Radon Mitigation in Fort Garry

Fort Garry covers a broad section of the city's south end along the Red River, with housing that spans from early-century river-lot homes to extensive postwar development. The variety means foundation conditions change block to block. Near the river we find century-old walls, sometimes stone, with shallow crawl areas under additions and partially excavated sections. Inland, the postwar housing is mostly basement construction with crawlspaces appearing under sunrooms, rear additions and converted porches.

The clay beneath all of it is the same expansive Red River valley soil, and the pattern of damage sorts by foundation depth rather than by neighbourhood character. Anything founded above frost depth moves every year, and in these older additions that means cracked stem walls, tipped piers and floors that have gone visibly out of level. Anything with bare soil under it supplies a continuous stream of moisture and soil gas into the house, which is why so many of these homes have a musty smell that no amount of cleaning resolves.

River-adjacent properties add a drainage dimension, with higher water tables and, close to the bank, slow soil movement toward the river. We assess founding depth, bearing and water source before specifying anything. The system that follows is matched to what we find: structural correction where movement is active, interior drainage and a properly discharged sump where groundwater is high, then a sealed barrier, perimeter insulation and humidity control verified by readings.

Fort Garry calls vary with the age of the house, since the area spans river-lot properties and extensive postwar development. Older homes near the river generate calls about damp crawl areas and aged walls; postwar homes generate calls about sloping sunrooms and cold floors over additions. Both are common enough that we ask about the construction era before anything else.

Our first recommendation is an inspection that establishes four things: where water arrives, how deep the support is founded, what the framing moisture content is, and whether the crawlspace is inside or outside the heated envelope. In a neighbourhood with this much variation, a presumptive scope is usually the wrong scope.

Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas produced by the decay of uranium in soil and rock. It is colourless and odourless, it moves upward through soil, and it enters buildings through any opening in contact with the ground. Health Canada identifies it as the second leading cause of lung cancer after smoking, and sets a guideline of 200 becquerels per cubic metre for indoor air, recommending remedial action above that level. Manitoba consistently records some of the highest residential readings in Canada, which makes this a local issue rather than an abstract one.

A crawlspace is the most efficient radon entry point a house can have. Where there is exposed soil, or a thin unsealed membrane, soil gas moves into the space essentially unimpeded — and from there into the living area, because the stack effect pulls air upward through a house continuously during the heating season. Our long heating season means that pressure difference operates for a large part of the year. A house with a sealed basement slab but an open crawlspace under an addition can still have substantially elevated levels.

Testing has to come before mitigation, and it has to be done correctly. A long-term test of at least three months, ideally during the heating season when windows are closed and the stack effect is strongest, gives a representative result. Short-term tests are useful as a screening indicator but fluctuate too much to base a decision on. We will arrange or guide testing, and we would rather you test first than buy a mitigation system you may not need — though in a crawlspace with exposed soil, sealing the floor is worthwhile on moisture grounds regardless of the radon number.

Where mitigation is needed, the standard approach in a crawlspace is active sub-membrane depressurization. A sealed membrane is installed across the floor and up the walls — the same membrane used for encapsulation, which is why these two projects belong together — and a dedicated fan draws continuously from beneath it through a perforated collection pipe, venting above the roofline. That negative pressure under the membrane captures soil gas before it can enter the space. The system is simple and highly effective, but it depends entirely on how well the membrane is sealed, which is why installation quality matters more than equipment selection.

Post-mitigation verification is not optional in our view. After the system is running and the building has returned to normal operating conditions, the space and the living area should be retested to confirm the reduction. We also label the system, explain what the manometer reading means, and tell you what to check — because a mitigation fan is a mechanical device that will eventually fail, usually silently. A system nobody monitors is a system that may have stopped protecting you years ago.

Pressure and building dynamics explain why two apparently identical houses can test very differently, and why your neighbour's result tells you nothing about yours. Radon entry depends on the pressure difference between the soil and the building interior, and that depends on stack effect strength, exhaust appliances, mechanical ventilation balance, wind, and how tight the building is. A house with powerful kitchen and bathroom exhaust and no make-up air runs at a greater negative pressure, and draws correspondingly more soil gas. This is also why sealing work and mechanical changes can shift a reading in either direction, and why testing after any significant envelope work is sensible.

System design details separate a mitigation that works from one that merely hums. The collection point beneath the membrane needs a permeable layer — clean gravel or a drainage mat — so the fan can draw from the whole footprint rather than a single spot. The fan has to be sized to the soil's permeability and the area served: too little suction leaves parts of the footprint uncaptured, too much wastes energy and can pull conditioned air if the membrane has gaps. The exhaust must terminate above the roofline and away from windows and air intakes. And the pipe needs a manometer, so the system reports its own status.

Timing relative to encapsulation is the practical advice we give most often. If you are sealing a crawlspace for moisture reasons and you have not tested for radon, test first. The collection pipe and gravel layer belong under the membrane, installed before it goes down; retrofitting them means cutting open a barrier you just paid for and compromising its continuity. A long-term test takes three months, which is usually compatible with planning a project anyway. If the number comes back low, you have lost nothing but gained a documented baseline. If it comes back high, you have saved yourself from doing the job twice.