Is Lansing a high radon area?

Not according to the federal map. Michigan's nine highest-potential counties are all in the south of the state — Branch, Calhoun, Cass, Hillsdale, Jackson, Kalamazoo, Lenawee, St. Joseph and Washtenaw — and Ingham, Eaton and Clinton are not among them. So if a sales call opens by telling you your area is dangerous, that is a map being used as a closing technique. Test anyway, though: houses above the action level turn up in every zone, two houses on the same street can read completely differently, and a county map has never measured a basement. A zone is a planning tool, not a result.

Will sealing the cracks in my basement fix radon?

No, and federal guidance says so outright: sealing on its own is not a reliable way to reduce radon. Sealing is genuinely useful — it closes entry paths, makes a real system work better and reduces how hard the fan has to pull, which makes it cheaper to run. But sold as the fix, it is a cheaper thing that does not do the job, and what the customer actually buys is the belief that the problem is handled. On a lung cancer risk that is worse than doing nothing, because doing nothing does not stop you testing again.

What radon level needs fixing?

Four picocuries per liter is the federal action level. Below two there is nothing to do. Between two and four it is worth considering, particularly if somebody spends a lot of time in the basement. At four or above it should be fixed with a proper system. Test in the lowest lived-in level of the house with the windows shut for the full period the kit specifies — a short test during a breezy week with a door open produces a number nobody can use. Michigan EGLE and several county health departments sell kits at a discount.

Should I test for radon before or after sealing?

Before, always, and again afterwards if you want to know what changed. Sealing first and testing second leaves you with one number and no way to attribute it. It also wastes money in the common case where the result comes back low enough that nothing needed doing at all. A kit costs a small fraction of any sealing job, which makes testing first the cheapest decision available anywhere in this subject.

Do you install radon mitigation systems?

No, and it is a deliberate line rather than a capacity problem. An active system means coring the slab, a continuously running fan, a vent stack above the roofline and a design suited to the house, and it changes house pressure in ways that can affect combustion appliances. That belongs with an NRPP- or NRSB-certified professional. What we do is the sealing half to the standard a mitigator wants — the floor-to-wall joint, cracks, penetrations, a gasketed sump cover — and the crawl space membrane that a sub-membrane system is built on.

Radon in Mid-Michigan: Why Lansing Is Not a High-Radon Area, and Why Sealing Cracks Is Not Mitigation

Q: What does a radon mitigation system actually do?

It is not an air filter, which is what most people picture. It is a pipe through the slab into the stone underneath the house, a fan that runs continuously, and a vent discharging above the roofline. It does not clean the air in your rooms — it changes which direction the soil gas travels, so what used to come up through the floor goes out through a pipe instead. That is why it works, and why it is an engineered install with a verification test afterwards rather than a sealing job with a fan attached.

Q: Does Michigan license radon contractors?

No. Michigan does not license, certify or regulate radon testers, radon mitigators or the systems they install, so “licensed and certified” is a meaningless phrase in this trade here. The state encourages national certification instead, through the National Radon Proficiency Program or the National Radon Safety Board. Three questions are worth asking: which of those two certifications do you hold, do you build to the AARST standard, and is a post-installation test included in the price — because without that last one you are buying a system nobody has proved works.

Q: Can a badly installed radon system be dangerous?

Yes, and this is the strongest argument for using somebody certified. A radon system works by changing the air pressure under and inside a house, and anything that changes pressure in a house can pull combustion gases back down the flue of a natural-draft furnace or water heater instead of up it. That is a carbon monoxide risk. It is why a proper install includes a combustion safety check and a verification test, and why an improvised system is a genuinely bad idea rather than just an ineffective one.

Two things you will be told about radon in mid-Michigan that are worth checking. The first is that you live in a high-radon area. The second is that sealing the cracks in your basement will fix it. Neither is true here, and the second one is the dangerous one.

Want somebody to look at it? Send photographs and we will tell you what you are dealing with. Somebody comes out, looks properly, and you get a fixed price in writing before anything starts. Book a free quote or call 517-505-7135.

Greater Lansing is not a high-radon area, and you should still test

Michigan has nine counties the EPA classes as highest potential, and they are all in the south of the state: Branch, Calhoun, Cass, Hillsdale, Jackson, Kalamazoo, Lenawee, St. Joseph and Washtenaw.

