Sealed my basement against Radon Gas.

The last week or so, I have decided to seal my basement against Radon Gas. I am unsure if it all will work, as I have to retest to determine the results.

The thing is, I had an open box pit to the ground 2' by 2', 8 inches deep to facilitate a future shower hook up in the basement to my underground piping. I hooked an elbow going up, then a straight pipe, so I could fill in this hole with some cement. Also, my sump pump hole was right to the ground. I also sealed that in as well, leaving a pipe sticking out of the cement I poured there, to hook to my drain of my Venmar (House Ventilation system). I also sealed 3 longitudinal cracks, all the way across the basement. When a basement settles, they say this can happen. I sealed them just with a poly filler.

I will buy two radon kits, to determine the new value, if there is any. The information with the kits will tell you where to install them, and how high off the ground they should be placed. If I remember correctly, we placed ours 2 or so feet off of the ground, in different areas of the basement. The last value ranged approximately 380 Bq/M3, or bequerels per meter cubed. This is the average of the two readings. The Canadian limit was 800 a long, long time ago. So I was told... Now, it is at 200 Bc/m3.

With all these cracks that I filled, I am hoping I am under the 200 Bc/M3. If it is not, there is another alternative that I could do.

Since my floor is not done yet, I could put down a floor with channels going under the floor to a header. There, a fan can take suction from under the floor, and push the air under the floor to the outside. This will, reduce the Radon propagation. But, with filling those two holes, I already smell that the air is much more fresher in the basement. When ground is wet, or the earth is wet, you can always smell the stale smell of the moisture now and then. Although you cannot smell radon gas, or see it without those detectors, I think I did stop allot of the flows in the basement. Maybe in the next blog, we will find out.

These radon tests take on average 3 months to do, then they must be sent away to a lab. We used Acustar last time, and sent them away to Baltimore, USA. Now, the kits are available everywhere. At Home Depot, maybe even at your local hardware store.

Besides that, not much new on the Book front. Someone has opted to check my book out for a possible review, but we will see how that goes. Have a good day, till next time...

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