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My DIY radon mitigation: From 18 pCi/L to non-detect
Trying this again... I posted yesterday but the pics all were randomly deleted overnight. I just got results back after my DIY radon mitigation installation. Below detection limit! Feeling pretty good about it. I bought this house in September. Skipped radon testing in the inspection phase because of how much competition we faced for the house. I expected high radon based on the area and knew I wasn't going to make demands or back out of the deal over a $2k fix. My original test in March found 18 pCi/L. No great, not terrible. I got a few professional quotes that ranged between $1500-$2000 depending whether I wanted to go through the roof or out the exterior wall. After watching a handful of YouTube videos I decided this is a pretty simple job that I could DIY. Basement footprint is ~1600 sq ft, and all sources I could find said a single point of mitigation would be sufficient. I spent a fair amount of time planning the job. Made some crude drawings. Estimated PVC needs. Read up on electrical and how to drill through concrete. I bought my fan and most of the non-piping supplies through Healthy Air Solutions and highly recommend their website for the DIYer. First was determining the fan and sizing pipe. I opted for the RadonAway RP145 fan which is compatible with 3" or 4" piping. I opted for 4". It costs more, but I'm already going to the effort to mitigate, why not maximize the fan's capabilities? Also, you can get the pro model through Healthy Air Solutions which supposedly is more resistant to fading/discoloration. For electrical, I tied into an existing outlet that's on its own 20A circuit. I used 14/2 Romex, though someone has pointed out to me this is incorrect for 20A so I'll be remediating that. I ran the wire through the siding and hooked it up to an exterior switch and then ran wire through 3' of conduit to the fan. Concrete drilling wasn't totally awful but was by far the hardest part of project. I opted to hammer drill using this method. I decided to buy instead of rent since I expect to need it down the road. This $76 SDS drill from Lowes did great. The included 1/2" bit and chisel made going through the foundation floor a piece of cake. I bought an additional 12" x 3/4" bit to get through the 8" exterior wall. The exterior wall was by far the biggest PITA to this project. 8" concrete is no joke. The drill did fine but I had a hard time not jamming the chisel. And then I spent more time getting the slope right for the horizontal pipe run. About 4 hrs of drilling and chiseling. Not fun, especially in PPE. If you can go through the siding, it's 10x's easier, but that just wasn't an option from my mechanical room. I filled 2 5-gallon buckets with gravel from under the foundation. I was really happy to find how much gravel was down there. I went fairly deep and never hit dirt. Made me feel more confident a single fan would move enough air. From there, it was just a series of measuring/cutting/glueing pipe from the hole to exterior. Sealing the foundation hole. Installing the fan and wiring it up. Then running the pipe up to the roof and anchoring it to the siding. There's a screen up top to keep critters out. Finally, I wanted the exterior pipe to be as unobtrusive as possible. Sherwin Williams sold me some very expensive primer and paint they said would adhere to PVC and hold up to sun. It took a couple of coats of each, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I might add a shrub to hide the fan but don't feel it's a necessity. I still need to patch up the exterior wall a bit, but as someone else told me, "It's a foundation wall. Nobody cares." So it's fallen down my priorities. I sealed up the gaps with spray foam and called it good for now. All-in cost: - $288 for the fan & kit/exterior switch/conduit/mounts/top cap - $210 PVC pipe (2 x 10ft) and 10 x 45s/90s ($13.60 per elbow sure seems excessive) - $80 hammer drill - $25 drill bit - $25 wiring - $30 miscellaneous (expanding foam, crimpers, etc) - $70 paint and primer TOTAL = $728 TOTAL COST SAVINGS (vs. lowest exterior estimate): $772 Was it worth it? To me, yes. To a lot of people, probably not. I spent a full weekend installing this, and there were parts that really weren't fun. But I get a lot of satisfaction out of DIY'ing shit, so yeah, I'd do it again. And not having to go through the exterior foundation wall would move it solidly into "worth it" territory for a lot more people, imho. submitted by /u/darth_jewbacca [link] [comments]
