My First Radon Test: Day 1

Here she is. My radon monitor:

Ain't she a beauty? Mike Conte came by Friday afternoon to place the monitor and start my first radon test. As I mentioned before, Mike is a friend of mine and a great inspector at U.S. Inspect too. If any of you have had the pleasure of working with him, then you know what I mean. Mike is the kind of inspector who greets everyone with a smile and might even have a few coffees in hand for everyone if it's a cold day--so of course, he dropped everything on Friday to pop over and help me with my radon project. Here's a picture of Mike.

Okay, it's only Mike's hand. He was being shy--which is actually totally unlike him, but I'll give him a pass. A picture is one thing--posting your mug on the internet for everyone to see is another thing. Even though we are an easy crowd and would have loved to see your smiling face, Mike! (Maybe I'll sneak one for everyone when he comes back to pick it up).

OK, back to the test. Because of the weekend, the test will actually be ready for pick-up today or tomorrow when Mike's available to pop over and pick it up for me. I'm not in a rush of any kind, and have asked him to just stop by at his earliest convenience. So I'm very close to finding out what the Radon levels are in my home. How simple was that?!

So now, I'm just basically wondering, will my levels be acceptable--at lower than 4 pCi/L, or not? No one in my neighborhood has a mitigation system, from what I can see on the outside of homes, but that doesn't really even mean anything. Levels vary regionally, but can even vary from home to home on the same block. So we'll just have to see.

But I definitely feel really good that I finally did the test. Not having done it for so long, especially raising a young family here, was just silly. But all that is behind me now--the EPA said that this month was a time for action and I heeded the call! I hope anyone else out there who hasn't tested their home for radon yet, will read this and do the same. Taking this first step really couldn't have been easier.