radon sump pipe

[mike]

I have 2 sump pump pits in the basement, one at each end of the basement about 70 feet apart one in the front corner basement one in the back corner. The one in the back has a radon pipe that vents out of the roof and the 1 ½ inch pipe to pump the water out. The one in the front corner of the basement has the 1 ½ inch pipe to pump the water out but also has a 1/12 vent pipe that goes out to open air. Why does it have the vent pipe and the other one does not?

I ran 3 inch pipe from my radon pipe to connect it to the other sump pump pit so it would pull the radon from both pits. I also put a plug over the 1 ½ inch vent pipe thinking it would give more of a vacuum pull on the radon fan. Now I am thinking maybe leaving the vent pipe open it may help out with pulling in fresh air under the foundation helping clear out any radon.

So I am asking what would be the best way and why only 1 sump pump had a 1 ½ inch vent in the first place. Thanks

[Frank]

I'd run a radon test and if all is OK, I'd forget about it. One pipe may be creating enough negative pressure to vent any foundation radon leaks.

[Sjouke Burry]

Radon is one of the reasons for making sure you have ventilation slits in the walls facing your basement or crawler space. Also the floor above it should be airtight. Those two should reduce radioactivity in the home about tenfold. Or in other words: In a non-ventilated cellar/crawlspace r.a. can be up tenfold.

[Caesar Romano]

Radon is deadly. Don't spare any expense to get it mitigated.

It's for the children.

[mike]

I have a radon tester, the odd thing is it will go weeks at 2 or below then hit a 5 for a few days then back down. The avrage it gives is a

3.5. Maybe my fan is going bad it is 7 years old. Thanks for the reply Frank

[hrhofmann]

You do have to be careful about sealing off the basement from the rest of the house!!..If it is too tight, your heating furnace will not be able to draw in fresh air for combustion. I have radon vented from my sump pump pit to outside, and I put in a 6" diameter pipe from the outside (covered with coarse screening to keep critters out)to the inside of the outer cover of my gas-fired furnace, to provide combustion air. The furnace itself is not too tight, and some air can leak from the non-firing side of the furnace into the rest of the basement to provide make-up air to go into the sump and then be pumped out by the radon system. But the sump overall is under negative pressure and the radon levels have been cut by a factor of more than

5.

[mike]

Thanks, I also have the 6" fresh air pipe for that too..

[hallerb]

I have wondered if you had a basement that had a sump drain to daylight, with no pump and a couple vent pipes to allow air entry if this would exhaust the radon out the water drain line, far away from home?

is radon heavier than air?

[The Daring Dufas]

According to this site it is:

TDD

[Robert Green]

What model do you have? I see radon testers at Amazon for $129 - which would buy a lot of test kits - but having my own tester has some appeal.

Anyone have any experience with this tester or others?

Thanks in advance!

-- Bobby G.

[mike]

I have had 2 of them by Safety Siren , the Safety Siren Pro will show .1 to 999.9 in pCi/L. tested it with a home that had a company do a home inspection and mine was the same reading. I been using them for about 7 years, the first one only did whole numbers the pro 3 does both.