Yes. You should test your home regardless of your foundation type.
Radon and Basements Myth
“I don’t have a basement” is the phrase I hear the most when I talk to folks out in the world. They ask what I do, we get to talking, and they immediately say this phrase as if it magically keeps them safe. It is the biggest misconception about radon and I don’t really know where it started.
Radon is a soil gas. Soil gasses enter the home wherever the home touches the soil. I often joke, unless you live in a house boat or a “van down by the river”, you need to perform a radon test.
Radon Entry and Source Points
Many people falsely believe that radon accumulates more in basements or settles in basements. The fact is: radon is actively pulled through myriad of entry points as air is lost on the upper levels (due to the stack effect). Radon enters ranch homes with slabs, ranch homes with crawlspaces, homes with basements, homes without basements—heck, I’ve even had folks in double-wide trailers come to me with radon issues. Our homes are not impenetrable fortresses, as much as we’d like them to be. Radon (and its decay products) is a small particle and it’s impossible to block out entirely.
Is there more radon in a basement than the upper floors? Almost always, but it’s not due to some magical property of basements. Basements are simply closer to the source: the soil. If you built the same home on the same patch of land, one with a basement (B), and one without (A); I hypothesize that you would see similar radon levels on floor one of a ranch home (A) versus the basement (B). It comes to down to where the radon is entering the home. It has very little to do with radon “settling” on lower levels. Yes, radon is heavier than other molecules in the air, but it’s by an infinitesimal amount. HVAC systems move air around our homes, constantly stirring up the air. The reason levels are higher the lower you go is simply because they’re closer to the source.
EPA recommendations
Radon gas is part of our atmosphere. It’s in every breath we take, whether we like it or not. The goal of radon mitigation is to limit our exposure to the lowest reasonable amount. The EPA action level is not a safe level of exposure: even the EPA admits that: “There is no safe level of radon” (Source: https://www.epa.gov/perspectives/keeping-radon-your-radar). The EPA action level, as it’s been explained to me by EPA officials and industry members that were in the industry when it was written, was determined to be a “technically achievable level of radon reduction.” That was in the early 1990s with the technology available at that time. Due to technological advacements, most contemporary, certified radon mitigators can guarantee long term levels below 2.0 pCi/L or below the WHO action level of 2.7 pCi/L.
However, if you never test to understand your exposure level, then you may never know that your home needs mitigation.
So, should you test your home for radon if you do not have a basement? 100% yes. The EPA, CDC, and WHO all recommend testing your home. The EPA recommends testing every American home at least once every five years.
When to test for radon
The winter is the best time to test. Read more about why that is here
Thank you for reading
Source: US EPA, “Keeping Radon on your Radar” 01/11/2024, https://www.epa.gov/perspectives/keeping-radon-your-radar
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