Smyrna Long-Term Test

I was pleased with the latest results of a long-term radon test from a job we completed last year in Smyrna, TN. Radon levels tested out at .5 pCi/L, after a year of exposure in the dining room. This house also has a young child, so all the better for everybody! (EPA limit is 4.0 pCi/L).

I am still working my temp. job in Florida, but hopefully I can get back in the groove after this job ends. I just got my PA radon license also, so it will be between Nashville or Philadelphia, although test-marketing in Philly has shown about 4x the demand of Nashville. Phila. PA is about 3x as expensive and crowded, so it will be a tough call, or maybe just open 2 offices, if I can organize it in the proper way.

Here is that report. Blogger usually shrinks it to about 1/4 original size:

Stuck on "Pause"

I am now stuck in the Florida panhandle for the foreseeable future, under a "temporary" work contract. Please feel free to email me for radon advice in the meantime, or request referrals to other qualified radon contractors.

I will be sure and delete this blog entry when I am again available for radon work in the Central Tennessee area.

Thanks.

Kurt Anderson

Help4Radon.com

Green Hills Crawlspace

I traveled up to Green Hills today to measure out this crawlspace. Although the owner did a nice job of laying down some thick plastic, radon levels remained unchanged in the living space above. Since radon measured below 15.0 pCi/L, I will propose the installation of a heat recovery ventilator (air exchanger).

Long Term Test Results

Here is the latest long term test result from one of our clients in Columbia, TN from the Spring of 2010. Their original radon level was around 30+ if I recall correctly. I remember this client watched my every move the entire 8 hours or so it took to do the work, and the attic during the last phase of installation was about 110 degrees. It definitely was a job I was hoping we passed the first time. They had scored about 1.5 on the short term test, thankfully, but the recent results from the the long term test (91 days to 12 months) showed even lower radon scores!

Tight Soil

I had some follow-up work Saturday, as I returned to check on our installation from last week, and it was in need of a phase II for sure. I ended up working on that all day. I had done my best to avoid this client originally, as I know the neighborhood to have no gravel under the homes, which means very difficult to lower the radon.

I had tried to refer them to another mitigator last Fall. When they called recently after the long winter and said nothing had been done yet, I decided to finally take the job, as they have young kids that spend a lot of time in the basement-and I know radon is especially bad for kids during the growth stages.

After the phase I installation, despite the lack of air flow under the floor, radon testing showed that levels had been brought down by about two thirds-from a 27 pCi/L to an 8, but it was still twice the EPA recommended limit. I added another suction point Saturday, in the floor of the bathroom closet, and joined it to the existing pipe.

If radon is still over the limit, I will recommend an energy recovery ventilator. It might get weird though, because that's about another $1,000, but our work is guaranteed. So do I just return the 50% they gave me already and call it a loss, or hit them up for another grand that they probably don't have? I don't know. I did know this job would be tough or impossible.

That's about all that can be done here. I will keep you posted.

                                                         Very little airflow here...........

 The curious cat

Prepare for emergency surgery

We're basically sucking dirt.....I removed another 30 lbs or so

Plastic surgery and we have a 3-way connector

Now where to put the hole in the closet?

This looks like a good spot to slip a pipe above and through the bathroom ceiling....

....and into the bathroom closet

Good news...it looks like we have some gravel underlayer in this part of the basement!

How to join 2 pipes that don't quite line up, vertically to horizontally........

Drop the pipe in about 2 inches and mark the spot

Measure the distance from the proposed pipe connection.......

 .....to the floor

Double-check the amount of distance the pipe drops into the hole.

Total the distance plus the 2 inches extra and cut to fit.

It's a perfect fit!

Remember to caulk around the pipe entrance in the floor.

Now we just need to join the new pipe to the original one.

Remember to add plenty of support brackets.

We have a connection.

Return Trip

I had to return to a client's home yesterday, after their long-term test came back over the limit for radon. All my work is guaranteed, so I have to keep returning until the problem is fixed, or I give them a refund. I think I have 2 jobs, where I did a bunch of work but had to refund them anyways. Those are a killer. Hopefully, this is a fixable house. We shall see....

The vacuum point was originally installed through their sump-pit cover in the basement, which usually works well, but did not in this case. Their original short-term test had returned excellent results, strangely enough.

This time I removed the sump pit section, and installed the pipe through the concrete floor-the more standard approach, giving us a shorter pipe run. I also applied concrete sealer around the entire perimeter of the basement. This is a big radon entry point, where the expansion joints are located:

 Sealing the perimeter of the basement

 Original pipe entry from adjoining crawlspace

 O marks the spot

 Bracing hammer drill with my knee

 Suctioning out a gravel pit

 A thick gravel under-layer is a huge advantage in effective radon reduction

 This Brown Recluse would surely put a hurtin' on ya'.

  Several tools needed for radon mitigation

 

 Finished!

                   Dumping gravel at my secret spot

Recent Newspaper Articles

Here is a recent article on radon from the Tennessean: Free Test Kits