Radon Mitigation Services
Like most gasses, radon is affected by air pressure. When a home's basement or foundation punctures the soil, it acts like a vacuum offering an area of lesser pressure, relative to the surrounding area. Radon then is literally sucked into the home through any cracks or gaps in the foundation. Once inside the home, a tight building envelope will help concentrate gas levels, and the homeowner is then vulnerable to long-term exposure.
There are various types of Radon Mitigation Systems available and MuscleRide Radon Mitigation Systems can assist you in determining which is best for your situation. Below are just a few of the more common types of mitigation systems for the most common contstruction techinquies.
Passive
First, there is a gas permeable material beneath the lowest floor. This is usually gravel, although other materials can be used. Plastic sheeting is placed above this, and the concrete floor on the sheeting. A 3 to 4 inch plastic pipe runs from the gravel through the sheeting and concrete, up through the house and through the roof. All the penetrations below ground level, such as the basement floor-wall joint, and plumbing and electrical penetrations, are caulked. This allows the natural convection of warm air moving up the pipe to create a slight vacuum in the gravel beneath the concrete. This vacuum pulls air and radon up the pipe and exhausts it above the roof. The caulking helps prevent air from the living space from being pulled below the floor, and improves the vacuum beneath the floor. If cracks and penetrations in that floor and the floor wall joint are not properly caulked, the system could pull air from the lowest level of the house and thereby lower the air pressure in that level, possibly causing back drafting.
Note - If your structure has been constructed with a passive Radon Mitigation System, we recommend that you still test the lowest level of the structure that is being used to make sure the systems integrity is intact.
Active Systems
The best practice for radon mitigation is "active sub-slab depressurization". The goal is to capture and contain the radon before it enters the living space, then force the gas out of the home. If you are not a qualified radon mitigation contractor, contact your state radon office for proper training, or click here for more information.
Here are the basic steps for creating an active sub-slab depressurization system to remove radon from the home:
- Install one or more perforated suction pipes in a layer of gravel beneath the slab. These pipes will collect the radon from the soil.
- Connect these suction pipes to one solid piece of pipe that extends from below the slab up through the roof. This pipe is used to carry the radon from the sub-slab out through the top of the home where it can be diluted in the atmosphere.
- Connect a radon vent fan to the suction pipe, usually in the attic. This
fan will make the sub-slab depressurization "active" and will force
the radon from the home.
Radon Mitigation in Crawl Spaces
Many structures were built with crawl spaces that run beneath the living area. The crawl space was created as a way to run utilities beneath a house but still maintain access to these utilities for maintenance, repair or addition of other utilities.
Radon mitigation from a crawl space not only will remove radon and other earth gasses, but also keep moisture levels down in the crawl space, so there is an added benefit to these this type of mitigation system in a crawl space.
Here are the basic steps for creating an active radon mitigation system under a home with a crawl space:
- Collection piping is installed around the perimeter of the structure near the foundation and foundation supports.
- All collection piping is then route together to a central location where the vent piping is connected.
- A high density non-permeable layer of material is installed covering the earth in the entire crawl space area and the foundation walls.
- Once this has been completely sealed, radon and other earth gasses collect underneath the material.
- Vent piping and a fan are connected to the collection grid underneath the material.
- When the fan( located outside or in an attic space)is turned on, it runs continuously creating a lower pressure beneath the material and evacuating the radon and gasses through the vent piping
Basement Radon Mitigation Systems
More and more people are finishing their basement spaces to utilize them for home offices, extended living spaces for multiple uses, etc...
An effective sub-slab depressurization system can be installed in the basement area of a home much like the active sub-slab depressurization system mentioned above.
Installing the radon mitigation system in an existing basement area will allow you to install multiple collection pipes (if necessary) and connect them to a central vent pipe, where the fan ( located outside or in an attic space) will vent the gasses above the roofline of the house.
More Information
No matter what your home construction type or tested radon levels, MuscleRide LLC. Radon Mitigation Systems can assist you in determining which type of system is best for you structure. Please feel free to contact us at anytime if you have any further question about radon mitigation systems
If you are considering building a home or your home is currently in construction and your building contractor has not included some type of radon mitigation system in the construction please contact us , so we can assist them installing a system that will be in place in case your radon levels are at a leve that need some type of mitigation.
Typically, the cost of installing the components needed for radon mitigation are much less during the construction phase of a home, than having to install them once the home is complete.