- Follow the directions on your short-term DIY charcoal test kit as closely as possible.
- Place the test kit in the lowest livable area of your home in the center of the room.
- Place it at breathing level when you are sitting down. (About three feet off the floor, but not higher than eye-level.)
- Do not place in a laundry room (or bathroom or kitchen) where moisture, humidity and use of fans could negatively impact results.
- Maintain closed house conditions during the testing period.
- Short term testing should not be done during severe storms or periods of unusually high winds.
- Do not place test on an exterior wall. (Convection currents of air run across the walls and could give you a false negative or false positive!)
- For homes with only crawlspaces or homes with slab on grade, test on the first floor.
Carefully follow the directions in the test kit and leave it in place for the time period noted in the instructions. Wondering whether to test for four days or seven or somewhere in between? Radon’s half-life is 3.82 days, so after it’s run for four days, it won’t be any more accurate to test for the full seven days. However, if there is a period of storms or high winds during your testing period, it’s best to run for the full seven days. The test will weight heavily to the last two days of the testing period.
Once you’ve completed your test, you can mail it to the lab via priority mail as instructed on the test kit, but if you are using one of our test kits, standard postage has already been paid. It’s up to you whether you pay priority shipping. Standard mail should be sufficient as long as you send it in immediately! Also, providing an email address on the test will expedite the amount of time it takes to get your results back!
Don’t be intimidated. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to do a DIY radon test. Just follow the instructions to the best of your ability and as always, don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. We provide professional testing if the need requires! We love talking about radon and would love to assist you in any way that we can!