Have You Ever Tested for Radon?

I have not but a friend did. She got a low positive and did the radon fix thing. She spent about $2000 having the ventilation correted in her basement. She was told that since her numbers were acually pretty low and she did not use the basement for recreation or sleeping, she could leave it but did it anyway.

We lived in a home that was built in 2002 so fairly new. We had it tested for Radon since it's common in MN and it came back with slightly high numbers, enough to alarm us. We had a company come out that dug a hole and fed some tube to the outside where the gas could escape. Thankfully we only lived in that house for a year before my husbands job transferred us. Even though we took care of the radon issue, it still would eat at me knowing that a fairly new home could have radon issue (apparently it had to do with the soil). GL!!

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In NYS it's a law that all new construction must be tested for radon by the builder. When we built our house it tested VERY high. The builder intalled a ventilation system that brought the numbers down to nothing.

It's been my understanding that radon is much more common in newer houses and new construction, as when you upset the earth, it will emit gases.

After the system was installed we continued to self test with a kit like you describe. The results were fine.

:)

We had someone do the test on a house we were selling. Radon is fairly common in PA, and we were told better to know so you can mitigate it.
(Ours was negative/low btw) We looked at a house with a mitigated radon problem and it just gave me the heebie jeebies.

We had it done on our new construction and the levels came back high. The builder agreed to pay half for the mitigation system. I would definitely do it!

I live in MA and have bought 3 houses in the last 10 years and do not recall radon testing being mandatory at all. Rather it is optional. We did it with our most recent purchase about 2 years ago because the basement is finished so we might spend some time down there. We did not do it with our other two purchases, so unless I am totally mis-recollecting things I do not believe it is mandatory in MA as the previous post said. That being said, our test came back totally normal.

Where we used to live in PA at last 90% of the houses had migration systems in place. EPA recommends testing so when we moved to Ohio we had the house tested. The realtor and home inspector both seemed a little surprised we wanted it tested since it is not as big of a problem in this area. The house did fail, but not by much and mainly because the level spiked a few times, the level is always changing and can be dependent on weather. There is a also a sump pump that was not covered at the time, so that could be the real reason for the higher level in the basement. It was not over the level by much, but we had the previous owner install a mitigation system. It seems to mainly be a problem if it is really elevated and you are exposed for long term.

I did a kit from Home Depot last year before I had my basement renovated. It came back negative. However, I will probably re-do again this year just to be certain, since we are using the basement so much more now.

A coworker of my husbands tested a couple years ago so my husband decided to test, too. The other guys report came back with a level of 4 and he was a bit worried, wanted to fix the situation. I guess 0-4 normal, then the categories go 4-8, 8-12, 12-16 and 16-20. The chart on our package didn't talk about any numbers higher than that. Our house was a new construction 13 yrs ago. Our level came back a 24!!!!!! My hubby nearly fell over. He would pace the floor thinking about what to do. First thought was to move...but we'd have to fix it either way. We got a guy to come to the quote and fix it....$1200. Every day until it got fixed though we would open ALL windows after work to air out the house (new England...winter time...it was freezing out!!).

We bought the house in 98. In 2002 I developed allergies and I would wheeze after climbing stairs. In 2004 we had a daughter and for the past 4 winters she has gotten pneumonia. I know the only known side effect from LONG term radon exposure is lung cancer and nothing is EVER written about short term effects (prob because there aren't any) but I will always wonder if my sudden-ish wheezing and my daughter being prone to pneumonia are from the radon. Probably not, but I'll always wonder.
Good luck. Hope your numbers come back normal!

When we sold our house we had to do it but we had to have a professional do it, it came back high so they had to do a remediation. (They installed a fan under the slab & out thru the side of the house about the roofline - it cost something like $1200). My husband spoke w/a friend of his who was a realtor & she was really puzzled that our house failed because we didn't have a basement and the home was on a slab.

We did a kit last year, and sent it off to be tested. Our house was built in 1915, and we have a crawl space, but we wanted to be sure. Ours came back in the normal range.

If the results are high, there will be instructions about contacting the EPA. It is so easy to do and quick to get results.

We had the radon test for the house we live in now before we bought it. It needed a filter. No biggie. We did learn that the numbers that they recommend today are ridiculously low. The danger from radon is not that great. We only had it tested in the basement though. I wouldn't think it would be needed outside of a basement.

We did a radon test, years ago, and it came out negative. As strange as it may sound, it was because our beloved dog died of lung cancer. My husband had quit smoking long before, and Buster had never smoked a cigarette in his life. So we thought we'd better find out if something was in our house that shouldn't be. That mystery has never been solved.

If your house tests positive for radon, that's a good thing for you to know. It won't go away just because you aren't aware of it. Go online to the site of the company that made the kit, and see if there's an FAQ page for what to do if you have a positive finding.

Laur,

In MA, it is required that every house is tested during the purchase and sales process. The buyers need to be aware of the levels in the home. We bought our house 8 years ago. It tested slightly higher than the normal range. We didn't do anything about it until we had children. Last year we had our basement finished with a play area for the kids and had the levels tested again through a company that installs the systems. It again tested slightly higher than average so we went ahead and had the system installed. We had the piping go inside the house to avoid having an ugly pipe go along the outside of the house. I believe about $1,500 total and worth every penny. They installed it in one day too and you can't even hear it. Best of luck.

I don't know who told you not to worry because your house is new - Radon levels seem to run higher in new construction because newer homes are more air-tight, so radon gets trapped in longer.

But unless you spend a lot of time in your basement, you are probably OK.

In MA radon testing is not mandatory. However, buyers frequently have the house tested as part of the inspection process, and if the results fall above 4 pCi/L then they might request remediation. The seller will usually comply. The remediation is not much more than a pipe to let the air circulate, and it costs around $1500-$2000, as others have said.

Unfortunately the test kits you buy (or that the inspector uses) will only tell you the level the days you test. And since radon is a naturally occurring gas produced by the breakdown of uranium in soil, rock, and water, the level isn't constant. It changes from season to season and even from week to week, depending on the weather.

The better solution is to get a radon reading device that tracks your average radon over time. It's much more reliable than the short term test that only reads for a couple of days.

The best site I've found for info on Radon is the EPA's site:
http://www.epa.gov/radon/pubs/consguid.html

I'm a Realtor so I try to keep up on these issues.

Hope this helps!