Do New Builds Have Radon Protection?

marshio

We've just found out the house were buying is in a area with an high risk of Radon being present. The house was built around 2008 so my question is would the Builders (Bovis) have had to put some of the protective measures in? Not sure if there's any laws that say builders have to put radon protection if your in an high risk area.

Thanks

BitterAndTwisted

The standard form of "radon protection" are open windows. I'm sure the property has plenty of those.

Richard_Webster

What risk level is involved?

marshio

Think it's a 5%-10% risk of there being Radon present. I just wondered with the house being only 3 years old if there were any building regulations that meant the original house builder would have to have installed something.

System

What is the actual level of radon in the area? This is what everything hinges on, not the possibility of there being radon. If the level is below 200 bq/cubic metre then no action is or would have been required

billybraggtastic

Most likely to have been picked up in the Site Investigation Report with suggested corrective/preventative measures. A Building Warrant for the development would not be granted until the Building Officer was satisfied that the hazard was nullified by whichever method the developer and their Architect/Engineer proposed.

Also, if the property is registerd with the NHBC then a similar process would be undertaken by them to ensure the risk to their underwriters was removed.

If you are concerned, ask the builder directly for the details showing how this was tackled (possibly a radon barrier beneath the floor) or go to the Local Council and look out the Building Warrant drawings (I'm sure these are accessible).

cajef

We are in a high risk radon area, all the properties built around us in the last 15 years including ours have radon barriers, we had free radon test kits supplied two years ago and the level was less than a quarter of the safe permitted level.

marshio

Thanks for the replies.

My thoughts were that they would have incorporated something when building them. Our solicitor is looking into it but you know how long that can take.

scooterpig

I live in the US in a high radon area - it's apparently the second largest cause of lung cancer round here, after smoking.

You can get radon mitigation systems here, both active and passive. I think it's more of an issue here as we have basements. However, having windows is not necessarily sufficient. Our house has plenty of windows and an exterior door in the basement but had extremely high radon readings. Our sellers had to install a radon mitigation system before they could place the house on the market. So it can be done after the house is built.