Hello!
We are house hunting and have come across a villa from 1963. There are two things that concern me: the house has lightweight concrete and also a crawl space. Now, I am a happy amateur, so I just want to know how to determine if it's the type of lightweight concrete called blåbetong that's in the house. I've also understood that a crawl space can be troublesome due to moisture and rot. Am I worrying unnecessarily, or should I look for another house? Grateful for input.
We are house hunting and have come across a villa from 1963. There are two things that concern me: the house has lightweight concrete and also a crawl space. Now, I am a happy amateur, so I just want to know how to determine if it's the type of lightweight concrete called blåbetong that's in the house. I've also understood that a crawl space can be troublesome due to moisture and rot. Am I worrying unnecessarily, or should I look for another house? Grateful for input.
That it is blåbetong can be seen by its color, it is dark blue-gray. But not all blåbetong contains radon, so the important thing is not whether it is blåbetong or not, but whether there are radiation levels that exceed the limit value, so a long-term measurement is carried out during the winter months to find this out.
One should also not forget that there is ground radon as well.
There are problems with all houses, so if you want to absolutely avoid all problems, you shouldn't live in a villa.
One should also not forget that there is ground radon as well.
There are problems with all houses, so if you want to absolutely avoid all problems, you shouldn't live in a villa.
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You should measure the radon levels in the house.
You consciously expose yourself to health risks all the time. The modus operandi is to minimize the risks at the lowest possible cost. A slightly elevated radon level can be offset by a dock with a moored rowboat, whereas a highway gives the opposite trade-off condition. In short - life is dangerous!A Asli said:
Okay, but what's really interesting is what the radon level is and not whether it's blue concrete. If it's higher than the threshold level of 200, you improve the ventilation to get it below that level.A Asli said:
Regarding the crawl space, it is usually possible to address by laying plastic on the ground and if the humidity level is still too high, you seal the crawl space and install a dehumidifier. If there are rot damages now, it should be visible during the inspection that you, of course, should have done if you want to buy the house.
Houses from that era are almost always built with at least one risk construction: crawl space, concrete slab with embedded wooden beams, or basement with organic material.
For a quick response, perhaps one could use a gamma spectrometer?
Blåbetongen contains uranium that decays with gamma radiation and radon as products. And gamma radiation is reasonably easy to measure.
Blåbetongen contains uranium that decays with gamma radiation and radon as products. And gamma radiation is reasonably easy to measure.
Rent a boroscope? Alternatively, a small webcam?A Asli said:
The crawl space could contain mold, pests, etc. It would probably be good to find out what's there.
Call the municipality and ask if they have registered municipal radon measurements on the property as well as on others nearby. And what these showed. Public records. That's what I did when we bought our house.A Asli said:
For blåbetong, you must get data from the specific house. The radiation and radon will not reach neighboring houses. For ground radon, however, neighboring houses can serve as references depending on ground conditions.D datja said:
Of course.spikplanka said:
I was just giving TS a tip on how to find out if the property and surrounding area have radon-rich bedrock.
Regarding building radon, I borrowed the municipality's Geiger counter, which I placed against the walls.
Video:
- Radium Quetzal: Radiation from a blue concrete wall (Blåbetong) (2020-02-21)
Description: "Walked around in a building with my scintillator because I had found some old radium compasses in a cabinet there. I did not expect the walls to be setting the meter off like they did. This would be around 0.8uSv/h."
Comment: "Blue concrete is a kind of concrete where the rocks and stuff were mined in uranium rich areas. Hence why it is radioactive. It's interesting because the average background in such buildings is really high. This one being 8x background and 12x right at the wall."
So blåbetong = 0.8 µS/h or 8x-12x background radiation?
At least it gives a hint of what kind of measurement results to look for.
Description: "Walked around in a building with my scintillator because I had found some old radium compasses in a cabinet there. I did not expect the walls to be setting the meter off like they did. This would be around 0.8uSv/h."
Comment: "Blue concrete is a kind of concrete where the rocks and stuff were mined in uranium rich areas. Hence why it is radioactive. It's interesting because the average background in such buildings is really high. This one being 8x background and 12x right at the wall."
So blåbetong = 0.8 µS/h or 8x-12x background radiation?
At least it gives a hint of what kind of measurement results to look for.
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