Your house looks beautiful. It has updated flooring and countertops. You even made sure that you installed the trendy subway tiles that everyone is in love with these days.
It does not, however, pass the required radon testing.
Your house is in a great location. Close to the top elementary, middle, and high schools in the area, your house is located in a place where the homes usually sell within a few hours of going on the market.
It does not, however, pass the required radon testing.
Your house is priced right. Because you are anxious to get your property sold and move so you and the kids can meet up with your husband who moved three weeks ago for his new job, you made sure that you priced your house to sell. In fact, the neighbors are a little nervous that you may have actually priced yours a little lower than you should have.
It does not, however, pass the required radon testing.
Does Your House Have to Pass Required Radon Testing Before It Can Sell?
Even if your home is perfectly designed and updated, even if it is in the best neighborhood and is priced right, if you live in an area where radon testing is required you have to pass the test. Radon is identified on the periodic table of elements as number 86 and is known by its abbreviation Rn. If, however, you are a potential home seller with a radon problem, none of those scientific identifications matter. In fact, if you are in a hurry to sell your house, it is likely that nothing but sump pump installation and radon abatement and mitigation services are on your mind.
Known as one of the noble gasses, radon is odorless, colorless, and tasteless. The problem is, however, it is also radioactive, and, if it is present in levels that are higher than the recommended levels, it can even be deadly. Strangely enough, it is not until a house is sold that the government even requires that it be tested for this dangerous noble gas.
Recently, though, a growing number of home owners are looking at the radon levels in their own home and making sure that they are safe. Instead of waiting until it is time to sell and then making the house safe for the next owner, the most careful home buyers are making sure that the radon levels in their house are safe. Safe for them, not a future buyer. Safe today, not in the past or the future when a real estate transaction takes place.
If residential radon testing services find that your home has dangerous levels of this gas, sump pump installation contractors can sometimes fix the problem. Additionally, however, radon mitigation and abatement companies can also be of help.
Consider some of these statistics about this dangerous situation that some home owners are not even aware of:
- Lung cancer risks increase by 16% per 100 Bq/m increase in long time average radon concentration.
- 1 of every 15 homes in the U.S. is estimated to have radon levels that are at or above the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) action level.
- The EPA and the Surgeon General’s Office estimated that as many as 20,000 lung cancer deaths are caused each year by radon.
- 33% of homes checked in seven states and on three Indian lands had screening levels over 4 pCi/L, the EPA’s recommended action level for radon exposure, according to the EPA.
- Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in America today, according to Surgeon General warnings.
- A family whose home has radon levels of 4 pCi/l is exposed to approximately 35 times as much radiation as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would allow if that same family was standing next to the fence of a known radioactive waste site.
- Depending on the device, short-term detectors measure radon levels for 2 days to 90 days.
- Depending on the device, long-term tests determine the average concentration for more than 90 days.
- By lowering radon levels in homes exceeding the EPA?s action level, scientists estimate that lung cancer deaths could be reduced by 2% to 4%, which would be approximately 5,000 deaths.
Instead of wondering if radon levels in your home are safe for the next buyer, shouldn’t you be worried about the health of your own family today?