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When temperatures drop and windows stay shut, most homeowners focus on comfort, warmth, and energy savings. But in sealing out the cold, many unintentionally seal something else in: radon gas.
Invisible and odorless, radon can build up inside homes during the colder months, especially in basements or crawl spaces. Without regular ventilation, the air inside your home has nowhere to go, and that’s when radon becomes a silent risk.
When a home is sealed up for winter, the normal airflow between indoors and outdoors slows down or stops entirely. That might be great for your energy bill, but it also means any gases entering from the ground, like radon, can build up more quickly.
There’s also a natural pressure difference at play. As warm air rises and escapes through the upper levels of your home, it pulls cooler air from the ground below. This is called the stack effect, and during colder months, it can actively draw more radon into your basement or crawl space.
Combine that with poor ventilation and heavy soil saturation from snow or rain, and winter becomes one of the riskiest times of year for elevated radon levels, especially in homes with unfinished basements or exposed crawl spaces.
Most household problems give you something to notice: a smell, a sound, a leak, a crack. Radon doesn’t. It doesn’t stain your drywall or drip from the ceiling. It moves silently through the soil and lingers in the air below your home.
That’s what makes it so dangerous. Radon exposure happens slowly, over months or years. There are no physical symptoms until the damage is already done. And in colder weather, the gas has nowhere to go, especially in basements and crawl spaces with poor airflow.
If your home sits on clay-rich soil, has an unfinished lower level, or traps humidity, you may be creating the perfect conditions for radon to build up without even knowing it.
Once radon enters a home, it doesn’t leave on its own. Opening a window here or there might help in the summer, but in winter, that’s not a practical solution, especially when the gas is entering from below.
That’s where a radon mitigation system comes in. It doesn’t remove radon from the ground; it reroutes it. A properly installed system creates negative pressure beneath your foundation or crawl space, pulling radon gas into a sealed pipe and venting it safely outside before it ever reaches your living space.
It’s not something you’ll hear or feel working, but it’s running all the time, quietly protecting your home while the rest of the world is sealed tight against the cold.
Winter is when radon has the best chance to build up unnoticed, but it’s also the best time to do something about it. If your home has a basement, a crawl space, or sits on soil known to release radon, this season is when the risk is highest.
Whether you’ve already confirmed elevated levels or just want to stay ahead of the problem, a radon mitigation system can help keep your home safer year-round. And when it comes to protecting your home’s air, it pays to work with a contractor who understands the structure beneath it.
At ’58 Foundations & Waterproofing, we install radon mitigation systems built for homes like yours, because healthy air starts from the ground up.
As summer winds down and kids head back to school, your home’s routines start shifting indoors. If your basement doubles as a bedroom, homework space, or hangout zone, now is the perfect time to test for radon. This naturally occurring gas is odorless, invisible, and dangerous in high concentrations, and August is your window to catch it before cooler weather traps it inside.
At '58 Foundations & Waterproofing, we help homeowners protect their families with proven radon mitigation systems that meet EPA standards and reduce exposure risks long-term. A quick test now can save you from worry later and help keep your basement safe all school year.
As the school year begins, many families shift their routines indoors. Basements become popular spots for after-school homework, video games, or even sleeping quarters for older kids. But with this increased use comes a hidden risk: radon exposure.
Radon is a health concern year-round, but it becomes especially important when living spaces are located on or below ground level. Children spending hours in finished basements are more vulnerable simply because radon tends to concentrate in these lower areas. And once fall arrives, the risk only grows as windows stay closed and natural ventilation decreases.
If your basement is part of your family’s daily routine, now is the time to make sure it’s safe. Testing for radon before the weather cools down gives you the chance to act early, so your kids can focus on school, not unseen dangers.
Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas that forms underground when uranium in soil and rock breaks down. Outdoors, it disperses harmlessly. But inside your home, especially in the basement, it can accumulate to dangerous levels without any visible signs.
Because radon rises from the ground, basements are the first place it enters. It seeps in through small cracks in your foundation, gaps around pipes, sump pits, and even exposed soil in crawl spaces. Once inside, radon gets trapped. This is especially true in basements with limited ventilation or tight construction.
You cannot see or smell radon, and many families never suspect it's there. But long-term exposure is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the U.S., according to the EPA. That is why it is critical to test, especially if your basement is part of your family’s living space during the school year.
