Why commercial buildings need radon matting from day one

Many people falsely believe that radon mitigation systems are only necessary in the home.  However, radon is a soil gas that’s prevalent everywhere.  You can’t zone for it.  It’s in every building we inhabit, to some degree.  Home protection is where the industry awareness efforts are focused on because we know folks are spending their sleeping hours there.  However, radon can be a problem for commercial buildings as well.  

At our warehouse–for example–we tested and found that we sat at the exact average for indoor radon concentrations in Colorado: 6.2 pCi/L.  The equivalent radiation dosage of getting a chest x ray every two days–just by coming into work!  All this in an environment with many open doors and windows, many people in and out all the time.  Well we wouldn’t stand for it.  You can watch us mitigate our building in this YouTube video.  Once we got that suction pit radon system installed our levels immediately dropped to below 1 pCi/L.

Lucky for us, our system was relatively simple. No intermediate footers, no mixed HVAC systems, no footprints over 10,000 sq ft., no elevator shafts, etc. Many commercial buildings are not so simple, which is why it’s so important to pre-plumb your radon system. Pre-plumbing a system, often called “radon ready” or “passive” is a process by which you create a soil gas ventilation system as you build the building and pour foundations. You wouldn’t run the plumbing and water piping after you pour a concrete foundation would you? No that would be prohibitively expensive–but that’s exactly what most modern radon systems are.

There is a better way: geotextile soil gas collector mat or radon mat–for short.  Radon mat is a flat geotextile fabric that becomes an air pocket once the building is complete.  This air pocket or pre-plumb radon mat system can be activated by adding radon fans to the vertical stacks or plenums.  PDS’ radon mat has exceptional airflow, equivalent to 4” piping.  You can read about our high air flow radon mat in an industry first PFE study here.

Visit www.radonmat.com for free takeoffs or click the radon mat link at the top of this page.  Our soil gas collector mat is USA made.  You support over 50 US workers when you choose our high-airflow system.