Ingham, Eaton and Clinton are not among them. So if a sales call opens by telling you that your area is dangerous, that is a map being used as a closing technique.

Here is the part that is not a contradiction: test anyway. Houses above the action level turn up in every zone, two houses on the same street can read completely differently, and a county map has never measured anybody's basement. A zone is a planning tool. It is not a result.

The number is four

Four picocuries per liter is the federal action level.

Below 2 — nothing to do.
2 to 4 — worth considering, particularly if somebody spends a lot of time down there.
4 or above — fix it, with a proper system.

A test kit costs very little. Michigan EGLE and several county health departments sell them at a discount. Test in the lowest lived-in level of the house, windows shut, for the full period the kit specifies — a short test during a breezy week with a door open produces a number nobody can use.

What a mitigation system actually is

Most people picture an air filter. It is not that.

It is a pipe through the slab into the stone underneath the house, a fan that runs continuously, and a vent discharging above the roofline. It does not clean the air in your rooms — it changes which direction the soil gas travels, so what used to come up through your floor goes out through a pipe instead.

That is why it works. It is also why it is an engineered install with a test afterwards, rather than a sealing job with a fan bolted to it.

Sealing is not mitigation. This is the important bit.

Federal guidance is explicit: sealing cracks on its own is not a reliable way to reduce radon.

Sealing is genuinely useful. It closes off entry paths, it makes a real system work better, and it reduces how hard the fan has to pull, which makes the system cheaper to run. It is a proper part of the work.

But sold as the fix, it is a cheaper thing that does not do the job — and what the customer actually buys is the belief that the problem is handled. On a lung cancer risk, that is worse than doing nothing, because doing nothing does not stop you testing again.

If your test comes back at or above four, you need a system. We will point you at somebody certified rather than quote you a cheaper alternative.

Michigan licenses nobody to do this

Not testers, not mitigators, not the systems themselves. The state does not license, certify or regulate any of it. EGLE encourages national certification instead, through the National Radon Proficiency Program or the National Radon Safety Board.

Which means "licensed and certified" is a meaningless phrase in this trade here, and these are the questions that are not:

Which of those two certifications do you hold?
Do you build to the AARST standard?
Is a post-installation test included in the price? If the answer is no, you are buying a system nobody has proved works.

Worth asking separately: the construction work itself still sits under ordinary trade licensing, which is a different question from radon certification and a fair one to ask.

The reason an amateur system is dangerous

A radon system works by changing the air pressure under and inside a house. Anything that changes pressure in a house can pull combustion gases back down the flue of a natural-draft furnace or water heater instead of up it.

That is a carbon monoxide risk, and it is the single best argument for a certified installer and a test afterwards. It is also exactly why this company stops at the sealing and refers the system out, rather than improvising one.

Where we fit

The sealing half, done to the standard a mitigator actually wants — and in a crawl space, the membrane, because the recognized technique there is sub-membrane depressurization: a properly sealed membrane with a pipe and fan drawing from underneath it. The membrane is carpentry. The fan and the design are not ours.

The floor-to-wall joint, which is the largest single entry path in most basements and the one most often left open.
Floor cracks, control joints and shrinkage cracks.
Around penetrations — pipe sleeves, conduit, where a service enters.
A sealed, gasketed sump cover with a clear lid. An open sump pit is frequently the biggest hole in the floor.
Open tops of block walls and exposed cores, where they can be reached.
A continuous sealed crawl space membrane — see crawl space encapsulation.
A capped sub-slab or sub-membrane stub while a slab or crawl space is already open for other work, so a mitigator has something to connect to.

What to do this week

Buy a test kit. Before anything else, and before any sealing — sealing first leaves you unable to tell what it did.
Test the lowest lived-in level, windows shut, for the full period.
Look at your sump pit. No sealed cover means you are looking at a large open path between soil and living room.
Find out how your furnace and water heater vent. A natural-draft appliance is what makes pressure changes a safety matter.
If the result is 4 or above, call a certified mitigator — including rather than us.
Buying the house? Test now. It is one of the few things still negotiable before you own it.

Book it

Book a free quote · call 517-505-7135 · or read more about radon sealing and mitigation support.
Crawl space rather than a slab? Crawl space encapsulation. Water coming in as well? Wet basements.
Serving Lansing, East Lansing, Okemos, Haslett, Holt and the rest of Greater Lansing.