I sleep in the basement. Should I be scared of radon?

Scared, no. Tested, yes. If you sleep in a basement, run a radon test before you worry about anything else, because the only way to know your level is to measure it. The EPA action level is 4.0 pCi/L. At or above that number, fix it. Between 2 and 4 pCi/L, the EPA says consider fixing it. Below 2, you can rest easy.

Here is the part that matters for a basement bedroom. Radon is a gas that seeps up from the soil and rock under your house. It is heaviest down low, which is exactly where you sleep. You spend six, seven, eight hours a night breathing that air. So a basement bedroom is the room you most want a number for. The number is not automatically bad. You are just down there the longest.

A test is cheap and easy. A short-term kit sits out for a few days. A longer test runs 90 days or more and gives you a truer average across weather and seasons. Radon swings with the weather, so a longer read is the steadier one. If you want us to handle it, our radon test fee is $50, credited toward the job if you move ahead. Branden runs our radon side. The crew calls him “B-Radon,” which tells you how much he likes this stuff.

If the test comes back high, the fix is a radon mitigation system. It is its own job, not a renovation. For a poured slab, we install active sub-slab depressurization. A fan pulls the gas from under the floor and vents it up and out above the roofline, before it ever reaches your room. For a dirt or fieldstone crawl under the house, we use sub-membrane depressurization, where a sealed barrier goes over the soil and the fan pulls from underneath that. Both run quiet. Both run all the time once they are on.

What drives the cost is the foundation and the layout. A clean poured slab with a short, simple vent run is the easy case. A fieldstone foundation, a finished basement we have to route around, or a long run to a good exit point all add work. Our radon mitigation cost is $900 to $6,000, and most homes land around $1,950 to $2,250. We give you the number after a free inspection so you are not guessing.

Here is the teach part. You do not need a whole basement system to deal with radon. Radon is its own job. If you also have water down there, that is a separate fix. Our Forever Dry System handles a wet basement with interior drainage, a sump pump, a wall vapor barrier, and a dehumidifier. That is for water, not gas. Do not let anyone bundle a waterproofing job onto a radon problem you did not ask about. Test first. Fix what the test tells you to fix.

That said, the two can overlap. A dirt crawl space that is open to soil is a path for both moisture and radon. If that is your setup, our crawlspace encapsulation seals the floor and walls with vapor barrier and can pair with a sub-membrane radon system. One sealed barrier, two problems handled. We will tell you if your house is that case.

One more thing about NH. New England sits on a lot of granite, and granite carries uranium that decays into radon. That is why radon shows up so often in basements here. New Hampshire is not a low-radon state. The NH DHHS radon program has the local guidance, and the EPA has the national picture at epa.gov/radon. Neither one is selling you anything, which is why we point you to them.

Our radon mitigation work carries a 10-year warranty. We do not guarantee a specific radon level unless we put that promise in writing for your house, because soil and homes vary. After we install, the retest is your job, not ours, and the EPA recommends testing again after any mitigation so you have your own number. We are licensed and insured, OSHA-certified, and we hold a state radon cert. See the 603 guarantee for how we stand behind the work.

So, scared? No. A basement bedroom with a tested, low number is a fine place to sleep. The fear comes from not knowing. Get the number. If it is high, fix it, and then it is handled.

Ready for your number? Call us at 603-610-1770 or book your free inspection. We will test, tell you plainly, and quote within 24 hours.

Related questions

How long does a radon test take? A short-term kit runs a few days. A long-term test runs 90 days or more and gives a truer yearly average, because radon rises and falls with the weather. For a basement bedroom, the longer read is the one we trust.

Will a radon system make my basement noisy? No. A sub-slab system is a fan and a vent pipe, and it runs quiet in the background. You stop noticing it. It just keeps pulling the gas out from under the floor and venting it above the roof.

Do I need waterproofing if I only have a radon problem? No. Radon is gas, water is water, and they are separate jobs. If your basement is dry, you do not need our Forever Dry System. Test for radon, fix radon, and leave the rest alone unless you actually have water.

Is radon worse in New Hampshire basements? It can be. New England granite carries uranium that breaks down into radon, so our region sees high readings often. That is why we tell every NH homeowner with a basement bedroom to test, no matter how new the house is.