Response from Radon Environmental, Inc.
First I want to say thank you for taking the time to read my response. The vast majority of the time my company and employees receive very favorable reviews. No we are not perfect and issues do arise from time to time. Radon Environmental is a small family owned business. I do my very best to treat others as I want to be treated. So without trying to be too defensive and to do my best to leave emotion out of my response, I am copying and pasting my response to the customer who left this review. Please note, the email was sent before I knew she left a review on Angie's List. Also please note that my original proposal for this customer was a step by step approach, or as I call it Phase 1 and Phase 2. In the original proposal, there is a very clear line item that states, "Additional Suction Line As Needed" for $275. This is an old 1920's home, which by the new homeowner's own confession to me over the phone has a lot of issues she has had to repair and deal with. My concern is that we exposed a problem that already existed. I have been willing to resolve the issue as you will see in the email pasted below. I don't believe we are totally at fault for the electrical problem, however, to be fair I did offer a partial refund, $474, and I did not charge the customer for the labor and material of the additional suction line, $275. I also am allowing the customer to keep the radon fan, which has a retail value of at least $250, plus all the PVC exhaust piping. Anyone is who knows anything about radon mitigation, and who is being honest, knows that it is not an exact science. Sometimes and especially in older homes, more work is needed to properly lower the radon levels. In an old home, the home is typically sitting on a tight soil, such as clay or a sandy gravel mix versus a new constructed home that has pea gravel and perforated drain tile. The key to a successful mitigation is to move air under the entire slab of the home. Tight soil and footers stop air flow or make it more difficult to move air under the entire slab from one suction point. This is why we added an additional suction point and a high pressure fan unit to this home. Yes the test results did come back double what they originally tested at. This does not shock me at all. It just tells me that more work is needed to lower the radon levels. We do our best to not do over kill and charge our customers for work that is not needed. In this situation, more work is needed. This home also has a crawl space. For those that are curious, my approach to lower the radon levels is to add another suction line and add one to the crawl space and encapsulate the crawl space. Yes the customer, if she chooses to move forward would be charged for these services because that is what was originally proposed and agreed upon, a two phase approach, if it was needed. Well, a second phase is needed. I did not guarantee the radon levels to drop below 4.0 pCi/l in the first phase, due to the fact that older homes sometimes require more work. I will say, if I had originally proposed to guarantee the radon levels to drop below the 4.0 pCi/l mark, then all additional work would be free of charge. If you read our other reviews, you will see a few that state our response to honor our guarantee. Also, there are numerous variables that could have caused higher radon levels in the post mitigation test. For example, a storm front could have blown threw. Ok, with all that said, here are two of my responses before the customer wrote the unfavorable review. My hope is that you judge my company by all of our reviews and not just one uncommon situation: Mike Brenneman Jun 24 (5 days ago) to [member name removed] Hi [member name removed], There are several variables that could cause the radon levels to double like that. I wish I could give you an exact explanation of why, but weather conditions and just simply the amount of radium breaking down to radon has an effect on the levels. Other things to cause a pressure change in your home, for example, running exhaust fans, vacuuming, opening windows etc...all can have an affect. Radon levels are never at a constant number and fluctuate. When you receive test results, you are receiving an average reading over that time period. The vast majority of the time, the amount of work we did in your home is more than enough to lower the radon to acceptable levels. The current system is not able to move enough air under your home to lower the levels. So we obviously need to come up with a game plan to to increase the performance of the system. The best ways to achieve this is to add more suction lines and seal up entry points, such as your crawl space. We didn't do this in the beginning, because I don't like to do over kill and have a customer pay more money if it is not needed. We can approach this by a step by step approach still or go full out and address everything at once. What day of the week works best for you to have Damon Miller, my chief technician to come out and meet with you to go over your options and placement of of additional suction points? Best regards, Mike Brenneman Radon Environmental (317) 843-0804 ext. 106 Mike Brenneman Jun 24 (5 days ago) to [member name removed] Hi [member name removed], I understand and appreciate your concern. I do apologize for the situation that we are in. I was simply providing examples of what possible variables could cause elevated levels after mitigation. About 3 to 4 jobs out of hundreds we do each year come back with higher test results. There is no clear cut answer as to why, other than the system needs to be added to, so it can move more air from under your home. Older homes tend to need more work done to move the air necessary to lower the radon levels. This is due to the lack of good layer of gravel and perforated drain tile being installed under your home during the original construction. Your home is sitting on a tight soil, which restricts how easily a radon system can pull air/create a negative pressure. Again I like to take the step by step approach, to hopefully save customers money. Unfortunately your home is proving to be a project that requires more work. What I suggest is to have my chief technician come out to meet with you and show you a game plan of what can be done next to improve the performance of the system. If at that point you are not comfortable with Damon performing the work on your home, then I can give you a refund. The best way to do the refund process is for you to keep the current system in place and I can refund $474 back to you. This way you are not having to pay for a full installation of another radon system from a different company, which may cost you more than what we originally charged. If you would like to schedule Damon to come out, please let me know what day of the week would work best for you. Best regards, Mike Brenneman Radon Environmental (317) 843-0804 ext. 106