Radon mitigation system check
Annual · typically January
Why it matters
This card is only for houses with a radon mitigation system already installed — the white PVC pipe running from the slab up through the roof (or up an exterior wall), with a fan unit in the attic or outside. No system? Skip this card; your job is the $15 radon test on its own card.
If you have one: that system is a fan pulling gas from under your slab, every hour of every year. The u-shaped gauge on the pipe — the manometer — is the entire monitoring system, and reading it takes one sentence: if the two liquid columns are UNEVEN, the fan is pulling suction and working; if they're LEVEL, the fan is dead and the system is off.
What skipping it costs
$0–$1,500
Only if you have a mitigation system — no system? Your card is the radon test, not this one. Have one? The whole apparatus hangs on a $200 fan that runs 24/7 and lives 5–15 years. When it dies, the system goes silent in every sense: no noise, no warning, and your radon level walks back up to wherever it was before mitigation — which is exactly the number that justified the system. The manometer exists so you never have to guess.
Two ways to get it done
Do it yourself
You'll need: Your eyes and a phone photo of the manometer, A retest kit every couple of years (~$15–$30).
- Look at the manometer. Uneven columns = working. Level = dead fan (check its breaker/switch first — sometimes it's just off). Photograph the reading once a year; a slow drift toward level can flag a tiring fan or a clogged suction point.
- Listen at the fan. A soft hum is right. Grinding, rattling, or surging means bearings on the way out — swap on your schedule instead of discovering it dead in a high-radon month.
- Glance at the pipe label. Installers write the original manometer reading and install date there. That's your baseline.
- Retest every couple of years anyway — a $15 kit in winter. The gauge proves suction; only a test proves the radon number. And retest after any big renovation, new sump, or foundation work.
Hire it out
$150–$350National fair range — local labor moves this number.
A service visit — fan check, manometer verification, system once-over — runs $150–$350; a straight fan replacement lands in the same neighborhood installed, parts included. Insist on a post-repair test if the system was down for long.
The honest structure of this trade: the pipes never wear out, the fan always eventually does. Anyone quoting you a new _system_ for a dead _fan_ is selling you your own plumbing back.
Ask the tech
- What's the manometer reading, and what was it at install? (It's written on the system label — check.)
- Is this a straight fan swap, or are you re-engineering the system? Why?
- Will you run a post-repair radon test to prove the fix, and is it included?
Red flags you're being upsold
- A whole-new-system quote for a dead fan. The pipe runs and suction point are fine; the fan is a $150–$250 part plus an hour of labor.
- Fan replacement quoted over $700 for a standard swap — the national honest range is roughly half that, installed.
- Anyone diagnosing 'system failure' without looking at the manometer or running a test. The gauge is right there; the number is the diagnosis.
Second opinion time: Any quote over $1,000 on an existing system — that's rebuild pricing for what's almost always a fan-and-test job.
The call
DIY the glance — it's a ten-second look at a gauge, once a year (January, when the house is closed up). Hire the fan swap when it dies; never rebuy the whole system.