I live in NW Ohio and just replaced my radon fan and manometer (fyi, you can slide your manometer scale up and down, so the reading aligns at 0 when fan isn't running). I also read that you need to seal up the manometer tube with caulk where it was put into your drilled pvc pipe to ensure a tight vacuum. As for your radon detector (looks just like mine (Airthings?), or recommend leaving it in the same spot for min. 7 days, but preferably 30 days. My readings started out around 3.7 (1 day) but continued to drop. 7 day average is now 2.2 and 1 day is averaging around 1.5 (i have seen the 1 day average as low as 1.2 and as high as 1.7, so there is some fluctuating). I'm about to break ground on my diy ICF house in January and been following you from the start. Seeing where you are at now after 2+ years, any regrets or would you do it again. Just curious. I may need to pick your brain for suggestions during my build, so glad to see your back.
@@jasongerken4828 yeah everything is as sealed as I can get it. In the video both readings were higher, the thumbnail is lower and now today it’s even lower! Long term was 2.2 before I left for work and the 24hr was 1.7! So either the HRV/Fan it’s working!!! I’ll take that over 3.7-4.2 any day. And yes it’s a airthing monitor. O yeah lots of regrets! The biggest ones are roof trusses. Doing 5/8 sheathing sucked. To do over I’d of gone 1/2” which is code but I’d of spent more money going 16” vs 24”. Id need like 13 more trusses but the roof would be stronger and 1/2” could stand the shorter span. Next floor trusses. I’ve spent WAYYYYYY to many hours cutting and drilling and pulling wire, plumbing, etc etc and i-joists SUCK!!! Again spend the money and get floor truss open webbing ones!! Keep them 16” on center for a super strong floor but my god hundreds of hours saved on labor when doing all your stuff up inside of them!!! Next do a better job of icf vibration and don’t use 4” ICF! Again you’ll spend a little more money but 4” ICF is a bad idea. To many voids I’ve found. Next, under slab basement and garage id of done 4” foam vs 2”. I think I lose to much to the ground temp in my radiant. R10 isn’t enough to keep the cold ground away from my radiant. Also I was to wide at 1 foot with 1/2” pex. I’d of added another run on both and should of done 8” apart. Also my 3 posts that hold the house up, the concrete footers are not tied to the basement slab. I should of made the rebar stick out of the forms so when the slab was poured it would of tied them together. My footer posts have sunk a little but it’s ok cause the posts are several inch adjustable. A different HRV goes without saying. Buying a proper boiler instead of a hot water tank for the radiant. Everything I said in my mistake video that’s the first on the home page. I’ll have to think later if anything else. Yes lots of regrets.
@neckofthewoods24 I understand there will always be decisions that are made to save money, time, etc and sometimes they work out and other times they don't. Any regrets on taking on a project of this size and building your own house? Any regrets on doing it all yourself vs doing maybe 50% of the work and acting as a general contractor for the other 50% and subbing the work out to speed up the process?
I’m an hvac guy and a mini split is fine to have it a little over seized. The reason is that these units in general are able to vary their output by slowing down and speeding up the compressor in heating and also in cooling modes. As far as your outdoor condenser, if it is a multi split condenser, then you can add more “heads” to the additional connection points.
@@jacobchrist6689 yeah definitely does that! I rarely hear it go full steam, mostly just runs at a very low speed and just as rare it won’t run at all. Seems to stay in the lower half of things most of the time which is nice cause it’s real quiet. As for the outside unit, it’s 1 head only which is why it blows my mind they want to charge so much for a dual head setup! It’s cheaper to buy 2 heads and 2 outside units vs 2 heads and 1 unit. That math isn’t mathing!
No humidifier but yes we have a well but no running water in the house yet. The garage house an outlet and there’s 2 outlets on the sides of the house but no internal running source. If the radon can pass through pex pipe and the softener etc then yes that could be bleeding into the house. After running one more day we are down to 2.2 long term and 1.7 24hr so it’s getting better and better!
