Testing Your Home For Radon Can Be Easy
Posted on: 22 August 2023
Radon is a colorless, odorless gas. It is heavier than air, so when it gets in your house, it stays at the lowest level. For example, if you have a cellar or basement, the radon will remain on that level. However, if your house is all on one level, the radon will be on your living level. Because radon is naturally occurring, it can be challenging to know if you are in a radon-heavy area. The best way to see if you have a radon problem is through testing. Testing is relatively easy, and once you have the results, you can work on mitigation or prevention.
Short-Term Testing
There are two kinds of testing. One is short-term testing, the other is long-term testing. They both work similarly, but one is designed to test for a few days, while the other tests over a few months. With a short-term test, you open it up and place it on the lowest level of your home. The test will absorb the air in your home and measure any radon that appears on it. You send the test back to a lab, and they will get the results for you and let you know if you do or do not have radon. This kind of testing can be a good first start because it will let you know if you do or don't have radon.
Long-Term Testing
Long-term testing is designed to be used over a period of months. The best reason to use this testing is that it will give you a good baseline of how much radon may appear in your house over the long term. You may want to use this kind of testing after you put in mitigation or prevention measures to see how well they are working. The test should let you see the levels as they go up or down the entire time you're testing. You would do this test in basically the same way you do a short-term test, by opening it up, putting it on the lowest level of your home, and then sending the used test off to a lab so that they can get the results for you.
If you are worried about radon, you can do testing yourself. You can also hire a company that works with mitigation and prevention of radon to do the testing for you so that you don't have to worry about making sure you are doing it correctly. For more information on radon tests, contact a company near you.
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