Radon Mitigation in Shrewsbury, PA

Newer Houses, Same Radon Question

Shrewsbury is a borough in southern York County, a short drive from the Maryland line, with Interstate 83 running past it and Shrewsbury Township wrapping around it. Growth along the I-83 corridor brought subdivisions and newer homes to this end of the county, alongside the older houses in the borough itself.

A lot of people buying here assume a newer house means no radon problem. It’s a common assumption, and it isn’t true.

Why a New House Can Test High

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is direct about it: radon shows up in new homes and old homes, tight homes and drafty ones. New construction can actually work against you in two ways:

• Tight houses pull harder. A well-sealed house with a furnace, a dryer, and bath fans running can end up at lower pressure than the soil around it. Soil gas fills that gap.
• Poured basements still have openings. The sump pit, the joint where the floor meets the wall, pipe penetrations, and cracks that open as the concrete cures all let gas in.

A finished basement makes the result matter more, because that’s where people now spend their evenings, work from home, or put a guest room.

Passive Radon Pipes

Some newer homes around Shrewsbury were built with a passive radon pipe: PVC from under the slab running up through the house to the roof, with no fan. The idea is that natural draft pulls a little soil gas out. In practice, many passive systems don’t bring a house under the action level on their own.

If you test at 4.0 pCi/L or higher with a passive pipe in place, the usual fix is to add a fan to it. That turns it into an active system. We check that the pipe is sealed and routed so a fan can do its job, mount the fan outside the living space, and add a gauge. Then we test again. It’s often less work than radon mitigation from scratch.

Older Homes in the Borough

The borough itself has older houses too, with masonry and block foundations, smaller basements, and additions put on over the years. Those get the same whole-house look we give any older home: every foundation area, the sump, the drains, and the wall joints.

Selling or Buying in Shrewsbury

In a home sale, radon usually comes up during the buyer’s inspection. If you’re selling, testing before you list gives you time to fix a high number on your schedule instead of the buyer’s. If you’re buying, ask whether the house already has a system and check the gauge. Our radon testing page covers how sale tests work.

If there’s already an active system and the gauge reads level, the fan has probably failed, and a radon fan replacement will get it running again.

Shrewsbury is part of our radon mitigation service across York County. Estimates are free and set up the same day you reach us during business hours.