What is Radon?

Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas, created from the breakdown of Uranium in soil, rock, and water. Your home creates a vacuum that draws Radon from the soil through cracks, construction joints, and other penetrations in it’s foundation. Once inside your home Radon can be trapped and build up to hazardous levels. Any home can have high concentrations of Radon, whether it is old or new, well-sealed or drafty. Even homes without basements can have high levels of Radon.

Radon is an invisible, tasteless, odorless gas that is estimated by the Surgeon General to cause approximately 21,000 deaths per year due to lung cancer. Radon exposure is second only to smoking in the number of lung cancer related deaths in the United States!

According to the EPA, there is not a safe amount of Radon. However, a threshold of no more than 4pC/l has been determined to be an acceptable level. The only way to know if you have elevated levels of Radon in your home, is to have it tested.

EPA Recommends:
-Test your home for Radon, it’s easy and inexpensive
-Fix your home if your Radon level is 4pC/l or higher
-Radon levels less than 4pC/l still pose a risk and in many cases, can be reduced.

Testing:
Testing IS easy, inexpensive and takes little of your time. Radon test kits are available at you local home center, over the internet and through the county you live in. A NEHA certified Radon Measurement Professional can also come to your home to measure for you.

Here are some links to metro area counties that have test kits at a discounted price.

Ramsey: www.co.ramsey.mn.us
Washington: www.co.washington.mn.us
Hennepin: www.co.hennepin.mn.us
Dakota: www.co.dakota.mn.us
St. Croix: www.co.saint-croix.wi.us

 

If your home needs mitigation:

Delwiche Remodeling is certified by the National Environmental Health Association as a Radon Mitigation Contractor.

If testing have proven that your home has unacceptable levels of Radon (>than 4pC/l), please call us soon to setup a free onsite estimate. Delwiche Remodeling Inc. will design a mitigation system that is unique to your home.

Most Radon problems can be solved with a sub-slab depressurization system. This systems requires a 3-4” pipe to be installed in you basement slab. A Radon vent fan is connected to this pipe to draw the soil gases to the exterior of your home. Vent fan and pipe routing location is determined by your homes specific floor plan.

Delwiche Remodeling Inc. can guarantee a Radon reduction in your home to 3pC/l or less. We are always concerned about the health of your family, home and pocketbook. All labor and materials used in our installations are covered by a five-year transferable warranty.

For More information about Radon and Radon Reduction systems, please follow this link to the Environmental Protection Agencies website:

www.epa.gov.