The Radon Test Read 9.6. The Seller Split the $1,150 Fix.

Nine point six picocuries per liter, printed in red across the top of a test report I read at 7:15 in the mornin' on May 21, standing barefoot on the basement concrete of a 1971 split-level in Boise. The EPA's action level is 4.0. The monitor had logged the basement air for 96 hours straight, one reading an hour, on a folding chair between the support poles. We were already under contract at $309,000.

The finished half of that basement was the reason we picked this house over the one on Ustick Road. My kids would get the two bedrooms down there, egress windows and all, and their mother works nights and needs the quiet floor. At 9.6, the EPA's own risk tables put long-term exposure in the range of a half pack a day, and radon's rank among lung cancer causes is not a mystery. The option period closed May 26. Five days to decide.

The seller's first answer, relayed thru his agent, was as-is. His second answer, after a weekend, was also as-is. The mitigation system that settled it cost $1,150, less than half a percent of the purchase price, and we split it evenly at the closing table on June 26.

nine point six, in red

I retained Clearwater Radon Solutions during the option period, $210 for the test, credited against mitigation if we used 'em for the fix. Closed-house conditions: windows shut 12 hours before, doors kept closed during, the monitor in the basement cuz that is where people sleep. Results by email on day five: 9.6 in the basement, 1.8 in the main-floor living room. The report prints a bar chart, and the basement bar runs off the chart's scale with the value hand-written above it.

the basement where the bedrooms go

Idaho sits in the EPA's Zone 1 for radon potential, the highest band on the map, and radon moves thru the soil under Boise into slabs through cracks, sump pits, and the gap around floor drains. My kids' rooms would have sat directly above the 9.6 reading. The seller, Dale, had owned the place 22 years and was already in Phoenix, managing the sale by phone, which made every request of mine an inconvenience across two time zones. The numbers were still the numbers.

ninety-six hours on a folding chair

I asked two mitigation companies for bids the same week, cuz a single bid reads like a price and two bids read like a market. Clearwater quoted $1,150: PVC pipe thru the basement slab, inline fan mounted in the attic, manometer gauge on the pipe so any future owner can see the fan is pulling. A national franchise quoted $1,480 for the same scope with a fancier fan housing. I sent both bids to Dale's agent with the test report stapled to the front and one line of my own: split the lower bid or we walk inside the option window.

as-is, twice

The as-is answer came back twice, and both times fast, which told me the agent understood exactly what a 9.6 report does to a listing once it is disclosed to any future buyer. Idaho requires disclosure of known radon results, so the report would surface in every future negotiation whether I raised it or not. On May 24, day two of my five, the agent called and proposed an even split, $575 each, in writing.

the amendment dated May 24

The amendment runs one page: seller credit of $575 at closing toward radon mitigation, buyer responsible for the remainder and the process, retest required, results to both parties. We signed May 25 with a day left in the option window. Clearwater installed June 19, one week before closing, and it took four hours: a core drill thru the slab behind the future utility area, pipe up thru the attic, fan wired, gauge glued on. The manometer read 0.72 inches of water column when he left, which he said means the fan is pulling like it should.

$575 each at the table

Closing sat on June 26 at a title office on Emerald Street, and the credit appears on the settlement statement as a single line: seller responsibility, radon mitigation, $575. My half rode inside the cash-to-close figure like every other dollar. The retest ran June 30 thru July 3, same chair position, same closed-house rules, and the report landed on the fourth: 1.1 picocuries per liter. Half the EPA action level is 2.0. We came in at barely half of that.

the monitor in the basement now

I bought a continuous monitor after closing, $199, and it sits on the same folding chair where the test monitor sat, logging an hour at a time. It has read between 0.8 and 1.3 all week. My kids moved into the basement rooms the first weekend of July, boxes still stacked in the upstairs hall. I check the gauge on the pipe when I do laundry, the way other people check the thermostat. The printout still says 9.6, in red, in the house folder. The gauge on the pipe says the fan is pulling. The number downstairs this week is 1.1. That is it. That is the whole radon story.