I call my hat, Radon

I finished school as a home inspector in May of 2003. There were so many things they teach you in such a short amount of time. Water heater good, roof leak bad, me make fire (but never on an inspection :). Now, I am unique as a home inspector for many reasons, but one is that I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Microbiology from the University of Kansas (go Jayhawks). I also minored in Chemistry, which gives me a deeper understanding of molds and radon than most of my competition. We learned about radon inspections in school, but I thought to myself, “Radon isn’t a problem in Southwest Missouri - is it?”.

So, off I went to build my business as an inspector. My company grew over the years and my experience with it. Well, that is until I fell into the trap of thinking I knew it all. I performed relatively few radon inspections, and I thought that customers who ordered them were being overly cautious. Hey - to each their own! After three years in business, I began looking at radon with renewed interest. It was attractive to me because I didn’t have to spend large amounts of time taking the samples, and I could add it to any home inspection. Now, I knew a bit about radiochemistry (the chemistry behind radioactive materials), but I didn’t know much about radon itself. As I needed continuing education credits for my national association memberships, I decided to go to radon training and learn a few new things.

I came back with a well fed head and new take on radon. I tried talking to people about adding radon inspections, but had little luck. I guess people thought, as I had, that radon is only a problem on the coasts, or just “somewhere else”. Enter Gary! In November of 2006, my father-in-law was diagnosed with lung cancer. My wife was devastated; I hope I never find out first hand how Gary and his wife felt. They questioned the reasons why this could have happened, afterall Gary has never smoked. Lung cancer is a thing smokers get - right? I decided to test Gary’s house for the presence of radon, so I took a trip down and set the detectors in place. A few days later, we got a report that said his house was over double the high limit of radon. Quite frankly - I was ashamed. Have you ever heard the old saying, “The cobbler’s kids have the worst shoes”? Why the heck did a man’s son-in-law (who is an inspector) never think to test his house for the leading cause of lung cancer in non-smokers? I’ll post a follow-up when I figure out the answer to that one.

Radon Facts

• Radon is naturally occurring

  • It is a radioactive gas that originates from the break down of uranium in the earth. As uranium breaks down into stable lead, it becomes many different elements. Somewhere in that decay chain it will become radon, and then will percolate through the soil until it reaches the surface and disperses into the atmosphere.

• Radon is measured in units called pico Curries per liter of air (pCi/L).
  • The atmospheric level is 0.3 pCi/L which is a safe level.
  • The US EPA has established ranges of radon levels as it applies to health.
    1. 0 to 2 pCi/L - is a LOWhealth risk
    2. 2 to 4 pCi/L - is a MODERATE health risk
    3. 4 to ^ pCi/L - is a HIGH health risk

At this point you may be wondering “why this is a problem in my home?” When radon percolates from the earth it has to go somewhere. Gases (like liquids) always follow the path of least resistance, so they will exit the earth in any place that is easy. Let’s say that you have a basement home that has a sump pump pit in the slab floor. This is a great place for radon gas to exit, as it has relatively no resistance (compared to the concrete foundation). Now that radon is in your home, where does it go? Good question, and the answer is - nowhere. Basement and slab homes have no exterior ventilation., which means that they do not have ways to ventilate internal house air to the outside. This condition allows radon to build-up in concentration (as more comes in, but none leaves) until the level can become a dangerous health threat.

I get a lot of customer questions about the way radon enters a home, so I thought I would answer the most common ones here.

I don’t have a sump pump pit in my basement, so do I really need to worry about radon in my house?

• Radon can enter a basement home through hairline cracks in the slab floor, around plumbing drain pipes that go through the slab floor, from the gap between the slab and the foundation wall, and even through the foundation in some cases. Just because you don’t have a sump pump pit does not mean that you don’t have high radon. I would always test a house with a basement of slab foundation for the presence of radon.

“I have a walk-out basement so I shouldn’t need to worry about radon - right?”

• Walk-out basements are no different than any basement home when it comes to the possibility of having high radon levels. Many people assume that since they have windows and a large sliding glass door, that they have ventilation. Remember that anything that constitutes a ventilation system for radon must be ventilating 24 hours a day, everyday of the year. The only way a walk-out basement would vent radon is if you left the windows and exterior doors open all the time, which is not practical.

“What do I do if I have radon in my house?”

• This is the easiest to answer, because unlike many problems in a home that can affect your health - radon is completely fixable. Let me say that again. Any structure with high levels of radon can be fixed. I will touch on this a little later.

Now that we know that radon is a health threat and it can build-up in concentration in homes, what can you do about it? This is an issue I have been thinking about constantly since November 2006. I watched my father-in-law consult with doctors, absorb the grave news, lay under a knife, and recover only long enough to not die under the shock of chemo. He lost his lung to surgery, his hearing to chemo, and his identity when his hair fell out. He wore a hat named Radon. When I set out to be an inspector, I wanted to make a living for my family. I wanted to help people make a good decision when buying a home so they would not be hit with unexpected problems. I never thought that I would have the power to keep people from wearing the hat. I have multiplied my radon inspection numbers many times since then and not because it was a good business decision. I have seen what it does to people first hand and I just don’t see how anyone could think that the $125 for the inspection is worth more than the cancer that can come from not knowing.

So, what can you do about it? The first thing is to have a radon test performed on your home so you know if you have high levels. It is a complete necessity to inspect any home for the presence of radon, in my opinion. If you have high levels of radon, remember that it is a fixable problem. Let’s look at one of the solutions available for radon mitigation.

Sub-slab depressurization

Actually, there are other methods of mitigation, but none as effective as this one in my opinion. Sub-slab depressurization (SSD) is where a mitigation professional will core a hole (usually 3.5 - 4 inches in diameter) into the basement concrete slab. This will penetrate the slab so you can see the gravel underneath. A white PVC pipe (usually 3 inches in diameter) will be lowered in the hole and sealed in place. The pipe is then routed either outside the house and up past the roof line, or it will be run inside the house somewhere and penetrate through the roof. Somewhere in this pipe (usually in the attic or mounted to the exterior wall of the house) is a fan that runs 24 hours a day, forever. The theory goes like this, the fan sucks (yes - it sucks  and creates a vacuum under the concrete slab. If radon percolates up under the house, it will travel through the gravel layer and exit through the pipe. This provides a very low resistance path for radon to travel, essentially bypassing the house entirely. This method is very effective at reducing radon to safe levels.

• Costs range a bit, but in Springfield, MO (where I am) a radon mitigation system runs between $1,000 and $2,000.

  • That may seem like a lot of money, but it is all in context. Gary had to pay a $2,000 deductible to his insurance company for 2006 and another $2000 in 2007 for his chemo treatments and surgeries, so I guess it’s all relative.

• In real estate transactions this cost can be negotiated in the transaction.

  • This is a very common thing for my company to see, but I recommend that everyone test their home whether they are buying, selling, or have been living there for years.

I hope this article gives you reasons why you should test for the presence of radon in your home. Although at one time I believed it to be a only good business opportunity, now I am far more interested in helping people learn about what radon is and what how it affects people. Please, get any qualified professional to come to your home and test. I have a lot of information available to anyone who is interested in finding out more about radon. Please feel free to email me your questions, concerns, or stories of your own. I would love to hear them.

Sean O’Rear
a CLOSER look, inc
certified home inspectors