tape just for that purpose. I put a perforated pipe buried in the gravel bed and ran that out the roof of the house via a 2 inch PVC pipe. There is no pressure under the slab since it is vented to atmosphere. If there is any radon it will not penetrate the plastic barrier and will vent out the roof.
At the time I did this I thought it was as cheap to install the vent as it was to test adequately for radon so I installed the vent and didn't test for radon. I wanted the plastic barrier anyway to keep any moisture out of the floor slab so the only expense was a little pipe and glue. I was quite thorough with the installation of the vapor barrier and with sealing its overlapped seams. My basement floor is about 5 ft under the level of the surrounding ground water and yet it stays quite dry. I have tested it by taping impermeable plastic over a square yard for a week on the walls and in various places on the floor. After a week there wasn't even any discoloration of the concrete much less visible condensation. I do have French drains at the top of the foundation inside and out draining to daylight. These would pass radon as well, if there is any.
Showers are often one of the worst radon sources in the home, if local water has radon. A good exhaust fan is a good idea.
Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
Good point, I forgot to mention my house is already built. The house is in an area of very porous rock and gravel as deep as you can dig, there are many quarries in the area. So our sump pump has never come on in the 30 years since it was built. In fact we discharge our water softener, dehumidifier and air conditioner into the sump and it just dissipates into the tile without the sump ever coming on. We also have no moisture of any kind. That was the basis for my friend believing that depressurization would be very effective. Thanks for your info, wish I were building a new house, I'd do many things different.
Excuse my ignorance, it can be cured with education, training, and or experience. What is depressurization? Do you suck a vacuum on the space below the basement slab and discharge the removed air in a safe direction away from paths leading back inside the house? I thoiught that might work to prevent infiltration of any subterranean gasses or vapors through any microscopic cracks or the general porosity of the slab.
Otherwise I am clueless.
Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
Re: radon fan - Fantech. My present home is the second that I had with radon. Both have used the Fantech fans, the current one being mounted on the outside of the house and running steady for over nine years now. I also have one for venting my bathrooms and one with a barometric sensor on my dryer line. I guess that you could say that I am a Fantech "fan", ha!
My last house had the system when I bought it. The house was a bilevel but sat at ground level. The four inch PVC pipe went into the concret floor in the garage, perhaps just into the gravel bed for the concrete. I have no idea if there were pipes within the gravel.
I forget the proper name for the mercury guage that shows vacuum but the guage was mounted on the pipe at eye level. The pipe ran through a second floor closet then into the attic where the fan was mounted and vented through the roof.
Previous to buying, I had the radon tested in the ranch house which I have now and it was high.
When the basement slab was poured, the contractor placed a 2x4 around the perimeter then removed it after the concrete had hardened I suppose. They may have done that expecting water due to springs in the area but the basement is dry.
When the radon contractor mitigated it, he pop riveted plastic angle over the 2" gap around the basement walls except for both far ends of the foundation where he placed a collector and a vertical pipe. Connected via a horizontal pipe running along the steel support beam, the pipe is then routed to the outside where the fan is then a stack runs up the wall.
The pipe comes out of the wall into a "Tee", on the bottom of which is a screen to allow moisture to drain.
Admittedly, it is kind of ugly but this end of the house has the AC condenser and the electric meter. Plus, this end is not usually seen by guests, etc.
It saved a lot of other problems by placing the fan/stack on the end wall and there is one less hole through the roof.
By the way, none of the locals could believe that I had radon as we are north of the usual area where it is common in eastern PA. Then, I found out that some of the highest readings to be found anywhere are on top of a nearby "mountain" and can be recorded coming right out of the ground. The Appalacian Trail happens to run right through it!
Do a search on Fantech and also on Radon Systems. I just did a real quick look at the latter and it appears that there is plenty of good free info.
It is a lot easier to install radon mitigation when building than to retrofit it. The 16 inches of gravel below my basement floor is laced with perforated pipe which connects to a through the roof vent. No fans involved. The under floor volume is topped with "StegoWrap" a thick hight quality plastic barrier which is sealed at all seams and penetrations with a special (expensive) tape. There can be no pressure under the slab as it is vented and there is no path for any radon to get into the living space.
A curved tube with mercury (or other liquid) to show differential pressure (or vacuum) is a "U" tube manometer. You read the difference in heights of the liquid in the tube.
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
[img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] Pat, isn't that guage that is so often seen on air handlers a "Magnahelic" (or some such spelling). it's a large face guage that you can see into and is used for pressures which are actually in the "inches of water" range as most air ducts are. I should know this having seen two trillion of them on equipment as I dragged myself and my infrared camera through machinery spaces in buildings. [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img]
CJDave
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