I live in NW Ohio and just replaced my radon fan and manometer (fyi, you can slide your manometer scale up and down, so the reading aligns at 0 when fan isn't running). I also read that you need to seal up the manometer tube with caulk where it was put into your drilled pvc pipe to ensure a tight vacuum.
As for your radon detector (looks just like mine (Airthings?), or recommend leaving it in the same spot for min. 7 days, but preferably 30 days. My readings started out around 3.7 (1 day) but continued to drop. 7 day average is now 2.2 and 1 day is averaging around 1.5 (i have seen the 1 day average as low as 1.2 and as high as 1.7, so there is some fluctuating).
I'm about to break ground on my diy ICF house in January and been following you from the start. Seeing where you are at now after 2+ years, any regrets or would you do it again. Just curious. I may need to pick your brain for suggestions during my build, so glad to see your back.
@@jasongerken4828 yeah everything is as sealed as I can get it. In the video both readings were higher, the thumbnail is lower and now today it’s even lower! Long term was 2.2 before I left for work and the 24hr was 1.7! So either the HRV/Fan it’s working!!! I’ll take that over 3.7-4.2 any day. And yes it’s a airthing monitor.
O yeah lots of regrets! The biggest ones are roof trusses. Doing 5/8 sheathing sucked. To do over I’d of gone 1/2” which is code but I’d of spent more money going 16” vs 24”. Id need like 13 more trusses but the roof would be stronger and 1/2” could stand the shorter span.
Next floor trusses. I’ve spent WAYYYYYY to many hours cutting and drilling and pulling wire, plumbing, etc etc and i-joists SUCK!!! Again spend the money and get floor truss open webbing ones!! Keep them 16” on center for a super strong floor but my god hundreds of hours saved on labor when doing all your stuff up inside of them!!!
Next do a better job of icf vibration and don’t use 4” ICF! Again you’ll spend a little more money but 4” ICF is a bad idea. To many voids I’ve found.
Next, under slab basement and garage id of done 4” foam vs 2”. I think I lose to much to the ground temp in my radiant. R10 isn’t enough to keep the cold ground away from my radiant. Also I was to wide at 1 foot with 1/2” pex. I’d of added another run on both and should of done 8” apart.
Also my 3 posts that hold the house up, the concrete footers are not tied to the basement slab. I should of made the rebar stick out of the forms so when the slab was poured it would of tied them together. My footer posts have sunk a little but it’s ok cause the posts are several inch adjustable.
A different HRV goes without saying.
Buying a proper boiler instead of a hot water tank for the radiant.
Everything I said in my mistake video that’s the first on the home page.
I’ll have to think later if anything else.
Yes lots of regrets.
@neckofthewoods24 I understand there will always be decisions that are made to save money, time, etc and sometimes they work out and other times they don't.
Any regrets on taking on a project of this size and building your own house? Any regrets on doing it all yourself vs doing maybe 50% of the work and acting as a general contractor for the other 50% and subbing the work out to speed up the process?
I’m an hvac guy and a mini split is fine to have it a little over seized. The reason is that these units in general are able to vary their output by slowing down and speeding up the compressor in heating and also in cooling modes. As far as your outdoor condenser, if it is a multi split condenser, then you can add more “heads” to the additional connection points.
@@jacobchrist6689 yeah definitely does that! I rarely hear it go full steam, mostly just runs at a very low speed and just as rare it won’t run at all. Seems to stay in the lower half of things most of the time which is nice cause it’s real quiet. As for the outside unit, it’s 1 head only which is why it blows my mind they want to charge so much for a dual head setup! It’s cheaper to buy 2 heads and 2 outside units vs 2 heads and 1 unit. That math isn’t mathing!
If you have a humidifier and a well for the water source, your getting radon from the water.
No humidifier but yes we have a well but no running water in the house yet. The garage house an outlet and there’s 2 outlets on the sides of the house but no internal running source. If the radon can pass through pex pipe and the softener etc then yes that could be bleeding into the house. After running one more day we are down to 2.2 long term and 1.7 24hr so it’s getting better and better!