Radon system? DIY…

Ucsdryder

WKR
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Anybody done one? Tips or tricks?

Hoping to use the sump hole, no pump present. Then vent outside to fan.

I was looking at the amg eagle, not sure the difference between 3x3 or 4x3.

House was built in 2017, foot print 2200sq ft, most of the dirt is clay or bentonite.
 
I installed mine when I built the house. I am not expert so take this for what it worth.

This is not rocket science. We are just pulling a slight vacuum under the basement slab or under a vapor barrier in the crawl space. The 3 vs 4 I believe is driven by what you have installed for piping. If you want to hide it inside an interior wall the 3 inch may be needed.

As for fans I bought one that had the best decibel rating....I hate random noise.

My wife teaches ap science and we seem to always be running experiments with radon detectors. It is pretty wild how fast it changes with a single fan. A single day is all it takes to drop the radon way down.

Good luck
 
I've done several (probably 20, though most were crawl space, only a few slabs). Sealing cracks/edges on the slab makes a surprisingly large difference. Use something like OSI quad or sikaflex (those also work great to seal the pipe in the sump hole).

I've used mostly Fantech fans, 4" (and a few 6"). They are very similar to that Eagle. Larger gives you more margin, if you have carpet or other flooring over the slab and can't get to all the cracks.

Use Fernco or simillar rubber couplers to attach the fan to the pipe, it cuts down on noise to eliminate the hard connection.

There's nothing magical about getting to the 4.0 pCi/dL number from a risk standpoint, my understanding is that 10 years spent in a 4.0 environment has the same risk profile as 1 year in a 40.0 environment and the following 9 in 0.0 (it's not an acute toxin like CO), but there often is something about that 4.0 level if you ever go to sell the home. It's a fairly standard target, and a buyer might ask to have levels reduced to that level. They might also be more of a stickler about the guidelines for 10' distance between exhaust and an operable window.

@Legend you are right. Not rocket science at all. I test with a continuous radon monitor, and you can see on the graph when the fan gets turned on. It's pretty forgiving, if you run the fan and levels aren't quite where you want them, just buy another tube or two of polyurethane sealant and a smoke bottle (wind checker works great) and go find where you're pulling air from the top side of the slab.

Good luck, and feel free to PM or tag me here if you have any specific questions.
 
I've done several (probably 20, though most were crawl space, only a few slabs). Sealing cracks/edges on the slab makes a surprisingly large difference. Use something like OSI quad or sikaflex (those also work great to seal the pipe in the sump hole).

I've used mostly Fantech fans, 4" (and a few 6"). They are very similar to that Eagle. Larger gives you more margin, if you have carpet or other flooring over the slab and can't get to all the cracks.

Use Fernco or simillar rubber couplers to attach the fan to the pipe, it cuts down on noise to eliminate the hard connection.

There's nothing magical about getting to the 4.0 pCi/dL number from a risk standpoint, my understanding is that 10 years spent in a 4.0 environment has the same risk profile as 1 year in a 40.0 environment and the following 9 in 0.0 (it's not an acute toxin like CO), but there often is something about that 4.0 level if you ever go to sell the home. It's a fairly standard target, and a buyer might ask to have levels reduced to that level. They might also be more of a stickler about the guidelines for 10' distance between exhaust and an operable window.

@Legend you are right. Not rocket science at all. I test with a continuous radon monitor, and you can see on the graph when the fan gets turned on. It's pretty forgiving, if you run the fan and levels aren't quite where you want them, just buy another tube or two of polyurethane sealant and a smoke bottle (wind checker works great) and go find where you're pulling air from the top side of the slab.

Good luck, and feel free to PM or tag me here if you have any specific questions.
Basement is completely finished with carpet so I won’t be able to do much sealing.

Thank you for the response. I’m going to order today and install asap.
 
Basement is completely finished with carpet so I won’t be able to do much sealing.

Thank you for the response. I’m going to order today and install asap.

I'd definitely to at least 4" pipe if you can, without good air sealing on the slab you'll be moving quite a bit of air volume and small pipes get loud at high air speeds.

What are your levels currently? Why the sense of urgency?
 
Currently at 4.3 but seems to be climbing still on a continuous monitoring system.
 
Was your radon assessed when you bought the house? do you live in a high radon area?
It passed 4 years ago when we bought the house. I don’t remember the level now but it was “ok”. Neighbors on both sides of us have fans which got me thinking I should probably check it again.
 
It passed 4 years ago when we bought the house. I don’t remember the level now but it was “ok”. Neighbors on both sides of us have fans which got me thinking I should probably check it again.
Ah, gotcha. I live in an area with high radon — but I’ve got a crawl space which makes it slightly easier.
 
