Radon Gas! Sounds scary. Anyone any info on it?

[rattlesnake]

We are buying a house in an area which has a medium risk of radon 3% - 5%. According to estate agent it is nothing to worry about as most homes contain a little of it! I've googled though that a medium risk area should be tested for, this takes about 3 months though. The house was build it 1997...would it have had any radon protection built in with it being not that old I wonder? Anyone have any advice?

You can raise this via your solicitors with the sellers solicitors - there may well have been precautions taken back then.

I have purchased a property that had higher than safe levels of the radon gas. I had a mitigation system installed at the sellers expense and thought no more of it. Radon is a heavy gas, heavier than air and thus affects the bottom floor of a house. This was my basement so had system there. They say that living with a higher than safe radon level is like smoking a pack of cigarettes a day, in terms of carcinogenic effects. This was in Massachusetts, there are higher levels of Radon there due to a lot of granite. I have since sold that house, with no problems.

Also, I had a radon test that took 48 hours, don't see why it should take longer but it was in a different country so maybe less labs for it there?

Radon was well known by the 1980s and houses built after 1988 in Devon and Cornwall 1992 for Derbyshire, Northants and Somerset may well have reduction measures built in - most likely the basic level of protection, a radon proof membrane (doubt you would need full protection at that level, which would be a sump / underfloor venting). Ask your solicitor to check.

You can order the home measurement detectors from Public Health England - these are the ones that you leave in the house for 3 months then return for testing and they will advise if you need to do anything based on the results.

You can request a bond from the vendor in case of any remedial action required. Even if this is required it wouldn't be horrendously expensive.

Personally (and bearing in mind I did my engineering Masters dissertation on radon), I really wouldn't worry about it - the 3-5% level is still low.

Thanks Randomly..That's reassuring!

You can call www.ukradon.org, we found them helpful

Our nearest town is a radon area and my in laws were all brought up there. Only one head each.... More seriously, no cancer cluster.

Yes, anecdata, but it really is a tiny risk. The survey flags up a possibility.

Hi Everyone,
I need some reassurance, We are buying a house in Corby, Northant and the searches came back for Radon Gas at 5-10%! The vendor had never tested the property and I have contacted the Airtech Environmental Systems for some advice and I was told that my solicitor could hold a retention fee of £2000 to carry out test etc. We have young children who has asthma and respiratory problems and this 5 - 10% is alarmingly high! What do I do? I want to cancel the the deal because I rather pay a few hundred quids to the solicitors now than end up stuck with a house full of radon gas when trying to sell later on in the future. Help please!!!!