Radon vent pipe
Radon mitigation involves pumping radon gas from under the foundation up and out through the roof. This is accomplished with a PVC pipe and a fan unit connected to the pipe. There are two ways to do this: The hidden way, or the ugly way.
The hidden way: The pipe from the basement comes up through the house, hidden in the back of a closet or in a wall. The fan unit sits in the attic out of sight and pumps the radon up through the roof.
The ugly way: The pipe runs out the basement, up the side of the house, around anything that gets in the way, and up onto the roof. Here’s an example. We REALLY want to avoid this.
All of the radon mitigation contractors we talked with said that we would have to use the ugly way. Our house does not appear to have a clear, hidden path from the basement up through the roof. But finally we found someone who said he could figure out a way to hide the pipe in the house, and he did.
He’s running the pipe up the inside of a wall that used to be the outside of the house (before the kitchen was added on), so it’s a thick wall with room for a pipe. To do so, he had to remove one of the corner cabinets in our dining room (which we were planning to take out someday anyway). The fan will sit in an attic space (that was closed off) above the kitchen.
Behind the cabinet was a rough coat of plaster (but no second, finish coat) on the lathe. He cut that away and installed the pipe. Inside the wall was some very interesting insulation (see photo). We’re guessing that it’s just a little flammable…
Cabinet Removed
Insulation
Nathan Inspects the Wall
Vent Pipe Installed
mde on 27 Aug 2009 at 12:48 pm #
Does the fan run continuously? How long does it last, and how do you know if it has stopped?
dave on 28 Aug 2009 at 7:46 am #
The fan does run continuously. I’m sure it will last forever. Actually I don’t know the expected lifetime of the fan, but it is a long time. There is a pressure measurement on the pipe in the basement which tells us if it has stopped. I’ll post a photo of it.
Stacy on 28 Aug 2009 at 3:02 pm #
The fan is warrantied for 5 years but likely will last 10, according to the installer.
Our Bungalow » Cabinet Swap on 13 Sep 2009 at 9:10 pm #
[...] might have caught a glimpse in a previous post of some built-in corner cabinets in our dining room. We had to pull one out to get the radon pipe [...]