Currently at 4.3 but seems to be climbing still on a continuous monitoring system.

Man, I'd be pretty unconcerned about that. I don't remember the numbers/tables, but risk at those levels is pretty miniscule (I'm a builder who has taken some radon remediation classes/training - we were paying crazy money for radon companies to install systems in our new builds and renovation projects so we decided to bring it in house). We usually hit 1.0-2.0 pCi/L but EPA's "meh, don't worry about it" level is below 4.0

The risk of lung cancer from all causes is extremely low if you're not a smoker, and going from 6.0 to 3.0 might cut your risk of lung cancer from radon exposure in half, but it's a little like buying one Powerball ticket vs two. Technically doubled your odds, but functionally still almost zero.
 
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Man, I'd be pretty unconcerned about that. I don't remember the numbers/tables, but risk at those levels is pretty miniscule (I'm a builder who has taken some radon remediation classes/training - we were paying crazy money for radon companies to install systems in our new builds and renovation projects so we decided to bring it in house). We usually hit 1.0-2.0 pCi/L but EPA's "meh, don't worry about it" level is below 4.0

The risk of lung cancer from all causes is extremely low if you're not a smoker, and going from 6.0 to 3.0 might cut your risk of lung cancer from radon exposure in half, but it's a little like buying one Powerball ticket vs two. Technically doubled your odds, but functionally still almost zero.
Thank you! That does make me feel better, and decreases my sense of urgency. I just set up the monitor. It says 30 days for the full story, but it’s steadily increased over the last 2 days. Currently at 4.3pci/L.

That being said, installing a fan in the sump hole, is kind of a no brainer with small kids in the house, and my daughter’s bedroom in the basement. Especially if I can install it myself for a few hundred $$$.
 
This may sound crazy to some, but depending on how porous the fill under the slab, a simple 3” pvc that passes through and is sealed to the slab providing negative pressure under the slab may be easy to retrofit and work better than chasing radon that has made it into conditioned space. Our slabs are all over a sand base and air moves freely, but obviously concrete on clay wouldn’t work.
 
All gasses only need is a fraction of an inch of water column negative pressure and it will follow the path of least resistance up the pvc.

Passive systems simply going from under the slab, up through the interior of the house and exiting the roof have provided enough air draw with the air rising with heat differential. Some have done this first, tested the air quality and only then added an electrical fan to provide more draw if needed.
 
If you have water sumps, their penetrations through the slab would need to be sealed for negative pressure to work, but it can be a super simple access panel sealed to the slab with weather stripping.
 
Yeah the 4 mark isn’t bad. When we moved into our house it was around 14…. So one of the first things we did was get it mitigated.
 
This may sound crazy to some, but depending on how porous the fill under the slab, a simple 3” pvc that passes through and is sealed to the slab providing negative pressure under the slab may be easy to retrofit and work better than chasing radon that has made it into conditioned space. Our slabs are all over a sand base and air moves freely, but obviously concrete on clay wouldn’t work.

You're exactly right, a decent slab poured over a gravel bed is the easiest thing in the world to mitigate (compared to a crawl space where you need a bunch of pipe and vapor barrier sealed to foundation). Core a 5" hole in the slab, stuff a pipe in and seal it up with polyurethane sealant, and you're in business.

In an ideal system, that fan really doesn't move that many CFM, it just provides a constant negative pressure under the entire slab (or vapor barrier in a crawl space) so that any air/vapor percolating up through the soil goes straight out rather than up into the house. House is always pulling a little bit on the soil due to thermal stack, but it doesn't take much fan to overcome that with good sealing.
 
I installed the system in our house, like mentioned in previous posts sealing the foundation makes a huge difference. There are a lot of YouTube videos walking you through the whole process. For probably $500.00 in materials you can install an excellent system.
 
I installed the system in our house, like mentioned in previous posts sealing the foundation makes a huge difference. There are a lot of YouTube videos walking you through the whole process. For probably $500.00 in materials you can install an excellent system.
Just bought all the stuff, minus the piping. A little over 500 so far but I got a pretty expensive fan.
 
I just finished installing our system. Our basement went from 1200Bcq/m3 down to an average of 25Bcq/m3.
I used 4” and the fantech 4 variable speed. I went with their biggest fan because of the levels and only have it running at 3/4 speed. This is with a basement slab with coarse gravel under. I used Sikaflex to seal sump pit and around water lines. Airthings Corentium is an excellent digital meter that doesn’t have a bunch of extra options
 
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