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This calculator vs. a flat $1,195 radon special
A flat "$1,195 radon system installed" special clears its own cost on the small basement it was priced for — and runs deeply underwater the moment the same number is quoted on a bigger mixed-foundation job.
What a flat $1,195 radon special is
A flat special is the fastest thing a mitigation contractor can put on a search ad or a truck wrap: one number, read back as the whole job. It is also the number homeowners compare between competing quotes, since "radon system installed" sounds like one job whatever the foundation looks like.
The number behind it was set for one job — a 1,200 sq ft basement, one suction point, a standard fan, a sidewall discharge, no crawl membrane, no new circuit, no post-mitigation test, no permit — and then reused for every radon job afterward, whether or not the next house carries a second suction point, a tight slab needing a high-suction fan, or a crawl space needing membrane.
What this calculator is
This page keeps no account and sends nothing to a server. You enter the foundation type, footprint, suction-point count, fan class, discharge routing, whether a crawl membrane, a new circuit, a post-mitigation test, or a permit is part of the scope, plus your loaded labor and overhead. It prices the base system, the extra access work, and every add-on separately, and returns a walk-away price for the job you describe — for this foundation, not a generic one.
| Job | $1,195 special | Break-even cost | Walk-away price | Actual result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The special's own job: 1,200 sq ft basement, 1 suction, standard fan, sidewall | $1,195.00 | $807.82 | $1,121.98 | Clears this job's own cost by $387.18 |
| 1,800 sq ft basement, 1 suction, roof stack, post-mitigation test | $1,195.00 | $1,085.26 | $1,507.30 | Barely clears cost, by $109.74 |
| 2,000 sq ft tight slab-on-grade, 2 suctions, high-suction fan, roof, new circuit, firestops, test | $1,195.00 | $2,196.25 | $3,050.35 | $1,001.25 under this job's own cost |
| 2,400 sq ft mixed slab + crawl, 2 suctions, high-suction fan, membrane, new circuit, test, permit | $1,195.00 | $3,025.82 | $4,202.52 | $1,830.82 under this job's own cost |
Worked using this calculator's own shipped job presets at a $42 hourly wage, 34% payroll burden, 16% overhead on direct cost, and a 28% target margin — the form's own defaults, not a number invented for this page. Open the calculator's job presets to check any row yourself.
| What a flat $1,195 special does | What this calculator does instead |
|---|---|
| Charges the same rate whether the job is a single-suction basement on a standard fan or a two-suction mixed slab-and-crawl combo needing a high-suction fan, even though the second job's fan and access labor alone can exceed the whole special. | Prices the foundation type, suction-point count, and fan class as their own lines, with extra-suction hours and a high-suction fan surcharge that scale with the job instead of a blended "radon system" rate. |
| Prices "a radon system" as one number regardless of discharge routing, so a sidewall discharge is quoted the same as a roof penetration and above-eave stack, even though the roof route adds its own dedicated labor. | Applies discharge-specific hours only when a roof penetration is selected, and drops them for a sidewall run. |
| Has no separate line for a crawl-space membrane, a new dedicated circuit, firestops through living space, a permit, or a post-mitigation test, so any of those five add-ons is either dropped from the quote or silently absorbed into the flat number. | Prices membrane by the square foot, and treats the circuit, firestops, permit, and post-test as their own toggled lines with their own hours and material cost. |
| Bakes payroll burden into a round special nobody re-derives, so the rate quietly drifts from the technician's real loaded cost. | Loads the entered hourly wage by the entered payroll-burden percentage every time, so labor cost tracks the actual burden rather than a memorized rate. |
| Gives one number regardless of how complex the access work is, with no way to show a homeowner what the extra suction point or the membrane specifically added to the bid. | Breaks out access hours, service hours, and each cost share, so a homeowner asking "why does mine cost more than my neighbor's" gets an answer tied to their own foundation. |
A flat special is not wrong because it is simple — it is wrong when it is applied outside the one job it was built for, and nothing about a truck wrap or a search ad tells you when that has happened. This calculator does not replace judgment about your market; it replaces the arithmetic a flat special skips.
Common questions
Why does a flat $1,195 radon special get the price wrong?
Because a radon mitigation install's cost is driven by the foundation type, the suction-point count, the fan class, the discharge routing, and whether a crawl membrane, a new dedicated circuit, a permit, or a post-mitigation test is part of the scope — none of which scale with one flat number the way a special assumes. A 1,200 sq ft basement with one suction point and a standard fan is a different job from a 2,400 sq ft mixed slab-and-crawl combo with two suctions, a high-suction fan, 800 sq ft of membrane, and a new circuit. A flat special quotes both the same.
What job is the $1,195 number actually built around?
The smallest job in the trade: a 1,200 sq ft basement, one suction point, a standard fan, and a sidewall discharge, with no membrane, no new circuit, no post-test, and no permit — this calculator's own smallest shipped job preset. On that job the special actually clears its own cost with room to spare. It is not derived from any particular foundation being quoted; it is a number set on the easiest job that walks in the door and then reused for every job afterward.
How big does the pricing gap get on bigger jobs?
On this calculator's own shipped job presets, at a $42 hourly wage, 34% payroll burden, 16% overhead, and a 28% target margin: the special's own job — 1,200 sq ft basement, one suction, standard fan, sidewall — costs $807.82 to run, so the $1,195 special clears that job's own cost by $387.18, and this calculator prices the same job at $1,121.98. A 1,800 sq ft basement with a roof stack and a post-mitigation test costs $1,085.26 to run, so the same $1,195 special barely clears cost, by $109.74, while this calculator prices it at $1,507.30. A 2,000 sq ft tight slab-on-grade job with two suctions, a high-suction fan, a new circuit, firestops, and a test costs $2,196.25 to run — $1,001.25 under the $1,195 special — and this calculator prices it at $3,050.35. A 2,400 sq ft mixed slab-and-crawl job with two suctions, a high-suction fan, an 800 sq ft membrane, a new circuit, a test, and a permit costs $3,025.82 to run — $1,830.82 under the special — and this calculator prices it at $4,202.52.
Is a flat special ever the right way to quote a radon job?
On the smallest, single-suction, standard-fan basement job it can work, since it clears that job's own cost on this calculator's own numbers. The risk is reusing the same number once the foundation, suction count, fan class, or extras change — a mixed slab-and-crawl job with two suction points and a high-suction fan is not a bigger version of the brochure basement, it is a different job, and nothing about a flat special tells the installer when that line has been crossed.
Does this calculator know what to charge in my market?
No. It has no data on local fan, pipe, membrane, or electrical rates, and it is not a radon design, a health determination, a permit, or a guarantee that any building will test below an action level. It takes the foundation type, footprint, suction-point count, fan, discharge, membrane, circuit, permit, and post-test you enter, plus your own wage, payroll burden, overhead, and target margin, and turns that into a price for this job — the arithmetic a flat special skips, not a market survey.
Nothing here says or implies that quoting a flat special is a bad-faith practice — it is a common, honest way to advertise that works until the job stops matching the one the rate was set on. This page describes where that shortcut breaks down, not a fault in anyone who uses it.
Open the Radon Mitigation Bid Calculator and price your own job.