Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The Reading Prong, which extends into much of Northwestern and Central NJ, makes it a strong possibility that a home in those areas will have elevated radon levels in the basement. However, just as with groundwater, radon can invade one home and another one nearby can escape that problem. So, nobody can accurately predict whether a home will have elevated radon levels, even if others in the neighborhood do have elevated radon levels.
That being said, Bergen County is not situated over the Reading Prong, so elevated radon levels in Bergen County are much less likely than in Sussex, Warren, Morris, Hunterdon, Somerset, or Passaic counties. However, I think that any homeowner who is interested in his/her health should have his/her home tested for the presence of radon, no matter where it is located.
Buyers get too freaked out about radon. It's not a big deal. Test for it. If you need a system, get it or make the sellers pay for it. It's an easy fix and a relatively small investment into your family's health.
And then test once a year yourself, just to make sure everything is working and nothing has changed. You can order your own tests on Amazon or wherever.
Even if a home tests negative on the home inspection, it's not a bad idea to test once a year anyway. The man we bought this house from needed to put in a remediation system for us. Which was fine for us, but meanwhile he had been living with elevated radon for twenty years, which is a shame. Our neighbors who bought around the same time put in their own system based on our results, even though their results came out low (I think their sellers cheated and left the windows open but that's another story)
In any case, it's nothing to freak out about and nothing that can't be dealt with relatively easily.
It's an easy fix and a relatively small investment into your family's health.
Yup!
When my house in Somerset County was built ~20 years ago, the builder installed the underground piping as well as the radon exhaust pipe running from beneath the foundation to the roof. The only thing that was missing was the dedicated exhaust fan.
A couple of years after moving in, I tested the radon levels and found them to be moderately elevated.
I called-in a radon remediation firm, they installed the exhaust mechanism in my attic, and the system has been operating ever since with no problems, and with no detectable radon in the basement.
I don't recall the exact cost, but I think that I paid somewhere between $300-400 to the remediation company. Obviously the cost would be far higher if I also needed to have the underground piping installed, but avoiding lung cancer is important, so even a higher price should be considered to be a good investment in one's health.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
