Buying a home requires inspection, and the inspection often covers the structural aspects, heating and ventilation, water, sewage, electrical work and similar aspects. There is, however, one thing that’s often overlooked, but never should be. Radon inspection. It should be done not only when buying a new home, but also at your existing home if you’ve never done it before. This is how it can impact your health.
Why You Need Radon Inspection and Mitigation in the First Place?
Not understanding why you need radon inspection will probably lead to you failing to do it, and thus possibly putting yourself in danger. This completely odorless and completely invisible radioactive gas that is naturally released from water, soil and rocks can easily get into your home through even the smallest cracks. Breathing in high level of radon for a long time can cause lung cancer, which is the reason why you need to conduct the inspection and get mitigation services if necessary.
Another thing to keep in mind when trying to determine if you need these inspection services is this. It is estimated that 1 in 15 homes has elevated levels of radon, which amounts to a rather huge number. So, it’s not as uncommon as you may thing, meaning that doing proper inspection is of utmost necessity, since you don’t want to endanger your health. The gas can be found anywhere, and assuming that homes without basements can’t get high levels of it is wrong.
Can You Do the Testing Alone?
Identifying radon alone is extremely difficult, if not impossible. You can’t see or smell the gas, meaning that it could be building up in your home without you ever being aware of it. Sure, there are testing kits you can buy in hardware stores or online, but those are not always as reliable as you may want them to be. Thus, doing the testing alone is not recommended. Hiring professionals is, instead, the best method of protecting yourself and making sure that your home isn’t getting filled with this dangerous gas that can take a toll on your health.
Here’s what you, as a new home buyer, should know about radon: https://www.bobvila.com/articles/radon-in-homes/
How to Find the Right Professionals?
Since testing alone is clearly not the best idea, the first thing you’ll need to do prior to performing the inspection is actually find the professionals that can do it for you. Rushing into choosing just any of these companies without doing your research could lead to hiring the wrong people for the job and not having the inspection done properly. If you want to be absolutely sure that the inspection is done properly, you’ll have to put some effort into finding and hiring the perfect professionals that will undeniably do great work.
Finding and hiring those great professionals, naturally, requires you to do research. Understanding which steps to take during the research, as well as which specific factors to keep in mind and check will help you do it successfully. Below I’ll share what you should do when trying to hire the perfect radon inspecting and mitigation professionals, hoping to help you make a great ultimate choice.
- Check Area Of Operation
Wasting time looking into companies that don’t operate in your specific location is something you’d much rather avoid. While there’s nothing wrong in taking a look at what those firms have to offer, that would just be an informative read, rather than a real effort towards finding your radon pros. So, the first thing to do is search for those companies operating in your specific area, as well as thoroughly check the areas of operation if someone recommends you one firm or another. This way, you’ll avoid wasting time on researching those professionals that won’t be able to help you, and instead proceed to checking out those that can.
- Check Qualifications, Experience and Reputation
While checking out those that work in your area, you need to know precisely which factors to focus on, i.e. which types of information to search for. Qualifications are, without a doubt, at the top of the list of factors to consider, because hiring professionals that aren’t qualified could lead to the inspection being poorly done, and to you getting inaccurate results. Since that’s not what you want, qualifications are the first thing to check, and you’ll probably get to find information about those on the official sites of the companies you’re researching.
Apart from qualifications, checking experience and reputation is also of crucial importance. Hiring experienced and well-reputed companies, the clients of which have previously been quite happy with the inspection services, will result in being absolutely sure that the work will be perfectly done. You’ll get accurate results after the radon inspection, and you’ll know if you need remediation next. Thus, checking reputation, together with experience, is the next thing to do before choosing.
- Check for Mitigation Services Apart From Inspection
Speaking of needing mitigation services, apart from the inspection, here’s another thing to know. Some experts, including Radon Pros, offer both of those services, meaning they’ll suggest remediation services if necessary right after doing the inspection. You can’t get this full-round service everywhere, though, which means that you should always check precisely what a specific company has to offer, so as to understand if you can get mitigation services from them as well. Once again, simply checking the official websites should provide you with the answer to this particular question.
- Interview a Few Firms
After doing the online research, you’ll have to take one last step before actually making the final choice and hiring one of the radon inspection and mitigation professionals you’re considering. Put simply, you’ll need to interview the companies you think you could hire, ask about their availability and inquire about practically anything else that you need to know before making the final choice. Checking their prices will be a part of these interviews, after which you’ll get to compare the overall services and their costs, aiming at choosing the best deal and hiring the perfect radon professionals.
