There are a lot of things you need to worry about when it comes to the health and safety of the people who live in your home. Radon gas can cause people a lot of problems and is dangerous because you cannot smell it, see it or taste it. This can be a problem because radon gas exists naturally all over the world. It is also the second leading cause of lung cancer, right after smoking. More than 20,000 new cases of lung cancer and diagnosed every year as a result of radon gas exposure, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) and the Surgeon General’s Office. Before you moved into your home, the chances are good that you had a radon testing company check the place out. That does not mean your work on this is done. You still need to have testing for radon done in your home. Here are some reasons you still need this to be done:
- Your radon readings change over time. Any good radon testing company will tell you that the levels of radon in a home change. This is because of where and how radon is made. Radon is created when other materials disintegrate. These substances occur naturally in rocks and soil all over the planet. One thing you may want to do after you move into your home is look into a longer-term radon test. You can have radon testing companies do tests that look at your radon gas reading for a time period that lasts between six and 12 months. These can give you much more accurate results.
- Your radon results may not be right. The radon testing that is done as part of a sale may not be accurate. There are a number of reasons that the radon testing protocols that are followed during the sale of a property may not be the most reliable. Sometimes the correct protocols are not followed. Even if the process of looking at the radon level in your home included a radon mitigation and abatement service, you should still bring in your own residential radon testing service to get your a good test done after you move in. At the very least, this will give you more peace of mind.
- The weather can change your reading results. You need to have your testing done in warm and cold weather. If you live in a part of the country that experienced real seasons, the weather when the radon testing company was at the house can make a big difference in the results they find. There can be large differences in your radon level in the peak of the summer vs. what you will find in the middle of the winter. Be on the safe side and have your home tested in both the winter and the summer and you will get the best results..
- If you do any remodeling or renovation, you need to have your home retested. Any work you do on your home that moves around the soil under your home can change the amount of radon that gets into your home. As a consequence, when you do this kind of work, you need to call your local radon testing company and have the testing redone. If you have new insulation put in, that can keep more of the radon gas, that is getting into your home, from escaping so you need to test when this work is complete.
- Think about how drafty the space is. If you have the radon testing company come through and test your home when the space was drafty, you may have to restest. This is especially true if the testing equipment was placed in a basement that is drafty. If one part of the home is more drafty and another part has better insulation, the tighter areas may have more radon. It is natural and normal to put radon testers in the basement because that is where most radon gas that finds its way into a home comes from. The problem is that it drifts upwards and can become trapped in more well insulated areas of you home.
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