You can’t smell it or taste it, but radon, a naturally occurring gas, can seep into basements and other areas of the home, eventually accumulating to dangerous levels. Should you consider radon testing for your new Atlanta home? Certainly, says Brian Lunsford of Inspect-All Services. Lunsford, whose company provides Atlanta home inspections, says that the state of Georgia has recently recommended that anyone buying a home within the state have a radon test completed. If you’re in the process of buying a home here, he says, it’s important to ensure that the home inspector you choose is properly qualified and equipped to test the home for the presence of this dangerous gas.
What Is It?
An odorless, colorless gas, radon is the leading cause of lung cancer in non-smokers, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says that it is responsible for up to 14 percent of lung cancer deaths each year. Radon occurs in nature and seeps into homes from underground. It can build up to dangerous levels without notice. Unfortunately, according to Lunsford, Georgia leads the Southeast in unsafe levels of radon.
“It’s not how the house is built or when it was built,” he explains, “that determines whether a home has a radon problem. It’s a matter of where the house is sitting; it’s in the ground underneath the house.” For this reason, new properties, he says, are at just as much risk of developing radon problems as older properties.
Resolving a radon problem, if one exists, can be quite expensive, says Lunsford. You can expect to spend thousands of dollars to deal with this type of issue, so it’s definitely something you want to know about going into a real estate transaction.
How Is Testing Done?
Testing for radon, Lunsford says, requires several days. Inspect-All, he says, offers a professional 48-hour radon test using state-of-the-art equipment. Once the test has been completed and the results are in, you will receive a detailed report outlining the property’s radon levels. Using the EPA’s recommended safety standards for this dangerous gas, this report will alert you as to whether or not the home is safe for occupancy.
Why Choose Inspect-All?
A full-service home inspection company, Inspect-All makes it simple and affordable to test for radon as part of a routine home inspection. “When you choose Inspect-All for your home inspection,” Lunsford says, “we offer a reduced rate on a radon test.”
Because the test requires two visits to the property-one to place the equipment and start the test and another the pick the equipment up and read the results-it’s much more efficient for both the home buyer and the inspector to begin the test on the same day that the standard home inspection is completed.
“Testing your home for radon is too easy and too affordable for you to bypass this critical part of a home inspection,” says Lunsford. “Your family’s health is too important to let this potentially life-saving technology pass you by.”