Radon gas is odorless and colorless. It occurs naturally from the breakdown of of uranium in soil and rock. It is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States. Use this important guide to reduce the amount of radon in your home. You will need; PVC pipe, PVC glue, jackhammer or equivalent, radon tester, fan and polyurethane foam.



1) The first thing to do is to test your home for the level of radon. If it is above four picocuries per liter you will need to take action to lower this level. At four picocuries per liter you are being exposed to thirty five times more radiation than the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would allow if you were standing next to a radioactive dump site.


2) Go through the basement and find all cracks. Seal these cracks with a good caulk or with an epoxy sealer.



3) Since the radon seeps up from below, find a way to ventilate the basement and route the air from the basement to the outdoors. An open window or a fan installed in the basement to route air outside is a help. Another way to do this is to route cleaner air from outside into the basement, forcing the contaminated air out of the basement to the outdoors.



4) Another way to address this problem is to install an air de-pressurization system under the foundation of your home. While this could have been done much earlier when the house was being built, you can still have it done after the house is finished. This involves putting a vacuum pipe or pipes under the concrete slab that is the foundation of your home. The vacuum is a fan in the pipeline that sucks the air and the radon from under the home. You can have this system tested by using a "soil communication" test using a smoke gun and noting how much smoke is removed by the vacuum. The pipes eventually guide the radon to exit the top of your home, similar to a chimney would route smoke from a fire.



5) If you want to make the pipe yourself, you can make it from common PVC. Make the holes in the foundation of your home with a jackhammer or similar tool. Dig out dirt from inside this hole, around twenty inches in diameter. Set the PVC pipe into the hole and route the PVC up to the walls and into the attic or wherever is most convenient to exit above the roof of your home. You can install a small fan into the pipeline or leave it as it is. Radon rises, so a fan is a bonus.



6) Surround the pipe in the hole in the foundation with foam rubber or even with more cement. Some people will use foam rubber to seal off the pipe. Polyurethane foam works well.



Installing this system will alleviate much of the problem of radon gas seeping up into the house where it can get into the lungs.