I really dislike having to write a negative review, but I think it's important to let people know when a business simply doesn't do the job.
I bought a very old home in central Denver that had very high levels of radon - the inspection report was in the 10.x range. In lieu of fixing it, the sellers gave a $1k at closing. I was referred to All Colorado by a real-estate agent, and Ben gave a bid for 3/4 of that to fix it. This is the first time I've ever dealt with radon in a home, so the bid and brief description of work sounded plausible.
The installer came out a week later, jack-hammered a hole in the corner of my basement (to access the ground under the slab), installed a PVC pipe into it and through the wall, then the air pump and external pipe.
I waited a few months afterwards, then had my basement re-tested for radon levels several times - readings were between 9.5 and 8.8, which is over double the EPA-recommended max level (4.0). The air-pump was running continuously, 24/7, but it clearly wasn't helping in any useful way. My house would be nearly un-sell-able without getting this fixed.
All Colorado Radon purportedly guarantees the performance of their work for at least a year - I have the guarantee document with the final invoice. After leaving multiple messages on voicemail and getting no callback, I assume they were not interested in returning to actually fix the installation and justifying the $750 spent.
I hired a second radon mitigation specialist who pointed out numerous specific, fixable issues in ACRM's work:
- The hole going into and below the concrete slab literally stopped about an inch into the dirt, just below the bottom of the concrete. For the system to work well, the hole should be dug at least a foot below the slab, and preferable 2-3 feet, to achieve real air movement and suction. The second technician pointed out that the suction level (on the small thermometer-style indicator) was not very high at all).
- The exhaust pipe outside, above the pump, was not the usual recommended PVC. ACRM's installer simply installed a painted metal rain gutter attached above the pump with a plastic adapter - this will not wear as well outdoors as PVC, and will need replacing much earlier.
- The external exhaust pipe was only about 12 feet up - regulations specify that the external exhaust pipe should go all the way to the house's roof-line, to prevent exhaust air from re-entering the house.
- There is a large crawl-space in my basement that is walled-off. The subsequent mitigation specialist I hired stated that most of the radon is surely coming from the crawl-space into the finished part of the basement, so just the pump by itself would be almost completely ineffective. (It was fixed by the second tech by going into the crawl-space (from an outside access) and lining the ground in the space with thick plastic, and adding a pump line by the basement ceilng to the crawl-space to exhaust air in there as well.)
Summary: ACRM did a quick, indifferent job that actually made no real difference in radon levels at all, and they don't seem to care about doing good work or the result.
Incidentally, I see a lot of reviews of radon mitigation specialists by rental-property owners that seem short on specific, material results - I'd guess they aren't as interested in the actual results as simply checking off a line-item as having "radon mitigation" completed on a property as to make it attractive to renters. (And I have met rental-property managers who have told me "radon really isn't a thing".) read more