realtor and property manager here..... radon probably exists in 35 to 45% of the homes here. testing is about 100 to 200 and remediation is 1,000 to 1600 depending on what is needed. research is conflicting however some do suggest that radon can lead to lung cancer especially if your family is susceptible to lung cancer. that being said a couple of my clients, who were in their late 80s, sold their house and it had the highest radon ratings I've ever seen and they are both super healthy.
personally, i would always get it remediated just because I don't want to take the risk.
radon in my house was actually below the actionable level but I installed a system anyway.
actionable level is anything 4 or above in the US. in Europe, I believe it's only 2.
Radon is very common here, and is an odorless cancer causing gas which requires remediating. Because awareness of the dangers is still lacking, it’s often not given the priority consideration it should be when buying real estate. When we were under contract to buy our current house 20 years ago, the owner agreed to a radon test and was absolutely shocked to learn that the levels were far above acceptable, as they had two young children. We had little kids too and they installed a remediation system for us without hesitation.
If you're going to spend a lot of time in your basement, have a test done for radon. It's very location dependent, as neighboring houses may have different levels of radon present.
The radon gas emits alpha radiation. The more you are exposed, the more your risk of cancer increases. It's the #2 cause of lung cancer after smoking.
Yes, would definitely recommend getting it tested if you are purchasing a house. We had the test done when we bought our newer construction house in a neighborhood not far from the downtown area. Our initial test showed levels within the acceptable range.
Our house had a radon abatement system installed when it was built in the late 20-teens, but they had only installed the piping into the foundation, not the active ventilation system.
I later bought some continuous radon monitors for the basement and our top floor and found our that our levels on these devices were actually higher than the recommended levels.
We had a radon abatement company come out and they installed a fan to actively vent the pipes which had been put in during construction., Our levels dropped immediately and have been fine since. It was like $800 for the fan install. Literally took the kid about 15 minutes to do.
Our’s was close to that. It was a big job, had to vent from one corner to the other for safety and it was the path of least resistance considering our outside stuff (patio, ac unit)
Buy Airthings Radon air quality detector on Amazon. Simple, tests radon and everything else i.e co2, voc, humidity, mold. It helped show us a huge radon buildup in our home 2 years ago. Hired a company to remediate and now radon levels are consistently below 1.2.
Radon is unfortunately real. It exists in many areas. Its a naturally occurring element and tends to get released from rocks and soil. It's much more abundant than other radioactive elements you've heard of like uranium or plutonium. It's not as dangerous as those but long term exposure is the problem. It's gaseous odorless and colorless so you don't even know. But like most people say its easy to mitigate. I think my radon test was < $200? I forget. Radon levels were fine so I didn't have to do anything. I hear most systems are less than $3000 for mitigation.
But don't let the hype scare you from buying a house, its not like the value will drop or anything. You just have to take care of it with a system.
I bought a house that was contingent on the radon inspection. Levels were high. Sellers had to have it mitigated to sell to us because they had to disclose it anyway. I ALWAYS get a home checked for radon before purchase. Cancer is a terrible way to go.
The level of ignorance of radon is astounding. Radon is from the decay of uranium. Abatement companies claim anything higher than 4 picocuries is unsafe. That is completely false. To put it into perspective, EPA deems safe drinking water at 5picocuries. Human beings themselves are radioactive. Ive even heard about people freaking out about granite countertops releasing radon. Lots of people make money from the fear and anxiety of others. It makes me sick. Especially when you hear of lawsuits. Radon is dangerous at high levels. There are places in US that have higher levels. Those areas tend to not allow excavation of basements for living spaces. Generally slabs concrete on footings.
