Greater Lansing
Radon sealing & mitigation support
Two things nobody selling radon work in this area leads with: Greater Lansing is not one of Michigan's high-potential counties, and sealing cracks is not mitigation. Here is what a system actually is, who should install it, and the sealing half we do.
What is actually wrong
The first thing to say is the thing a radon quote usually opens with, because it is not true here. You will be told you live in a high-radon area. In Greater Lansing the federal map does not say that: Michigan’s nine highest-potential counties are all in southern Michigan — Branch, Calhoun, Cass, Hillsdale, Jackson, Kalamazoo, Lenawee, St. Joseph and Washtenaw — and Ingham, Eaton and Clinton are not among them. That is not a reason to skip testing. Houses above the action level turn up in every zone, two houses on the same street can read completely differently, and a map has never measured anybody’s basement. It is a reason to be wary of a quote that starts with one.
The number that matters is four picocuries per liter. That is the federal action level: below two, there is nothing to do; between two and four, it is worth considering; at four or above, it should be fixed. And a test costs very little — the state and several county health departments sell discounted kits, and nothing else on this page is as cheap as finding out.
What an actual mitigation system is, because people picture an air filter. It is a pipe through the slab into the stone underneath, a fan that runs continuously, and a vent discharging above the roofline. It does not clean the air in the house; it changes which direction the soil gas travels, so that 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 test afterwards rather than a sealing job.
And the sentence this whole page is built around: sealing on its own is not mitigation. Federal guidance says so outright. Sealing cracks and joints closes off paths and makes a system work better and cost less to run — it is a genuine part of the work and it is the part this company does well. But as a standalone fix it has a poor record, and selling it as one means selling somebody a false sense of safety about a lung cancer risk. So the system gets referred to a certified professional here rather than undercut with a cheaper alternative that does not do the job.
Where this stops
When it is not a handyman job
This is at the top of the page rather than the bottom because getting it wrong costs you a wasted visit. Insured, and no contractor license is claimed or implied — the Michigan residential builder license is not held.
- We do not install active radon mitigation systems. No coring the slab, no fan, no roofline vent stack and no system design. That is work for a professional certified by the National Radon Proficiency Program or the National Radon Safety Board, and it is referred by name rather than attempted.
- Sealing is not mitigation, and it is published here in plain words so that nobody can be sold it as one. If your test comes back at or above the action level, what you need is a system; the sealing makes that system better and cheaper to run.
- We do not test, and we do not interpret a result. You buy the kit, or a certified measurement professional does it. A contractor reading his own radon number has the same problem as a contractor clearing his own mold job.
- Anything that changes the air pressure in a house can pull combustion gases back down a natural-draft furnace or water heater flue and put carbon monoxide into the living space. That risk is exactly why a mitigation system is an engineered install with a test afterwards, and exactly why one must never be improvised. It is also the reason this page stops where it does.
- Michigan licenses and regulates nobody for radon work — not testers, not mitigators, not the systems. The state encourages national certification instead, so there is no license to check and the questions worth asking are which certification they hold, whether they build to the AARST standard, and whether a post-mitigation test is included.
- This company holds no residential builder license, which matters for any part of a mitigation install that is structural. Said here rather than discovered later.
- We will not tell you that you live in a high radon area, because in Greater Lansing that is not what the map says. We will tell you to test.
- Radon-resistant rough-in on new construction is code-driven in the high-potential counties and is a licensed builder’s scope, not this.
The work itself
What actually gets done
Tell you to test before you spend anything, and where to get a cheap kit. That advice is free and it is genuinely the whole first step.
Seal the floor-to-wall joint, which is the largest single entry path in most basements and the one most often left open.
Seal floor cracks, control joints and shrinkage cracks in the slab.
Seal around penetrations — pipe sleeves, conduit, the gap where a service enters.
Fit a sealed, gasketed sump cover with a clear lid, because an open sump pit is frequently the biggest hole in the floor.
Seal the open tops of block walls and exposed block cores where they can be reached.
Lay a continuous sealed crawl space membrane to the specification a mitigator needs for sub-membrane depressurization — which is the recognized technique for a crawl space, and the membrane half of it is carpentry.
Lay the sub-slab or sub-membrane pipe and leave a capped stub while a slab or a crawl space is already open for other work, so a mitigator has something to connect to later instead of starting again. Where that stub then runs, what diameter it is and where it discharges are the mitigator’s design decisions, not ours.
Hand you a written list, with photographs, of what was sealed and what was left — which is the document the mitigator will ask for.
Say plainly what to ask whoever installs the system, and refuse to guess at anything past that.
This work sits inside General Repairs, which carries the invoiced price bands for the trade with the sample size printed beside every figure.
What it costs
There is no price list for this, and here is what actually decides the number.
The same three words describe a twenty-minute job and a two-day one. Rather than publish a figure that is wrong for one of them, here is what moves it — so you can work out roughly which end of it you are at before anybody comes out.
How much of the floor perimeter is reachable. A finished basement with a stud wall and drywall against the foundation has to come off before anybody can see the joint that matters.
The length and number of cracks, and whether the slab has control joints.
Whether there is a sump pit, and whether the existing cover is anything other than a loose board.
Block walls or poured. Open block cores are more work than a poured wall.
Crawl space area, headroom and how much has to come out of it first.
Whether this is being done before a mitigator arrives, alongside one, or on its own.
Whether anything already down there — old pipe or duct wrap in a pre-1980s house — needs sampling before it is disturbed.
