Anyone get their home tested for radon?

[Hazelnut]

Ok maybe this isn't about natural home care, but it's about a nontoxic home.
I've been reading Your Organic Pregnancy test which is making me a little paranoid and thinking I should get our house tested for lead, radon, and the water tested.

Radon tests are so expensive though- Has anyone done this? Which test did you use?

[Meiri]

Before we bought this house, we certainly did. It came out okay, though I have my doubts that they left the basement closed up while the test thing was open and collecting. We also don't do much down there either though.

Unless your house is of a certain age, built before some time in the early 70s, lead is not likely to be an issue. A little research online at the CDC should set your mind at ease or alert you to a need to check.

[quirkylayne]

I know there is a map (maybe you can get it from a realtor?) that shows the general radon levels for areas. We didn't test because the map said we it was very unlikely that homes in our area had radon.

[Hazelnut]

there was a map on the epa website, but it made it look like pretty much everywhere (or nearly so) was bad. It was a nation-wide map too, so not very specific. I guess I'll just have to suck it up and pay the 80 or whatever, but there are several out there and I'm not sure if they're all as reliable.

[mavery]

We have had our home tested and done radon remediation. The test is really not that expensive. I would suggest first buying the short term test (like 3 days, I think) to give you an idea of whether there might be a problem. They are about $10 to get yourself and you send them off to a lab and they report the results online.

If the result is over 3 (picocuries per liter) or so, you should probably do a longer-term test because radon levels can fluctuate significantly depending on weather, seasons etc. Those tests take between 1 month and a year (the longer you leave it, the more accurate) and cost about $25 or so, I think.

For example, when we bought our house the short term test came up at 4.2, just over the EPA recommended limit. We did a long-term test for 3 months and the level was over 9! So we did the remediation, which cost $1000, and now we have a little fan that sucks the radon from the ground beneath our house and vents it above the roofline.

You might get an idea of whether radon is a problem in your neighbourhood by asking neighbours who've bought their homes in the last few years whether they had a test. The contractor we hired for remediation had done about 5 houses on our street. We knew that our town has high radon levels, so we were looking out for it all along.

[Hazelnut]

wow, where did you get your test? Just home depot, or online? I was checking out links provided in a recently published book, and they were all like $80+.

[mavery]

I forget where we got ours, but if you google for "radon tests" you'll get a bunch of sites selling EPA-standard kits. For example:

http://www.radonzone.com/short-term-radon-test-kit.html ($15 short term kit)

http://www.radon.com ($10 short-term kit)

http://testproducts.com/safecart/ind...FRUhNAod2yT8oQ ($10 short term kit)

[Hazelnut]

Wow I was clueless. Thanks!

[maryteresa]

We did one in our old house and it was HIGH!!!!! Close to 100. I don't remember the type of test, but we ended up having the ventilation system put in.

[treefolk]

we had it done in addition to our home inspection (paid extra) and it came back 80! We live on a very rocky ridge, we evn have a huge boulder coming out of the crawl space of our basement. Radon tends to be higher in rocky areas. Also the previous owners had seeled the small natural vents in the basement due to an animal problem, so that could have contributed to such a high level. The sellers were required to put the mitigation system in, but I still feel uneasy about it. The vent tube goes above the roof line, but close to dd bedroom window. I never open that window just to be cautious!