Radon Removal

This winter Husband decided to order a couple of tracefilm cannisters to be placed on the first and second floor of our house to measure the concentration of Radon for 2 months. You can get these for free from the municipal office. After 2 months we sent them in to the Norwegian office of Radiation Protection and a week or so later he got an email with the report. We had 1400 bq/m3 in the first floor living room, 1300 bq/m3 in the second floor bedroom. The average year-round levels were calculated to be over 1000 bq/m3, the equivalent of smoking 20 cigarettes a day. The Office of Radiation Protection recommends that levels not exceed 100 bq/m3, the max allowable limit (in new buildings) is 200.

We were sent a list of qualified Radon removers and wrote to the 3 that were closest to where we live. One replied that they were mistakenly on the list. They only measure Radon, they don't remove it. Another was book up for a long time to come. A third, who is actually the closest one, being located in the next county, came by with his radon measuring instrument to look at what could be done to fix things. He measured 2000 bq/m3 in the basement (good thing we don't hang out much down there), and said he would come back in 2 weeks to remove the Radon.

Two weeks later we hadn't heard from him, so we waited a couple more days and then called him up last wednesday. He said the fans he had ordered would be arriving the next day and he could come on monday at 10 am. He showed up today with a bunch of pipes on the roof of his van, and has been spending the day, puttering about in the basement. I think the plan is to set up a couple of fans in the basement that blow the Radon out through the pipes that he is going to feed through the walls of the foundation - hopefully away from any open windows.

He is coming back to continue working tomorrow, but I am leaving for England in the morning, so the rest of the story will have to come later. To be continued...