August offers the perfect conditions to test your basement for radon before fall routines set in. Temperatures are still warm, but many households are starting to close windows more often and use HVAC systems regularly. This creates a more accurate reflection of how your home will behave once it's sealed up for the cooler months ahead.
Once fall arrives and windows remain shut, radon levels can spike. Waiting too long may lead to delayed test results or exposure during the peak indoor season. Testing now gives you time to plan, install a mitigation system if needed, and enter the school year knowing your basement is safe.
If you have recently renovated your basement or increased its use, a fresh radon test is strongly recommended. Even homes with previous systems or past tests should be checked every two years, especially if your family spends more time downstairs during the school year.
If your test results show elevated radon levels, the solution is straightforward. A radon mitigation system is designed to safely vent the gas from beneath your home and direct it outside before it enters your living space. These systems are effective, quiet, and can typically be installed in just one day.
The most common method is sub-slab depressurization. This involves drilling a small hole in your basement slab, installing a pipe, and using a specialized fan to draw radon from beneath the home and vent it out through the roof or sidewall. Sealing foundation cracks and sump pump openings can also help reduce radon entry points.
At '58 Foundations & Waterproofing, we build every system to meet or exceed EPA guidelines. A Life-of-the-Structure Warranty backs our work, so you can feel confident your family is protected for the long haul.
Before the school year shifts your family into full routine, make sure your basement is ready, too. Whether it is used as a bedroom, study space, or game room, your lower level should be safe from invisible threats like radon gas.
At '58 Foundations & Waterproofing, we offer professional radon testing and mitigation with proven results. Our certified team will assess your home, explain your options, and install a system built to protect your family for years to come. If you are looking for a radon mitigation contractor near you, please schedule your free inspection today and let us help you start the school year with confidence.
You may have an untapped source of income under your house. Did you know that your basement could be made into an apartment?
Yes indeed, when it’s finished, safe and comfortable, your basement could become an apartment that enables you to collect a steady—and substantial—rental income.
But this income could vanish in an instant if your basement were to flood.
Though your foundation walls and floor are made of concrete, even the strongest building materials can give way to the powerful force water produces.
When it rains, water soaks into the soil around your home. Some of the water may come to rest against your foundation and begin to build as the water table rises. Once the water meets your foundation, the water creates what’s known as hydrostatic pressure.
The pressure can cause groundwater to seep through the cold joints of your foundation and infiltrate your basement. Meanwhile, moisture may penetrate the foundation’s porous concrete, adding to the humidity in the basement. Hydrostatic pressure can lead to a variety of problems:
As you can imagine, these kinds of problems could leave a basement apartment swamped with water and moisture, and/or damage the home’s structure. In both cases, the basement is unsuitable as an apartment.
A wet or damp basement can also lead to:
In addition to causing structural damage, the moldy environment can pollute your indoor air with allergens including mold spores and dust mite fecal particles. Individuals with mold allergies, respiratory illnesses, or a compromised immune system can become quite sick because of these allergens.
While there’s no way to block out 100% of the water and moisture, your basement can be made livable with an interior basement waterproofing system that directs water away from your home.
At a minimum, an interior waterproofing system involves:
Depending on the situation, there may be a need for additional components such as dehumidifiers, moisture vapor barriers, and rigid sealers.
An interior waterproofing system features drainage channels installed either on or beside the footer at the perimeter of your basement’s interior. The drainage channels capture water as it comes to meet your foundation and guides the groundwater towards a sump pit where a sump pump dispenses it through the discharge pipe to a safe distance from your home.
This whole process will reduce the hydrostatic pressure on your foundation. In turn, this lowers the chances of groundwater intrusion and invasive moisture.
After putting a robust, long-term waterproofing system in place, you’ll be all set to create an apartment-style living space. Next steps include flooring, drywall, carpentry, and anything else you may need to set up a basement apartment.
’58 Foundations & Waterproofing has been protecting basements against the effects of groundwater intrusion and moisture since 1958.
For your peace of mind, we offer an industry-leading life-of-the-structure warranty and a money-back guarantee to back our work. We take pride in the more than 2,000 positive online reviews we’ve earned, and we’ve even won the Torch Award for Ethics from the Better Business Bureau.
’58 Foundations & Waterproofing goes beyond just being a basement waterproofing contractor—we’re the waterproofing company that homeowners love. Contact us today to schedule a free inspection and to receive a zero-obligation cost estimate.
Rental incomes are sourced from the “World Population Review” website.
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