Vent: I paid $120 for a radon test kit and now my house might be worthless

Bought a radon test kit off Amazon last spring just to be safe since my basement is old and cracked. It came back at 8.2 pCi/L which is WAY over the EPA action level of 4.0. My neighbor laughed at me for wasting money on the test but now I'm looking at $2,000+ mitigation install quotes. Called three companies and they all said the same thing about sealing cracks and a fan system. Anyone here dealt with radon mitigation and know if it actually works long term?

3 comments

3 Comments

kai_burns731d agoOG Member

Wait your neighbor actually LAUGHED at you for testing radon? That's insane.

abby_morgan181d ago

The EPA's action level of 4.0 is just a guideline, not a legal cutoff for a worthless house.

phoenix_martin4019h ago

Friend of mine bought a place a few years back, radon came back at 5.2 on the test. He tried to get the seller to chip in for a mitigation system and they just laughed and pointed at the EPA saying it's a suggestion, not a rule. Couple grand out of his own pocket later and his basement is fine now, but that house sat on the market for months with that test result lingering. @abby_morgan18 is right that 4.0 isn't a hard cutoff, but tell that to any potential buyer who sees that number on a disclosure. It's crazy how something so easy to fix can tank a sale just because of how it reads on paper.