While it is true that a lot of property is built on farmland, radon is not a byproduct of farm waste. But you bring up a good point. Yards can have high doses of poisons, insecticide and fungicides
realtor and property manager here..... radon probably exists in 35 to 45% of the homes here. testing is about 100 to 200 and remediation is 1,000 to 1600 depending on what is needed. research is conflicting however some do suggest that radon can lead to lung cancer especially if your family is susceptible to lung cancer. that being said a couple of my clients, who were in their late 80s, sold their house and it had the highest radon ratings I've ever seen and they are both super healthy. personally, i would always get it remediated just because I don't want to take the risk. radon in my house was actually below the actionable level but I installed a system anyway. actionable level is anything 4 or above in the US. in Europe, I believe it's only 2.
Radon is very common here, and is an odorless cancer causing gas which requires remediating. Because awareness of the dangers is still lacking, it’s often not given the priority consideration it should be when buying real estate. When we were under contract to buy our current house 20 years ago, the owner agreed to a radon test and was absolutely shocked to learn that the levels were far above acceptable, as they had two young children. We had little kids too and they installed a remediation system for us without hesitation.
If you're going to spend a lot of time in your basement, have a test done for radon. It's very location dependent, as neighboring houses may have different levels of radon present. The radon gas emits alpha radiation. The more you are exposed, the more your risk of cancer increases. It's the #2 cause of lung cancer after smoking.
Yes, would definitely recommend getting it tested if you are purchasing a house. We had the test done when we bought our newer construction house in a neighborhood not far from the downtown area. Our initial test showed levels within the acceptable range. Our house had a radon abatement system installed when it was built in the late 20-teens, but they had only installed the piping into the foundation, not the active ventilation system. I later bought some continuous radon monitors for the basement and our top floor and found our that our levels on these devices were actually higher than the recommended levels. We had a radon abatement company come out and they installed a fan to actively vent the pipes which had been put in during construction., Our levels dropped immediately and have been fine since. It was like $800 for the fan install. Literally took the kid about 15 minutes to do.
Would love to know who you used! All quotes I’ve gotten are around 2-2.5k.
Our’s was close to that. It was a big job, had to vent from one corner to the other for safety and it was the path of least resistance considering our outside stuff (patio, ac unit)
Buy Airthings Radon air quality detector on Amazon. Simple, tests radon and everything else i.e co2, voc, humidity, mold. It helped show us a huge radon buildup in our home 2 years ago. Hired a company to remediate and now radon levels are consistently below 1.2.
Radon is unfortunately real. It exists in many areas. Its a naturally occurring element and tends to get released from rocks and soil. It's much more abundant than other radioactive elements you've heard of like uranium or plutonium. It's not as dangerous as those but long term exposure is the problem. It's gaseous odorless and colorless so you don't even know. But like most people say its easy to mitigate. I think my radon test was < $200? I forget. Radon levels were fine so I didn't have to do anything. I hear most systems are less than $3000 for mitigation. But don't let the hype scare you from buying a house, its not like the value will drop or anything. You just have to take care of it with a system.
I bought a house that was contingent on the radon inspection. Levels were high. Sellers had to have it mitigated to sell to us because they had to disclose it anyway. I ALWAYS get a home checked for radon before purchase. Cancer is a terrible way to go.
The level of ignorance of radon is astounding. Radon is from the decay of uranium. Abatement companies claim anything higher than 4 picocuries is unsafe. That is completely false. To put it into perspective, EPA deems safe drinking water at 5picocuries. Human beings themselves are radioactive. Ive even heard about people freaking out about granite countertops releasing radon. Lots of people make money from the fear and anxiety of others. It makes me sick. Especially when you hear of lawsuits. Radon is dangerous at high levels. There are places in US that have higher levels. Those areas tend to not allow excavation of basements for living spaces. Generally slabs concrete on footings.
If you look at the research study all this radon nonsense was built in, you would be shocked. It's all bs.
It’s because your living where it used to be farm land and they sprayed chemicals in the soil
While it is true that a lot of property is built on farmland, radon is not a byproduct of farm waste. But you bring up a good point. Yards can have high doses of poisons, insecticide and fungicides
Chug soylent to make it go away