Why Radon Test Before Real Estate Transactions

Posted in Radon Testing, on May 30, 2023

If you’re moving house and are preparing for renovations to make your home more appealing, SafeAir recommends adding radon detection to your home improvement plan. This simple and easy test detects radon gas particles in indoor air quality. Understanding whether or not your home is at risk or installing mitigation plans before selling is extremely attractive to prospective buyers! If you’ve never heard of radon gas and wonder whether your home is at risk, today’s article will tell you more about the importance of radon testing before real estate transactions. 

How Does Radon Gas Form?

Radon is a radioactive gas that is naturally released by rock, soil, and water. It’s formed by uranium deposits deep in the earth’s crust and makes its way to the surface as a colourless, odourless, and invisible gas. 

Unfortunately, the sub-grade basements in most homes across Southern Ontario make radon exposure more common. Basements create a pocket of negative pressure in the earth, which attracts and draws in radon gas, making it more likely that you’ll breathe it in. 

Radon gas has several negative long-term health effects — the most common of which is lung cancer. After cigarette smoking, radon gas is the number one cause of lung cancer, and while cancer may take many years to appear, short-term effects like shortness of breath or poor respiratory health can have a significant impact on your quality of life. 

Radon Testing and Real Estate Transactions

There’s plenty to do before selling your home, but the good news is that radon detection is a hands-off process! It just needs to be planned ahead of time because the test takes 3-6 months to complete to ensure accuracy and reduce false positives. At SafeAir, we use a small and discreet testing device that quietly takes readings over a few months. Once the results come in, we can let you know whether or not you’re at risk and what you can do about it if you are. 

Disclosing your radon testing results and any mitigation and follow-up testing indicates your honesty and the home’s safety and health to prospective buyers. While Ontario has no rules mandating radon gas disclosure, buyers from other provinces or the USA may expect it anyway. Safe and healthy indoor air quality is a desirable selling feature!

Radon Testing and Mitigation

What do you do if your home tests positive for radon gas? There are plenty of ways to prevent radon from entering your home.

Some of them include:

• Foundation sealing
• Room or soil de-pressurization
• Increasing ventilation
• Radon mitigation pumps and venting systems

The solution for your home will depend on your radon test results. While most homes will test within the safe range, there are communities around the GTA that statistically test higher than usual and will need one or more of these radon mitigation systems. 

If you’re a buyer curious about radon testing, you can begin the process before or after your move-in date. Protecting indoor air quality with radon detection is easy and has long-term benefits for the whole family.

Contact the SafeAir team today to learn more about setting up a radon test for your home.