In this "Ask Renee" segment, realtor Renee Hahn (spelled Han in the video) of Downey Frye Realty explains why radon testing is relevant for home buyers and sellers in Southwest Florida. She clarifies that although radon is commonly associated with granite and deep soil, Florida homes can still have elevated radon levels because many local building materials—concrete blocks, cement, and other masonry—contain radon‑producing elements and create sealed structures that trap the gas. Hahn emphasizes that radon presence varies from house to house, so inspections are essential. She describes a typical radon mitigation system as a ventilation setup that draws fresh outdoor air into the home, often connecting to the HVAC system and venting outside, creating slight positive pressure that reduces radon entry. She notes that some cheaper systems omit the HVAC integration. The cost of a full mitigation system is around $1,500, which she characterizes as modest for health safety. Hahn encourages buyers to include radon testing in their inspection checklist and provides her contact information for further questions.
Chapters
Hello, this is Renee Han with Downey Frye Realty serving Naples and the surrounding areas. This is a segment that I call Ask Renee where I tackle some of the more common questions that come up in my work as a realtor. So what I'm going to talk about and focus on today is radon, and we're going to talk about inspections, mitigation, etc. The reason I'm raising this is it's It's not uncommon for me when I'm talking to a buyer on the buyer side and introducing the different types of inspections that we do here, that people seem to be surprised that we do radon inspections. Why are they surprised? Because they've known radon to be what comes from the earth below, and it's from things like granite and other natural materials that cause these gases to release, at a concentrated rate and, and thus can be the cause of health problems including lung cancer. So when they come to Florida and they know that Florida, particularly in Southwest Florida, we're on big water tables covered by sand, they're scratching their head trying to figure out how it is that we have issues with radon because it's not the model that they're used to hearing about. Nonetheless, radon can be present in the homes in Southwest Florida. And as I was learning more myself about this, having gone through it a couple of times on the buyer and listing side, what I've come to appreciate through the help of those professionals that work on radon inspections and radon mitigations is one of the big culprits for why we have it here— and actually, let me take a step back. Radon gases are everywhere. They're in every state in the U.S., they're in every city, But what happens is, obviously it's a problem when they get to be at a certain level. In this case, it happens to be the number, you know, if they're above 4. But the reason that elevated radon gas occurrences happen here, a big culprit of that is in the building products. So we may not be sitting on big slabs of granite or building on big slabs of granite, But we do have a lot of cement and other products in our Florida building that have concentrations of radon-producing materials. The other thing that I found quite fascinating is that when you have a construction like we do in the Florida homes, imagine you've got potentially concrete blocks around you, cement under you, and and in some cases concrete blocks on top of you, that makes a unit or a home incredibly secure. It obviously makes it more soundproof, but it also allows radon to build up and not have the same exit paths that they would if they were in a wood construction home like we find up north. Now, I should have said this early on, I am not a radon expert, I don't claim to be, and I don't want this video to give you the impression that I am. I'm simply sharing information that I've acquired as I've had the opportunity to deal with some of these things in the transactions that I'm working on. So again, radon can be present everywhere. There are issues in some of the homes here. It doesn't have to be in any specific neighborhood. It could be one home that has elevated radon issues and the home next door doesn't. So it's very specific to a home. Um, but I want to express that I always encourage my buyers to go through all of the inspections that are necessary in order to feel comfortable purchasing what they are and knowing exactly what they're getting into, and radon is no different. Again, I've had a couple of examples in my own transactions where I appreciated that we had done the radon inspection. Now I want to talk a little bit— I recently, in fact last week, had a listing where the radon had registered at a higher concentration, higher level, excuse me, so the sellers, my sellers, had to put in a radon mitigation system. So now I thought I'd spend a second in layman's terms talking about what a mitigation system is. So essentially down here, the mitigation system is a ventilation system. It's bringing fresh air from the outside into the property. And so when they're installing a unit, they usually in these homes have to install it above the ceiling. So if you're in a multi-unit, it runs just above your ceiling through the drywall. They'll put a unit in there. It connects oftentimes to the HVAC system as well as a vent outside the property. A single-family home's the same. They usually run them through the attic, and again, what they're doing is they're moving air through the property. The air handler, or the HVAC system, draws the outside air in, removes the humidity, and as it is recycled through the existing duct and the supply registers around that property, it's taking the radon, um, the average radon level from the outside air, which is typically lower than inside where it's concentrating. So it's bringing in this air that has, again, a lower radon incident and diluting the radon levels inside the home. It's also bringing in fresh air and it creates a slight positive pressure change. Don't ask me how that happens, but that is one of the reasons why companies like Gulf Shore Radon Mitigation do connect it to the HVAC system. It's unnoticeable to the, um, person living in the home, but it does add the resistance to the radon gas and makes it more difficult for that radon gas to enter the home in the future. Um, there are some mitigation companies that will do radon mitigation cheaper, and they don't necessarily hook it to the HVAC system, so instead it truly is just a pure, um, air circulation system, but the companies like Gulf Coast Radon do take that extra step, hook it to the HVAC exchange unit, and that adds that extra pressure resistance. So if you're thinking about purchasing a home in Naples, or if you've already done it and you never had a radon test, again, I always encourage it. It's, it's a small amount of money when it comes to being able to know that you're living in a safe environment. Radon mitigation systems, the last one I just had installed I didn't install it, rather the customer did, was about $1,500. So it's, it's, it's not a small amount of money, but it's not astronomical either. So I hope this helps you to learn a little bit more about radon and in particular why we're seeing radon in the Southwest Florida area, in addition to some of the areas where you're more familiar with seeing it. If you've got any questions on this or any other real estate related topic, Don't hesitate to reach out to me at 239-287-2576 or renee@yournaplesexpert.com. I'd be happy to help you. Have a fantastic day!
