Radon Gas

[Woodpecker]

I just learned about this gas while looking at a house in Upstate NY. Does anyone have any insight on this? TYIA

[Hank]

Sorry, don't know a lot about the gas itself but...If you think there is a buildup of radon gas in the house you can get a dector at The Home Depot.

Hank
http;//www.doublemfarmandchuckwagon.webs.com

[RVcook]

You may want to have a look at this site:

http://www.epa.gov/radon/zonemap.html

RVcook

[blooba]

The gas seeps from the ground through minute cracks and usually is in your basement and it supposedly is cancer causing. It's a fairly new discovery but they take it very seriously so maybe it is really bad for us.

[Windy in Kansas]

Radon is indeed something that should be taken seriously as it is the #2 cause of lung cancer. http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/radon

Having said that, it is not an issue in many locations. In Kansas it is an issue and Kansas State University has a site telling of it. http://www.kansasradonprogram.org/

Either or both of those sites should provide some useful information.

[Wis Bang 2]

This summer Mom found that her home had a high level of Radon from the buyer's inspector's test. This was northern Bucks County, PA.

The remedy was a perforated pipe placed underneath the crawl space connected to an exterior vent stack containing a variable speed fan connected to a sensor. Think a three inch white PVC pipe w/ a 6" round bulge at the back of the house. It vents the gas to keep it from building up in side the home in harmful concentrations.

The fan runs all the time and the speed varies depending on the sensor reading. I think it was a little over $900.00 installed. After seeing it, I've spotted a few more in the area.

[Darren]

Radon as a hazard in the home has been known since 1984. That's when a worker at the Limerick Nuclear Power Plant set off a portal monitor when he left the plant to go home in the evening. That was when the plant was still under construction. After he found out he also set off the portal monitor when he first arrived at work, plant management started investigating. The state checked the house out and found Radon levels were extremely high.

That was probably the first time, Radon was recognized as a potential hazard in a residence. It's not something you want to ignore.

[SWMontana]

People come from all over to get their aches and pains "cured" at this radon mine in Montana. Of course it's also called the "merry widow".

http://www.legendsofamerica.com/MT-MerryWidowMine/html

[Joshie]

If you're going to purchase a house get a radon inspection. If you don't you might end up the way we did.... When you sell your house you'll have to pay for a system for the buyers. They run between $900 and $1200. Apparently, it's more expensive to put them in if you don't have a basement.

[Woodpecker]

Thanks for all the info! It's good to know that something can be done about it at least. what about Radon in spring water what would you do, anyone know? TYIA

[bowdonkey]

In MN 1 in 3 homes on avg have radon. A very serious health issue. I would also test a house for toxic mold.

[Rita]

How do you test for toxic mold?

[Wolf mom]

Radon gas never was a problem until homes began to be built air tight.

Get a meter, open windows.

Toxic mold is BLACK mold found on walls & inside them. If you have leaking water - roof leak, pipe drip, someplace, you may have mold.

If you're buying a property, have the contract contingent upon a home inspction & tell the inpsector your concern about radon gas & mold.

[highlands]

In our part of the world, building here on top of granite ledge, we just assume the radon gas is there. I designed my new house to handle this and prevent it from coming in. I also ventilate well. With old houses do a lot of ventilation and avoid creating a negative pressure (vac) that sucks the radon gas out of the soil into your house. For our old farm house I figured out it was going to cost tens of thousands to retrofit it against the radon gas. House needed a lot of work anyways. I trashed it instead and built from scratch further up the hill. Cheaper and far better.

If you have an existing house: Ventilate, ventilate, ventilate. Good idea with a well built house too.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs, Sheep & Kids
in the mountains of Vermont
Read about our on-farm butcher shop project:
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/butchershop
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/csa

[salmonslayer]

Radon gas never was a problem until homes began to be built air tight.

I think there are actually a lot of things that arent helped by making houses super air tight and radon is just one of them. We are seeing serious rot on 10 year old 5 star energy rated houses in my area and can anyone look at some of the houses being built today and imagine 100 years from now someone moving into one and renovating it for their homestead? Old houses breath and to my uneducated mind its one of the reasons old wood frame farmhouses are still standing and lived in going back over 150 years.

I have even seen people concerned over the radon emitted from granite counter tops..kind of makes my cheap formica from the 50s seem kind of appealing!!

[Woodpecker]

Great suggestions, keep them coming!

[IowaLez]

The Iowa Gov website says 71% of homes in Iowa have high levels. We are going to test as soon as we get a weekend without wind (drafts), so it can be mailed on a Monday. Our farmhouse is 113 yrs old, and our cellar is porous as heck. The majority of homes in rural Iowa are old, so I'm sure there are lots that have been/need to be fixed. The Iowa site said it involves putting a pipe through the foundation, down into the soil and a fan draws the gas up and out. I'm not sure how that works when rainwater wells up through the cement floor, or comes through the hand-hewn limestone walls and makes a puddle...

[JoePa]

That's why burning a wood stove in the cellar is a good thing - there is air going up the chimmey and is being replaced by air coming into the house - thus you are getting ventilation from that happening -

[Snowfan]

Oh, the benefits of having a drafty old house.

[ldc]

30 yrs ago in Central NJ we found out by accident that we had it in the basement. Had to seal the old dirt floor with a layer of cement, and as many said above, "VENTILATE"! We kept a detector handy, and after the concrete, there wasn't very much.