If you're in the beginning stages of selling an old home, you may want to test the home for radon before you place it on the market. Radon is a gas that often resides in soil. If the ground beneath or surrounding your old home contains radon, it may potentially leak into the house after you sell it. Learn more about radon testing and how to test your old home below.

How Does Radon Testing Protect You?

Radon isn't something you can see or smell. Radon is a colorless and odorless gas that resides in dirt and other types of soil. Because of radon's unique features, it can be extremely difficult to detect the gas without a test. In most cases, the best way to detect radon is through radon home testing.

Radon home testing allows cleaning companies and other entities to detect different levels of radon in buildings, such as your old home. Small traces of radon is normally harmless when it occurs outside buildings. The gas quickly disperses once it enters the open outdoor environment. However, radon becomes harmful, and even cancerous, if it builds up inside a building. 

Radon doesn't affect your health right away. It normally takes time for the gas to damage your lungs. Most homeowners don't even know they have cancer due to radon until it's too late. 

If you plan to place your old house on the market soon, have a professional test it for radon gas first. If your home does test positive for high levels of radon, you can take certain steps to mitigate your home before you sell it. 

How Do You Get Your Home Tested?

First, call a home cleaning company or a radon testing company for the testing services you need. A company will need to complete the test onsite or in your home. Because radon lives in dirt and soil, the gas will normally enter your home through the floorboards, siding, and other areas of the home that may have gaps or spaces in them. If there's radon in your home, it'll generally use the places above to access it. 

After a company obtains the results of the test, they'll send them to a special laboratory to be processed. You'll receive the results as soon as a lab completes them. If your house contains heavy traces of radon, take time to mitigate your home before you sell it. Mitigation allows you to close up every area of the home that allows radon to enter it. 

You'll need to complete another radon test on the home right before you sell it. The extra test helps ensure your house is safe enough to sell to other families.

Learn how to test your home for radon and other gases by contacting a radon home testing service today.