Ok, I have read the posts here and there is a lot of bad information. Eggs do not contain the bacterium C. botulinum, which grows in oxygen free environments. The one case of botulism that included pickled eggs also had beets. Beets grow underground (oxygen free) and are the likely culprit. OF curse eggs can be canned, just as any meat or seafood can be canned. Pickled eggs have vinegar, and acid, which served to acidify the liquid solution. If there is ever a question about a container that may have botulism, throw it out! Canned items that have active bacteria growth with gas forming organisms, such as botulism, will bulge at the ends, and should not even be opened, but container and all should be discarded. The botulism organism is not, directly, what makes you sick, it is the toxin it produces. This toxin, which is heat stable, can be inhaled, so you could expose yourself just by opening the jar. Steve Retired Health Inspector

I'd like to know where you ended up with this. I live in RI and have the same problem. Bought and old house years ago, now have kids, and of course now radon is testing high. First thing I did was buy a radon monitor. It's called the "Corentium Digital Radon Gas Monitor". You can buy it online for $245. I've had mine for 6 weeks and has told me a lot about the radon levels in my house. Craziest thing is that radon levels fluctuate day to day and can vary a couple of points so the 2-day tests are in my view, worthless. Also radon levels vary seasonally. The best radon test is an average over a year, with a minimum reading of a week. What's great about a continuous monitor is that you can tell hourly if the radon levels drop because of your mitigation. FYI opening windows does work for about a day then they go right back up again; great for summer, chilly in winter. My basement is mostly old poured concrete (more like a rat slab) and I have some open dirt sections. My plan this summer is to take up the old slab and install a proper radon pipe grid, cover with gravel, then poly, then top with new concrete. That should give me a better, drier, basement and also eliminate radon from the slab. I'll pipe it for a passive system and if it doesn't work I'll add the fan. It's unlikely that you or I have a decent layer of gravel under the old basement slab so any point suction mitigation won't work. that works in newer foundations that have the gravel but not the piping. The second thing is a perimeter drain. This will relieve the pressure against the outside wall and vent the water and radon gas to daylight. Radon gets sucked through the rubble walls by stack-effect so I plan to put a layer of poly against the foundation to act as a vapor barrier, then a perimeter drain product by Eljen. Good luck, we'll both need it.

Thank you for the replies! How about if I were to pour concrete over the dirt, like for a driveway? Do you think that would alleviate any water issues? Or is it more than just water I should be worried about? Just trying to cover all the bases.

Colleen, I advise a lot of people who post here to consult an energy rater (HERS or BIP). I'm going to do it again. How to insulate is very dependent on climate conditions. A local energy rater will know how to do it where you live. Don't depend on contractors to know. They are a conservative bunch and will often follow outdated traditions. You might educate yourself by reading at https://buildingscience.com. In a damp, hot climate you have to have the vapor barrier to the outside so the floor assembly can dry to the inside. In a primarily heating climate, the assembly needs to dry to the dry to the outside so the vapor barrier needs to face the living space. In some cases, no vapor barrier is recommended due to the mixed conditions. Depending on what you have under your feet right now, you may introduce a second vapor barrier. That is a real no-no. The materials can't dry to either side. Yes, sealed, semi conditioned crawlspaces are more in vogue, but that is conditional too. Your soil is, apparently, damp. The thing I would be most comfortable doing there is a vapor barrier with a rat slab. Plastic with gravel will work, however., the plastic will degrade. Insulating directly under the floor will work, but that leaves the pipe problem if they project very far under the floor at all. Insulation will not protect pipes if there is no way to get heat transfer into the pipes unless freezing temps are very transient and not very deep freezes. The other thing to think about is the nature of your floors in their present state. If there was more room, I might spray most of the underside with foam if the pipes are recessed enough to be a lot closer to the floor than to the exterior. I'd be tempted to put rigid panels under heavily plumbed areas and tape the joints so plumbing problems don't require a lot of re-foaming. Then your crawlspace can be left open and the moisture down there does not matter. It won't pay to insulate under the floor and seal the crawl. New Jersey soil temperatures are decent and will moderate your home temps in both summer and winter. Unfortunately, unless your crawl does not communicate with the adjacent ones, you have to close that off too unless you can convince the neighbors to follow your lead.. That is a pretty miserable prospect with 12-18" depth, although maybe you can come up with a way to easily fit some two-piece runs of panels together. (Now way i'd try to cut them individually so they all fit. If you are already isolated, I'd seal up and insulate the open sides, closely monitor the humidity down there and call it a victory if the humidity is low enough. The energy rater will also tell you if this is the low-hanging fruit for heating fuel savings. It probably is, and keeping your feet warm in the kitchen is worth more than a couple of bucks. A rater will also know of local programs to subsidize energy efficiency.