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Anybody had remedial work to reduce Radon gas levels in there house?
Just wondered what people expereince on how much mess it made, cost etc
Im looking at buying somewhere in a at risk area. Plan is to hold some money back from the sale, complete the 3 month test, and then if need be use the money to correct the house, if not it goes to the seller.
Slightly sceptical about radon risk...
New house, old house? What (general) part of the country?
there are several remedial measures you can undertake... a gas membrane, ie a thick plastic sheet across the ground floor / basement / service points
a sump (not very practical in an existing property)...
loads of other...
where are you based?
oh and phone these people... they will help...
[url= http://www.bre.co.uk/radon/ ]http://www.bre.co.uk/radon/[/url]
South peak district,
House is late 60/70's so not that old. No basement and concrete slab floors.
bit more info:
[url= http://www.bre.co.uk/radon/reduce.html ]http://www.bre.co.uk/radon/reduce.html[/url]
have you had a survey done... ie what level of risk is there, it will give you a %.
like rkk01 said, bit sceptical about the whole radon thing...
email me your postcode and I will look it up later...
Neil.
Least disruptive measure I've seen is positive pressure mat below the floor slab. Shold work provided you've got solid concrete floor slab rather than block and beam. Seen this installed for landfill gas protection on commercial premises.
On the other hand, with a solid floor, risk of radon entry to the house should be lower (possibly excl service entry points).
Sceptical about radon risk because I'm not sure that you see increased lung cancer deaths in those areas with high radon. I'm from Cornwall, and lived with relatives for a while in a 14th Century Cornish longhouse. Dirt original floors (mix of cement / wood when I was there!!), 3' thick granite walls, and one of the highest radon producing granites right under the floor. Monitoring didn't show up particularly high levels of radon.
I also remember going underground at Wheal Jane mine when it was operational. Notices stated that if you worked under the Ionising RAdiation regulations Regs you needed to have the dose added to your annual dose - but (IIRC) the mine itself, and the workers were not included in the Regs
I've looked into retro fitting a basic level of protection into new houses where the contractor 'forgot' to fit it. The floor slab and service entry points are easy and therefore cheap to deal with. - As others have said a thick polythene sheet and some tape. Its the wall cavities in a property of that age which are the tricky bit if you want any remedial works to be approaching current best practice design standards.
Thanks for the help guys...
Had a enviromental survey, it gave a 10-30% of properties in the area would be above the action level.
A mat on the slab doe's not sound like a major problem. I am planning to speak to a contractor and get them to do me a quote, then ask the vendor to agree to hold the money back untill a test is complete.
What would you need to do to the cavity walls?
Stu,
From memory, a specialist contractor was employed to inject a cement / grout and then a 'rubber' based nembrane into the cavity. The level and type of the membrane has to be controlled so as to not allow any damp to bridge to the internal walls.
It was a very belt and braces approach - but they were new houses, insured by a well known company. It just wouldnt (probably) be worth the cost for the property you are looking at.