How to get a real number
Somebody comes out, looks at it properly, and you get a fixed price in writing with the work set out line by line and the exclusions written down as plainly as the inclusions. Coming out to do that is not charged for, and neither is working out what is wrong. If something is found once a wall or a floor is open, it is priced as a written change order and you decide before the work carries on rather than after it is billed. Materials are supplied at cost with the receipt attached, first-time customers get 10% off labor, and labor carries a one-year craftsmanship warranty.
If this is happening right now
What to do in the next five minutes, and what happens when you ring.
Before anybody arrives
- Buy a test kit before you buy anything else. The state and several county health departments sell them at a discount, and it is the only step on this list that tells you whether the rest matter.
- Test in the lowest lived-in level of the house, with the windows shut, for the period the kit specifies. A short test on a breezy week with a door open is a number that means nothing.
- Do not seal anything before you test. Sealing first and testing afterwards leaves you unable to tell what the sealing did.
- Look at your sump pit. If there is no sealed cover on it, you are looking at one of the largest openings between the soil and your living room.
- Find out how your furnace and water heater vent. A natural-draft appliance in a basement is the detail that makes pressure changes in a house a safety matter rather than a comfort one.
- If a test comes back at or above the action level, get a certified mitigator rather than a handyman — including rather than this one. That is what the referral on this page is for.
- If you are buying the house, test now rather than after closing. It is one of the few things that is still negotiable before you own it.
Call the business line
(517) 505-7135Answered Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 18:00. There is no out-of-hours line and this page is not going to invent one — outside those hours, leave a message with the address and what is happening, and it is picked up in the morning.
On the call you get asked what is happening, what else in the building is affected, and whether it is still getting worse. That is how it gets decided whether this is our job at all — and if it is not, you get told that on the phone rather than after somebody has driven out.
- No trip charge
- No call-out fee or minimum
- No diagnostic fee
- No charge for a return visit
True across all 84 written quotes this company has issued. Most contractors in this market charge to turn up.
Or send the detailsWhen the right answer is not this company
- You can smell gas
- Leave the building and call the utility from outside. Not us, and not later.
- Water you cannot stop
- Your main shut-off first, then a licensed plumber. Every minute of this one costs money.
- Sewage backing up, or several fixtures at once
- A licensed plumber with a camera. That is the shared line, not a fixture, and a cable down one sink will not touch it.
- Sparking, scorching or a burning smell at an outlet or a panel
- Breaker off, and a licensed electrician. Electrical work here is repair and like-for-like replacement, and this is neither.
- No heat, or heating and cooling equipment that has failed
- A licensed mechanical contractor. That trade is not offered here at all, and knowing that in one phone call is worth more than a visit.
Questions people actually ask
Do you install radon mitigation systems?
No, and that 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 that suits the house — and it changes the air pressure in the building, which can pull combustion gases back down a natural-draft furnace or water heater flue if it is done badly. It belongs with somebody certified by the National Radon Proficiency Program or the National Radon Safety Board. What this company does is the sealing half, to the standard the mitigator actually wants, and the crawl space membrane that a sub-membrane system is built on.
Will sealing the cracks in my basement fix a radon problem?
No, and this is the most important sentence on the page. Federal guidance is explicit that sealing on its own is not a reliable radon reduction method — it closes off paths, it makes a proper system work better and run cheaper, and on its own it has a poor track record. Anybody offering crack sealing as an alternative to a system is selling a cheaper thing that does not do the job, on a lung cancer risk. If your test is at or above the action level, you need a system, and the sealing is part of it rather than instead of it.
Is Lansing a high radon area?
Not according to the federal map, and it is worth knowing before somebody tells you otherwise. Michigan’s nine highest-potential counties are all in southern Michigan — Branch, Calhoun, Cass, Hillsdale, Jackson, Kalamazoo, Lenawee, St. Joseph and Washtenaw — and Ingham, Eaton and Clinton are not among them. That changes the sales pitch and it does not change the advice: houses above the action level are found in every zone, two houses on the same street can read very differently, and a map has never measured a basement. Test anyway. It is cheap.
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 with the windows shut for the period the kit specifies — a short test during a breezy week with a door open produces a number nobody can use.
Does Michigan require a radon contractor to be licensed?
No. Michigan does not license, certify or regulate radon testers, radon mitigators or the systems they install. The state encourages national certification instead, through the National Radon Proficiency Program or the National Radon Safety Board. So there is nothing to look up, and the useful questions are which of those certifications they hold, whether they build to the AARST standard, and whether a post-installation test is included in the price. Note that the construction work itself still sits under ordinary trade licensing, which is a separate question worth asking too.
Should I test before or after sealing?
Before, always, and then 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. A test kit costs a small fraction of any sealing job, which makes testing first the cheapest decision available on this entire page.
What does radon sealing cost?
There is no rate card. It is set by how much of the floor perimeter can actually be reached — a finished basement has to come apart first — the number and length of the cracks, whether there is a sump pit and what is currently covering it, whether the walls are block or poured, and whether a crawl space membrane is part of it. Somebody comes out, looks, and puts a fixed price in writing. Coming out is free, and if the honest answer is that you should spend the money on a certified mitigator instead, you will be told that.
Do you work in Lansing, Haslett, East Lansing, Okemos and Holt?
Yes — Greater Lansing and the towns around it, which is where almost all of this company’s work is.
Book the sealing, after you test
Buy a test kit first — the state and some county health departments sell them cheap, and it is the only step that tells you whether the rest matters. Then send us the result and photographs of the basement floor and the sump pit. If the number says you need a system, we will point you at a certified mitigator instead of quoting you. Coming out is free either way.