radon system repair
Radon fans are consumables. They run continuously for years and then they stop, and because nothing else in the house changes when they do, almost nobody notices. The gauge on the pipe exists precisely so you can — two columns of fluid at the same level means the fan is not pulling. Beyond dead fans, we see systems that were undersized for the material under the slab, systems whose suction point was cut off by a later addition, and discharges terminated somewhere they should not be. In every case we test before we quote, because the reading tells you what is actually wrong.
A radon fan runs continuously, every hour of every day, for years. Then it stops. Nothing else in the house changes when it does — no noise, no light, no smell, no draught — so unless somebody looks at the gauge, the house quietly returns to whatever it read before the system went in and nobody finds out until the next transaction. This is the most common repair we do and it is entirely preventable with a five-second habit twice a year.
The manometer on the pipe is a U-shaped tube with coloured fluid in it. When the fan is pulling, the two columns sit at different heights. When the fan has stopped, they level out. That is the whole diagnostic. It takes seconds, it needs no tools, and it is the only routine check a radon system asks of you. If the columns are level, the system is not working, regardless of how new it looks or how much it cost.
Plenty of the systems we are called to were wrong before they ever wore out. An undersized fan on tight sub-slab material that never reached the far wall. A single suction point on a house with three separate slabs. A discharge terminated below the roofline or next to a bedroom window. A suction point cut off when an addition was built over it. These are design faults, not worn parts, and swapping the fan on one of them buys nothing except a fresh gauge reading on a system that still does not work.
Because those two cases look identical from the driveway, a reading comes first. A short test tells us whether the house is high, and a pressure diagnostic tells us whether the suction field still covers the slab. Then the quote describes the actual fault. A like-for-like fan swap is a short visit and priced like one; a redesign is priced as the work it really is, and you get told which of the two you are looking at before you commit to anything.
When a system that used to hold suddenly stops holding, the cause is usually recent work. New windows, a basement finish, a furnace or water heater replacement, foundation repair, or an addition built over part of the slab — every one of those changes either the pressure field underneath or how hard the building pulls air from below. It is worth telling us what has been done recently, because it very often points straight at the answer, and it saves an hour of looking. Afterwards, as always, the house gets tested again.
How long does it take? A straight fan replacement is a short visit. Anything that turns out to be a design problem rather than a worn part is priced as the work it actually is.
These usually come up in the same conversation:
A second test after the system has been running. Included with every install, and available on its own for a system nobody has ever checked.
Learn More →The standard fix for a Denver basement or slab-on-grade: suction under the floor, every gap sealed, a fan, and the discharge above the roofline.
Learn More →A continuous monitor in the lowest lived-in level for 48 hours, logging hourly — so you get a curve you can read, not one number that might have been a fluke.
Learn More →Free · No Obligation
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