3-5% Radon

northwest1965

We are currently buying a property which has the radon reading of 3-5% on the environmental search.
After looking at the UK government map, it seems that lots of areas have it from the Peak District & Derbyshire Dales to Yorkshire Dales.
If we move in and do a test, what works would need to be done.

Emmia

The radon is presumably coming out of the rocks/ground around the property - is there a lot of granite nearby? As such I'm not sure you can do anything to eliminate this.

Bigphil1474

This is a good site - https://www.ukradon.org/information/reducelevels 

Been a while but I used to deal with Radon at work.  Its basically just a gas that you can blow away so it's not a massive issue. There are ways to reduce Radon inside your property, and they aren't particularly expensive. Maybe a few £k at most. Have a read of the above site. You can't do anything about the naturally occurring Radon, but you can keep it from affecting you in your house. 3 - 5% is a fairly low chance of you having Radon at all (% of properties in that area with radon above the action level), so I wouldn't be too worried myself.  

Also depends on the property - new house probably fine, old house maybe not. The tests are pretty cheap though.

MyRealNameToo

Emmia said:

The radon is presumably coming out of the rocks/ground around the property - is there a lot of granite nearby? As such I'm not sure you can do anything to eliminate this.

https://www.ukradon.org/information/reducelevels

There are things that can be done to reduce radon in the home per the above. 

tacpot12

I think I would check what state the floors are in if they are solid. If the solid floors are sound and include a radon barrier, that's fine, but if the floors are old or don't have a Radon barrier, then Radon can seep through cracks, or be drawn through it. A Positive Input Ventilation (PIV) system can work to force Radon out of the house. 

If the house has suspended floors (floors with a void under them), then Radon can be cleared with a constantly running fan to ventilate the underfloor void. These days, fans are very efficient so will only cost a few pounds to run for a whole year. 

northwest1965

tacpot12 said:

I think I would check what state the floors are in if they are solid. If the solid floors are sound and include a radon barrier, that's fine, but if the floors are old or don't have a Radon barrier, then Radon can seep through cracks, or be drawn through it. A Positive Input Ventilation (PIV) system can work to force Radon out of the house. 

If the house has suspended floors (floors with a void under them), then Radon can be cleared with a constantly running fan to ventilate the underfloor void. These days, fans are very efficient so will only cost a few pounds to run for a whole year. 

We had the survey completed yesterday. The cottage has solid floors.

The surveyor didn't seem overly worried about it.

Having looked at the government map for radon, it seems the place I grew up in, in Northamptonshire is as bad as Yorkshire Dales

andy444

A number of areas across the country are characterised with higher levels of radon. It typically diffuses into the atmosphere and it only causes an issue if it accumulates inside a house.

It is moderately simple to prevent enough radon from entering your property for it to not be an issue. It's impossible to say exactly what needs to be done without knowing the composition of your house but it usually involves some sort of pump to transfer radon away from underneath the house. It's not a big issue and it shouldn't stop you from buying a house.