02/24/2020
UNDERSTANDING RADON and why a LONG TERM test is best.
Why a Short-Term Radon Test is Not Enough
Radon enters your home by seeping up out of the ground. This means radon levels in your house tend to be highest where your house meets the ground, such as in a basement. Because it’s a gas, though, it is constantly in motion, throughout the year pooling in different spots in your house and in greater or smaller quantities.
Think of radon is like a river: it flows, and for months it can be at one “level” and then drastically rise or fall. A short-term radon test in a home inspection is like measuring the depth of a river and, finding it 5 feet deep, approving a permit for a 6 foot tall dock. Well, in the summer, fall, and winter that river’s height is likely to remain below 5 feet. But in the spring, when the winter snows melt, that river will rise. And a 6 foot tall dock is no longer a smart idea.
Except radon is different than a river and a dock, because if radon levels are too high, it’s not just a dock underwater. Instead, high radon levels mean that long-term health is at risk. This is why you need to monitor radon actively over time. Long-term monitoring tells you how the gas levels changes over time and also helps you understand where it pools in your house.
What’s more radon levels are different in different rooms. As we said, radon enters your home through the ground so you tend to find it in greater quantities at lower points in your house. This could be a basement that no one ever goes into, or it could be a whole set of rooms that are slept in nightly. But it moves throughout a home with airflow, so it could just as realistically be in other more lived-in spaces. Either way, you should know where in your home radon levels are highest so you can take measures to protect yourself and your family.
This is why testing radon over time is necessary. It comes in uninvited and undetected. Unless, of course, you are monitoring its presence.
Mt personal experience was after I conducted a long-term test of my own home, after a 6 month test the results were: lowest level (finished basement) 25.6 pCi/L and on the third floor (bedrooms) a radon level of 25.3 pCi/l. The interesting note was that the results after a short-term initial test lower level only, the result was only 4.1pCi/L. After mitigation the levels are now 0.5pCi/L.
For an informed Radon Test contact David 806.665.5346 www.m3inspect.com
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