Open the windows and doors to the basement when the buyer’s inspector puts the test it in.


Problem solved.

It's a big deal in Montana, but I am skeptical. After all, about halfway between my house and Jodi's house there is a very popular radon "health" mine. People come from all over the world to sit in the mine and soak up the radon.

All while nearby home inspectors and sanitation engineers make a killing on radon testing and mitigation.

(Hey Jodi should we rendezvous at the health mine this week?)

quote:

Originally posted by jon-nyc:
Open the windows and doors to the basement when the buyer’s inspector puts the test it in.


Problem solved.

Yeah, except I’m the buyer.

quote:

Originally posted by piqué:
It's a big deal in Montana, but I am skeptical. After all, about halfway between my house and Jodi's house there is a very popular radon "health" mine. People come from all over the world to sit in the mine and soak up the radon.

All while nearby home inspectors and sanitation engineers make a killing on radon testing and mitigation.

(Hey Jodi should we rendezvous at the health mine this week?)

It is not a joke. According to the EPA, breathing radon over time is the second leading cause of lung cancer (after smoking). Those people who run that mine in Basin are fvcking crazy. But we do need to rendezvous at some point - maybe at that hot springs up the road that looks like the set of a horror movie.

quote:

Originally posted by jon-nyc:
Open the windows and doors to the basement when the buyer’s inspector puts the test it in.

And that right there is why I think I will re-test our house. (Our seller was kind of a jerk, so...)

BTW, you can get DIY kits from Amazon (IIRC they are less than $30 and include postage for when you send it in, and the cost of the assessment). So this way you're not asking someone with a potential conflict of interest to do the testing for you.

The DIY versions I think come in long and short term tests.

The ones done by a company are more accurate and can detect if the homeowner has opened doors, windows, or chimney dampers for long periods of time during the testing period.

SK, not sure what kind of test was done before you bought. You could do one of the long term DIY tests and check the levels that way, then if you're still worried you could get the more accurate test done by a professional that uses electronic equipment that's more sensitive.

Some info from the State of Illinois about DIY tests:

https://www2.illinois.gov/iema...ntLabsPriceList.aspx

quote:

SK, not sure what kind of test was done before you bought.

Ours was a three-day test performed in Oct 2018 by the inspection company. I just re-checked our radon report from our home inspection, the levels are well below any concern. I also called the inspection company just to double check and she said they did do the detection in the basement, which is the location I'm concerned about. She also said if I wanted them to come out and re-inspect it would cost $200.

Short-term kits are like $15-30, and then there are a few other options, one of which was $175, the other was more like a smoke detector-style?

Anyway, since we have already had a test done down there in the fall, maybe we should do one in say Feb and again in the summer? Not sure what makes the most sense, but I am relieved to know that the original report was based on basement data, at least.

Radon is a huge issue around here - it was actually "discovered" as a problem in people's homes right here where I live -- a guy who worked at the local nuclear plant was setting off the radiation alarms on his way IN to work. The inspectors at the plant went to his house with geiger counters to figure out what was going on and found his house had extremely high levels of radon. Thus the whole issue was discovered..

Anyhow, when we bought our house, we did not have any inspections because it was the height of a hot housing market. We later did our own and it came up positive. Put in the mitigation system ($900ish) and still came up positive. They modified the mitigation system - still came up positive. Added more piping to it - finally within levels but still not gone. So at this point, we bought our own detector - it plugs into the wall and constantly monitors the levels - along the lines of this one: https://www.amazon.com/Safety-...id=1571677639&sr=8-5

We moved it around the house every few weeks and were ok until winter when the heat came on - wham, high levels again. Turned out that the oil furnace was in the basement and the furnace was drawing radon-contaminated air in from under the basement floor to fuel the combustion. At this point, we put a fresh air feed directly from outside into the furnace to provide air for combustion plus we had a whole second radon system installed side by side with the first one - it was weird but because our basement floor was 2 levels - there's a main basement and then a half height crawl space - the crawl space needed a second system because one system couldn't cover both. That finally seemed to solve the problem. We've had nothing but safe levels for 15 years but we still leave the radon detector plugged into the basement all the time.

So yeah, I could tell you more than you ever wanted to know about radon.

And interesting side note - the guy who installed our radon mitigation systems is the very same guy who tested positive on his way into work at the nuke plant - it spawned a whole new career for him!

Oh and takeaway from my saga

1) Just because you pass a radon test upstairs doesn't mean the basement is safe

2) Just because you pass a test in spring or summer doesn't mean you will pass in winter when the heat is running.

3) Jon is right - it is very easy for a homeowner to fudge a radon test to get a passing result.

Personally, if you are at all worried (thinking about Mr. SK in the basement here) I'd invest in one of the plug in detectors so you can monitor it all the time.

Not sure if this is still true, but when we were going through all this, radon was the leading cause of lung cancer behind smoking. So it is not something to mess with.