Short Or Long Term Radon Testing?

So you've made the decision to test your home for radon. Excellent choice as radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer. It is important to test your home and protect your family. However, testing can get confusing. Should you use active or passive testing? Should you use short or long term radon testing? Lets dive into that last one.

Short Term Radon Testing

Short-term test kits are the quickest way to test. Times range on these from 2 days up to 90 days. An absolute minimum of 48 hours is required to get accurate results. Some devices may require 72 or more hours as well. These are the most common used tests because results can be found quickly.

Long Term Radon Testing

Radon levels tend to vary depending on the condition of the house and the season of testing. Short term testing doesn't account for that, but long term testing can bridge that gap and give you a year round average of your radon levels.

So what is recommended for your house?

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommends doing a short term test first. These are placed on the lowest level of the home in closed house conditions in order to get as accurate levels as possible. If unusual severe storms or high winds occur, consider testing for longer.

If your first test comes back with low levels, you have the option of beginning a long term test that will run for a year and give you an average. Or you can just consider retesting your home in another year or so, with one important note - it must be in a different season than your first test.

The first step to take is a short term test, and you can even do it for no cost. Simply fill out the form on this page or contact the experts at Utah Radon Services to begin the testing process.