Tips for an Accurate Home Radon Test

Place at least one radon test in the largest central living area on the lowest lived-in level of your home. If your basement is occupied a detector should be placed there also. One detector can measure an area of about 2,000 square feet on a single floor level. You may want to use multiple detectors to measure different rooms and/or the different floors in your home.

• Installing the detector begins with removing it from the airtight packaging. The test becomes active immediately upon opening, so do not open the plastic pouch until you are ready to begin your test. When the test period is complete, pack the test up in the pre-addressed mailer and send it off to our labs.

• Place the radon test on a shelf or table against an interior wall that is free from ventilation sources like vents or air returns.

• Keep the test at least three feet away from all windows, doorways, and exterior walls.

• Placing the test in a draft or near a window introduces too much fresh air to accurately measure your indoor air levels. Going in and out of the house won’t hurt, but for short term measurements, QuickScreen and Rapidos, keep windows closed during the test period for accurate readings.

• Place the test at least 20 inches above the floor and two feet below the ceiling. Make sure pets, children, and family members can’t move it or play with it.

• “Should I hang the radon detector?” It’s not necessary, as the results will be the same as long as you follow the placement tips. This is a great option if you don’t have free table space or need to keep the tests away from curious pets.

• Test the ground floor and any areas above a crawl space.

The layout and construction of your home are factors to consider when measuring for radon. The following can affect your home’s radon:

• ceiling height,
• square footage,
• number of stories,
• lowest level such as basement, crawlspace, slab on grade, bi-level, and
• building material of lowest level such as dirt, earth, concrete, wood, cinder block.

According to research from Canada’s Evict Radon, homes with more square footage and higher ceilings have higher average radon. Additionally, homes with fewer stories were shown to have higher radon than multi-story homes. They also found that newer homes had higher radon levels because of their “air-tight” energy-efficient construction that can trap the radon inside the home.

Although radon tends to become lower on a home’s second or third stories, it can still be found on upper floors.

Winter has historically been the most common season to test for radon. Often called the “heating” season, the cold winter months are when people stay inside their homes with the doors and windows closed to prevent the heat from escaping. These closed-up house conditions enables the radon to build up within the house.

New research states that radon levels are consistent throughout the entire year. This is believed to be caused by the rise of energy-efficient and environmentally friendly buildings that are extremely airtight and designed to not let any air conditioning out during the summer or heat out during the winter.

Additionally, radon levels fluctuate throughout the day, week, and year. It is recommended that you test for radon in both the winter and summer months.

Rain, humidity, barometric pressure, and windy conditions can affect your radon test results.

When it rains, water saturates the soil around your house where it displaces the air in the soil. This creates more space for radon to be released into the air. Also, the drop in barometric pressure during rainfall can change the air pressure within the home. If the air pressure in the home is lower than the air pressure outdoors, then the home acts like a vacuum and pulls in air and radon gas from the soil around your home. This is why rain and humid conditions can increase home radon levels.

High winds blowing against a side of your home that has doors and windows can create positive pressure in your house that “pushes” the radon out. Conversely high winds hitting a side of your house that doesn’t have doors or windows can create negative pressure inside the home which then draws the radon into the home.

If it starts to rain or becomes windy while you are conducting a radon test, it doesn’t mean your test will be invalid. An alpha track radon test such as the Rapidos radon detector can be less susceptible to humidity. A long-term test that runs for 90 days to a year such as the Radtrak radon detector provides the most accurate radon average for a home and is the least susceptible to weather conditions.