Radon testing determines whether your house has high levels of radon, which is a lung-cancer-causing radioactive gas. Radon can enter your home and get trapped. It moves from the soil into your house. While it can seep directly through pores in concrete, it can also enter through wall and floor gaps. Any home, regardless of its age and state, can have elevated radon levels. It depends on how your home interacts with the surrounding soil. Radon detection in your home is performed through testing.
Testing Your Home for Radon
The radon test should be performed in the lowest livable areas of your house that are regularly used 8-10 hours per week. When it comes to radon testing, you can have either short-term, long-term tests, or continuous tests. A short-term radon test can let you see if further testing is warranted. A long-term test measures radon level for 90 days to one year. Lastly, a continuous radon test involves the use of electric monitors that you can easily plug into a standard outlet to give you a running average every day.
How to Lower Your Home’s Radon Levels
You can try some easy repairs to minimize radon levels in your home. These may work if your level is just slightly elevated. Also, they make other radon reduction methods more effective and cost-efficient. You can start by caulking openings such as foundation cracks, construction joints with polyurethane caulk. Consider installing an airtight cover on your sump pump. Also, cover the soil in crawl spaces with polyurethane plastic sheeting tightly attached to the walls. After tackling these, try retesting your radon level. If the level is still high, install a radon mitigation on your own or hire a professional.
How a Radon Mitigation System Works
A radon mitigation system ventilates your house by using PVC piping to draw radon gas up from the soil and out of your house. A vent pipe placed in the sump pit is the most effective system. The installer will place a special in-line radon fan in the attic or outside the house to draw air through the vent and radon from under the basement floor. Often, professionals charge between a few hundred and a few thousand dollars to install the system.
If you have a high radon level in your house, you must act fast without overreacting. Exposure to high levels of radon can compromise the health of all people in your house.
