[GSBN] Still ventilating

[Anthony Novelli]

Thank you Derek,

We at DCAT along with Laura at GreenWeaver are doing some technical support for tribes right now, and one in particular is facing a lot of radon problems. I'm not up on the best approaches to dealing with this, and wonder, in the context of passive survivability and tight buildings, what should we be keeping in mind as best practice?

Thank you for any input ...
Tony Novelli


On Mar 30, 2013, at 6:20 PM, gsbn-request at sustainablesources.com wrote:

> I'm glad that radon has been introduced to the conversation.  It's worth noting that widespread publicity about the radon problem came about before it became commonplace to build very tight houses.  Public awareness was grabbed by serious radon health concerns in leaky houses.  Radon is a very spotty problem that, like ventilation, is best solved by testing and designing in systems to take care of it, rather than retrofitting.  Radon issues continue to afflict predominantly leaky houses, since they are the majority.  Earthships and other earth sheltered houses are worthy of special attention, due to the the large earth masses involved, fewer ventilation options, and greater difficulties in retrofitting or remodeling.  Anyone building with large quantities of stone, or creating a home in a cave, would be prudent to check carefully for radon and other radioactivity.  Even concrete can have significant radioactivity in rare cases, which is another reason why I wouldn't want to live in a
>  concrete home.