Radon Testing And Proofing While Buying Home

This is just my personal opinion based on what we have decided for us.

We live in Ohio and our state in general is little bit higher in radon level. Moreover if the home is going to have a finished basement or if you will be spending more time in basement, then I would suggest to do a radon testing. We have decided to do a full home inspection when we buy our home including radon testing and we have decided to go with the certified home inspection company ($$$ higher) in our area. And it would cost somewhere between 500 to 1000 depending on the home size. It is a lot of money but personally we know nothing much about inspecting home (like thermite, mold testing etc) to do it by ourselves. And since we are first time home buyers, we have decided to be on a safer side and hire professional services See, if you have problems later it would cost so much higher. One more pointer to add to your decision making is the age of the house. If it is < 10 years, usually (not always though) there wont be any major problems. We have decided to do full inspection from a certified home inspection company anyway.

 

From our experience, I don't think this is the case. We have seen many home not owned by Indians and were not radon inspected.

I don't think so @sanjuruby3
Not all people care for radon level. And since we have a small child, we are extra cautious

 

Just wanted to clarify what I wrote.

Radon levels has nothing to do with age of house. I was talking about full home inspection in general.

 

@sanjuruby3 you are right.. this does not make sense to me.. they have a mitigation system installed and that means they must have tested for radon levels at some point.. when they said radon level not tested, perhaps they meant it is recently not tested..

It appears that you might have to have the mitigation system constantly running.. I think as long as it is maintained at 4 it should be okay.. moreover you are not going to spend your entire day in basement right?? US in general has elevated levels of radon.. so we never know how much we are exposed to in general

You can get this instrument to check radon levels from home depot and it is very inexpensive.. so if you decide to move in to this house, I suggest you check the levels once in a few months despite having the mitigation system.. I am not sure if the mitigation system itself can display the current radon level

It seems to me that more than the radon level these other things you mentioned should be the deciding factor.. You can have a good mitigation system installed and rest assured.. Poor school district is a deal breaker for us.. We are fully set against sending our child to poor school district.. if you are planning for private schools, then it is not a problem I think.. carefully evaluate the other features in this home and then decide.. Radon does not seem to be a big issue for me..