| | Trying this again... I posted yesterday but the pics all were randomly deleted overnight. I just got results back after my DIY radon mitigation installation. Below detection limit! Feeling pretty good about it. I bought this house in September. Skipped radon testing in the inspection phase because of how much competition we faced for the house. I expected high radon based on the area and knew I wasn't going to make demands or back out of the deal over a $2k fix. My original test in March found 18 pCi/L. No great, not terrible. I got a few professional quotes that ranged between $1500-$2000 depending whether I wanted to go through the roof or out the exterior wall. After watching a handful of YouTube videos I decided this is a pretty simple job that I could DIY. Basement footprint is ~1600 sq ft, and all sources I could find said a single point of mitigation would be sufficient. I spent a fair amount of time planning the job. Made some crude drawings. Estimated PVC needs. Read up on electrical and how to drill through concrete. I bought my fan and most of the non-piping supplies through Healthy Air Solutions and highly recommend their website for the DIYer. First was determining the fan and sizing pipe. I opted for the RadonAway RP145 fan which is compatible with 3" or 4" piping. I opted for 4". It costs more, but I'm already going to the effort to mitigate, why not maximize the fan's capabilities? Also, you can get the pro model through Healthy Air Solutions which supposedly is more resistant to fading/discoloration. For electrical, I tied into an existing outlet that's on its own 20A circuit. I used 14/2 Romex, though someone has pointed out to me this is incorrect for 20A so I'll be remediating that. I ran the wire through the siding and hooked it up to an exterior switch and then ran wire through 3' of conduit to the fan. Concrete drilling wasn't totally awful but was by far the hardest part of project. I opted to hammer drill using this method. I decided to buy instead of rent since I expect to need it down the road. This $76 SDS drill from Lowes did great. The included 1/2" bit and chisel made going through the foundation floor a piece of cake. I bought an additional 12" x 3/4" bit to get through the 8" exterior wall. The exterior wall was by far the biggest PITA to this project. 8" concrete is no joke. The drill did fine but I had a hard time not jamming the chisel. And then I spent more time getting the slope right for the horizontal pipe run. About 4 hrs of drilling and chiseling. Not fun, especially in PPE. If you can go through the siding, it's 10x's easier, but that just wasn't an option from my mechanical room. I filled 2 5-gallon buckets with gravel from under the foundation. I was really happy to find how much gravel was down there. I went fairly deep and never hit dirt. Made me feel more confident a single fan would move enough air. From there, it was just a series of measuring/cutting/glueing pipe from the hole to exterior. Sealing the foundation hole. Installing the fan and wiring it up. Then running the pipe up to the roof and anchoring it to the siding. There's a screen up top to keep critters out. Finally, I wanted the exterior pipe to be as unobtrusive as possible. Sherwin Williams sold me some very expensive primer and paint they said would adhere to PVC and hold up to sun. It took a couple of coats of each, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I might add a shrub to hide the fan but don't feel it's a necessity. I still need to patch up the exterior wall a bit, but as someone else told me, "It's a foundation wall. Nobody cares." So it's fallen down my priorities. I sealed up the gaps with spray foam and called it good for now. All-in cost: - $288 for the fan & kit/exterior switch/conduit/mounts/top cap - $210 PVC pipe (2 x 10ft) and 10 x 45s/90s ($13.60 per elbow sure seems excessive) - $80 hammer drill - $25 drill bit - $25 wiring - $30 miscellaneous (expanding foam, crimpers, etc) - $70 paint and primer TOTAL = $728 TOTAL COST SAVINGS (vs. lowest exterior estimate): $772 Was it worth it? To me, yes. To a lot of people, probably not. I spent a full weekend installing this, and there were parts that really weren't fun. But I get a lot of satisfaction out of DIY'ing shit, so yeah, I'd do it again. And not having to go through the exterior foundation wall would move it solidly into "worth it" territory for a lot more people, imho. [link] [comments] |
