How It Works: Radon Mitigation

Radon is a radioactive, colorless, odorless, tasteless noble gas, occurring naturally as the decay product of radium. You cannot see, smell, or taste the radon, but it could still be an issue within your home.

How does it get into your home?
Radon can get into a home through the stack effect. The stack effect is the natural movement of air coming in and out of buildings, chimneys, and flue stacks. This results in either a positive or negative buoyancy force and the greater the buoyancy, the better the stack effect works. So, radon comes from the air that moves from the basement all the way up to the roof and out of the chimney. It is constant, endless cycle that can pull radon in through your home.

How do we fix it?
Most radon mitigation systems use Active Soil Depressurization (ASD) to reverse the normal flow of gas. A radon fan and PVC piping are used to draw out air from underneath the concrete or crawl space membrane. The withdrawal of air causes the sub-slab or sub-membrane area to have lower pressure than the air in the home. This negative pressure prevents soil gas from entering the house. This system is call a Sub-Slab Depressurization (SSD) system or Sub-Membrane Depressurization (SMD) system.
So, if you think there is a chance that there is radon in your home, the only way to truly find out is testing it. Radon can put your family at the risk of health issues such as lung cancer, so if there are dangerous levels in your home a radon mitigation system is the solution. Give us a call today to have your home tested.