Approaches

Monitoring devices

“There is a little U-shaped tube on the pipe — what is it telling me?”

A manometer is a pressure gauge. Offset columns indicate the fan is developing suction in the pipe; level columns indicate it is not.

It is the single most useful thing a homeowner can look at, and it is also frequently misunderstood as showing the radon level, which it does not.

Why this matters

What it changes about the decision in front of you.

A fan can run while the system achieves nothing — a blocked pipe, a failed seal, a disconnected point — and the gauge is what distinguishes those cases.
A gauge reading is only interpretable against a baseline taken when the system was known to be working.

Where the effect is likely to show, and in which direction where that is knowable.

An alarm adds an audible or visual signal on loss of suction, which addresses the fact that failures are silent.
Gauge readings shift slightly with weather and building conditions, so small movement is not necessarily a fault.

What still stands. Noticing a problem is not the same as losing the evidence.

A manometer reading does not establish the indoor concentration, and no gauge does.
A healthy gauge reading does not establish that the system reduced levels — only a measurement does.
The absence of an alarm is not a defect; it is an option.

Worth having answers ready. None of these is a test you can fail.

Things you can establish today, without anyone visiting.

Where this platform stops. These are not questions a website can answer about your house.

What a specific reading means for this installation, which depends on the design.

Unordered, and none of them is a recommendation. Which applies depends on things this page does not know about your situation.

Obtain post-work verification

When it is considered. When work has been done and no measurement has been taken since, which is more common than it should be.

What it would establish. Whether the work changed the level, which is the only thing that turns an installation into evidence.

Request a professional assessment

When it is considered. When the building itself is part of the question — foundation type, an existing system, access, or an unusual layout.

What it would establish. What the building is doing, which no amount of information typed into a website can establish.

Tell us about your home and what you are trying to work out. We will tell you honestly whether we can route it to a provider in your area today.