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Radon Problems Radon enters a home through soil pore spaces and rock fractures near the surface of the earth, and usually escapes into the atmosphere. Where a house is present, however, soil air often flows toward its foundation for three reasons:
In constructing a house with a basement, a hole is dug, footings are set, and coarse gravel is laid down as a base for the basement slab. Then once the basement walls have been built, the cap between the basement walls and the ground outside is filled with material that often is more permeable than the original ground. This filled gap is called a disturbed zone. Radon moves into the disturbed zone and the gravel bed underneath from the surrounding soil. The back-fill material in the disturbed zone is commonly rocks and solids from the foundation site, which also generate and release radon. The amount of radon in the disturbed zone and gravel bed depends on the amount of uranium present in the rocks at the site, the type and permeability of soils surrounding the disturbed zone and underneath the gravel bed and the soils moisture content. The air pressure in the ground around most houses is often greater than the air pressure inside the house, thus air tends to move from the disturbed zone and gravel bed into the house through openings in the house’s foundation. All house foundations have openings such as cracks utility entries, seams between foundations materials and uncovered soil in crawl spaces and basements. To detect the presence of radon we use two small canisters, one is set up in the basement the other is set up on the main floor of the home. They are left there for a period of 48 hours. The canisters are retrieved and capped and priority mailed to the lab for analysis. We usually get the results faxed back to us within 5 working days.
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