Radon  is a naturally occurring colorless, odorless, and tasteless radioactive gas. It is produced by the breakdown of uranium in rocks and soil. Radon can enter homes through cracks in the basement floors and walls and opening around sump pumps, drains, and construction joints.  Long term exposure to high levels of Radon has been linked to elevated risk of lung cancer and other detrimental long term health effects.

If you are buying or selling a home, visit the EPA link on radon and what the buyers and sellers need to know.

http://www.epa.gov/radon/pubs/hmbyguid.html

The only way to know if there is radon in your home is to test for it.  There are several companies in the Fairbanks area that test for radon.

Solutions For Healthy Breathing-

William Reynolds- 460-6653,  Karl Hough- 378-4108

Arctic Technical Services

452-8368

Remediating radon can be done a few different ways.  The first place to start is by blocking the obvious entry points.  Open sumps, floor penetrations for water and fuel lines, floor drains, cracks in the concrete floor, the connection from the walls to the footers, and the hole under the bathtub where the tub drain connects are all common areas for radon to enter the home.  Sealing these areas with caulking and 6 mil poly sheeting is a good start.

Another place to look is the type of ventilation system in the house.  Many older houses have exhaust only appliances.  Range hoods, bath fans, dryers, and boilers chimneys all blow air out of the house.  Any air that leaves a house has to come back in somewhere.  Radon levels are often higher in the winter, when people keep the windows closed to save on energy costs.  The ground around the house is also frozen.  Running exhaust only appliances can suck soil gasses, including radon, into the house through the foundation.  Natural pressure differences caused by "stack effect" can also pull radon into the house.

Sub-Slab Depressurization-

A common way to remediate radon in houses with a concrete floor in the basement is to drill some holes in a few locations in the concrete floor, and insert a pipe connected to an inline fan.  The fan is designed to pull a low volume of air at a high pressure.  The idea is to create an area of low pressure below the house, to draw the radon and other soil gasses over to the fan.  The fan then blows the gasses outside, preventing them from entering the house.  The effectiveness of subslab depressurization depends on the integrity of the slab, the height of the house, the size of the building, and how many holes are drilled and the location of the holes.

HRV to reduce radon-  HRV's can be used to reduce radon levels in homes.  The increase in ventilation will dilute the radon and prevent accumulation.  However, the main benefit to an HRV is that it creates a balanced airflow into and out of the house.  Any air that is removed from the bathrooms and kitchen to control humidity is replaced by the same amount of air back into the bedrooms and living areas of the house, keeping the house balanced.  The HRV can be set to a slight positive pressure to assist in keeping the radon out of the house.  By increasing the ventilation and changing the pressure balances within the house, radon levels can be drasticaly reduced.

We have recently had great sucess at reducing radon levels in some houses simply by increasing the ventilation rates.  The houses have had a crawlspace with no ventilation, or a fully finished basement with heated slabes full of radiant heat tubing.  By adding a panasonic whisper fan, or swapping out the existing old fan for a new quiet one, and adding a timer switch to ventilate a small ammount on a regular basis has made significant reductions in the radon levels within the house.

Call us today and set up a time for us to come out to your house and see what we can do for you.