1-3% chance of Radon being above the action level on a property

vahidfar

Hi all,

We are looking to buy a flat in a two storey period building, in greenwich, London. It's on the first floor if that matters.
Our offer has been accepted and we are waiting for the mortgage offer.
Today I discovered about Radon! and based on a report that I got from ukradon.org
it says:
The estimated probability of the property being above the Action Level for radon is: 1-3%

I was wondering if this is something that we should be worried about? It seems doing a proper test could take over 3 months.

00ec25

1st floor flat in London?

you have a better chance of winning the Euro millions lottery

Radon is a Heavy gas, it sinks down. You wasted your money on that survey

vahidfar

I paid £3.9 for it, so do you mean there is nothing to worry about?

AlexMac

Agreed- Nothing!

Whoever suggested it robbed you of four quid- and for something you can get free at https://www.ukradon.org/information/ukmaps

Did you pay for a Chancel Check too? As all that will say is, bung us 50 quid to insure against an even more infinitesimal risk.

In fact I bet no-one in your Conveyancer's "profit generation via silly schemes team" was cheeky enough to suggest a Mining survey, whereas Greenwich- on the Blackheath slopes, is riddled with excavations dating from (even prior to) Roman times; detail at

https://www.weekender.co.uk/articles/history/64619/

I live locally and never thought to ask about Radon! Whereas when Blackheath Hill- the main A2 trunk road collapsed into 2,000 year old workings in 2002 it took literally months to fill... But even I din't fret about that

So don't panic- zoom out on that ukradon.org map and you'll see the SE is among the least risky part of the UK- now if it was one of the dark "30%+" bits in Cornwall....?

vahidfar

AlexMac wrote: »

Agreed- Nothing!

Whoever suggested it robbed you of four quid- and for something you can get free at https://www.ukradon.org/information/ukmaps

Did you pay for a Chancel Check too? As all that will say is, bung us 50 quid to insure against an even more infinitesimal risk.

In fact I bet no-one in your Conveyancer's "profit generation via silly schemes team" was cheeky enough to suggest a Mining survey, whereas Greenwich- on the Blackheath slopes, is riddled with excavations dating from (even prior to) Roman times; detail at

https://www.weekender.co.uk/articles/history/64619/

I live locally and never thought to ask about Radon! Whereas when Blackheath Hill- the main A2 trunk road collapsed into 2,000 year old workings in 2002 it took literally months to fill... But even I din't fret about that

So don't panic- zoom out on that ukradon.org map and you'll see the SE is among the least risky part of the UK- now if it was one of the dark "30%+" bits in Cornwall....?

Actually no one suggested, I was looking to book a private survey and was looking into samples of survey reports to decide between home report or building survey and noticed Radon in reports, so I searched it myself and ended up getting that report!

bouicca21

I had a similar result for a flat about 6 miles away. Bought the flat, did the test, radon levels infinitesimal.

It's all about the underlying geology and it is far from precise. I figured in my decidedly non knowledgable way that if the soil wasn't chalky and alkaline it would be OK and so it was. But I'm ground floor, can't see a problem with something on the 1st floor.

Just remember if your building were on London clay, you would get a warning about the subsidence risk.. Actually I suspect the maps they use are so imprecise that you might get both warnings.

And Alexmac is quite right, Greenwich has loads of old mine workings

AdrianC

vahidfar wrote: »

The estimated probability of the property being above the Action Level for radon is: 1-3%

Or a 97-99% chance it isn't.

Smodlet

Yup, Derbyshire, Devon and Cornwall, and especially, according to the map in that link, Wales are problem areas for radon but people still live there. Needless to say if you smoke, your chance of contracting lung cancer is high wherever you are. 1-3% is the lowest you can get without being entirely free from radon and that really narrows down the search area.

The map must have been updated since I last looked at it because I remember Scotland being much worse affected than, apparently, it is.

Good luck with your move, OP.