When it comes to buying a home, there’s a lot of due diligence that must be done. The last thing you want is to buy a house that requires you to invest even more money into repairs or improvements – especially if you weren’t counting on having to do that. One thing you should be sure to do before you buy a house is to have it tested for radon. The following are six things you should know about radon:
- Radon is a radioactive gas that’s naturally occurring. It comes from the decay of uranium found in basically every type of soil.
- Because it’s found in soil, radon can easily enter the home through cracks and holes in the foundation.
- Radon is invisible and odorless, which means testing is needed to identify whether a home has high levels of radon.
- Radon is one of the leading causes of lung cancer.
- According to the EPA, there are more than 21,000 radon-related deaths in the U.S. alone every year.
- Despite being dangerous, radon is so common that every house likely has it. Fortunately, low levels of radon are not dangerous. According to the EPA, 4.0 pCi/L is an acceptable level of radon.
Radon testing will identify whether there are dangerous levels of radon in the home. If this is the case, then radon mitigation will need to be performed to lower those levels to an acceptable number. The last thing you’ll want to do is move into a home that could be potentially dangerous, after all.
Before buying a home, ask if a radon test was recently performed. Radon tests should be done when buying a home as well as after any renovations were done to the home. For more advice about buying a home, contact us at Randy Lindsay today.
