Radon … Why You Need To Know About It Before You Sell
January is “National Radon Month”, so why am I writing about radon in July when it’s 90+ degrees outside, and we’ve had a lot of rain the past few weeks (and more to come)? Well, I’ve been rather busy lately with several home sales and each one of them has had a radon check. So, I thought it would be a good topic to give you some information on.
Don’t wait until you are going to sell your home before you get a radon test; especially if you have never had your home tested for radon. Why? I recently had a client who has lived in their home for 30 years and never had a radon test done. Their radon test came back above the acceptable level! That’s not good. My client is now having a radon mitigation system installed so we can proceed with the closing of the sale of their home.
Don’t wait! Amazon sells First Alert radon test kits for $12.88 and you may also be able to find radon test kits at home supply stores like Home Depot and Lowes. A radon service company that has done a lot of testing and mitigation work that I have dealt with is Maryland Radon owned by Carl & Kim Pucci … www.marylandradon.com. They provide affordable radon mitigation systems.
Radon, if you aren’t aware, is a colorless and odorless gas that can be found all over the US that is the result of natural (radioactive) breakdown of uranium that is in soil, rock and water. Since it is a gas it gets into the air we breathe. It’s when radon finds its way into our homes, through cracks in foundations and walls that we can have severe issues because radon is also a very dangerous gas … it is estimated that radon leads to thousands of deaths each year because it is the second leading cause of lung cancer next to smoking, according to the US Surgeon General.
It can get into any home, office building, school; and there are fairly easy ways to take mitigate the presence of radon to an acceptable level.
First, get a radon test in your home if you’ve never had one. If you are buying a home (new or existing), have a radon test performed. If you are selling a home, be accepting if the potential buyer requests a radon test be performed. The testing is fairly inexpensive and there are licensed professionals who can do this for you.
Remediating radon problems is also not very costly. There are a number of radon reduction systems that can be put into existing (and new) construction that can reduce the level of radon in your home by up to 99%! There are also similar systems that can be used in schools and other commercial buildings.
Many builders are now incorporating radon-resistant construction techniques that can help prevent radon from entering a home/building when installed correctly.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a great booklet that you can download (it requires Adobe Acrobat Reader since the booklet is in “PDF” format) that has a lot of good information about radon. The link to the EPA’s radon web site is www.epa.gov/radon and you can find the booklet at the following link – https://www.epa.gov/radon/pubs/citguide.html .
The two pictures, below, show examples of the exterior and interior radon mitigation systems. My own home has an exterior mitigation system installed.
