Guides
Home Inspection Quality Assurance for Radon Add-Ons
Home inspection quality assurance for radon tests: scope the two visits, hold closed-house conditions, keep the chain of custody, and refer mitigation out.
What to take away
- Radon is a separate service line with its own scope, price and paper trail. Selling it as a free add-on hides the cost, and that is where home inspection quality assurance starts.
- The EPA's Home Buyer's and Seller's Guide to Radon sets the testing and reporting expectations buyers arrive with. Read it before you quote.
- A test result is only as good as its chain of custodydevice placement, closed-house conditions, retrieval time and lab report.
- Mitigation is a different trade. Refer it to a licensed mitigator and keep your inspection report out of the mitigation design.
- Decide in advance who owns the client conversation when a result comes back at or above the EPA action level of 4 pCi/L, because that call is where complaints start.
Radon testing is the easiest upsell in a home inspection business and the easiest way to lose money on one. The test itself is cheap. The scheduling, the return trip and the client conversation are not.
What the buyer already read
Most buyers who ask about radon have already found the EPA's guide for home buyers and sellers. It tells them to use qualified testing and mitigation providers and explains why test conditions and timing matter in a transaction.
That sets the expectation you are quoting against. If your proposal says "radon test included" and the buyer expects a short-term test placed under closed-house conditions with a lab report, you have promised more than a checkbox.
Read the guide once a year. It is short, it is free, and it is the document your client is holding.
Count both trips, not just the device
A radon test is two visits to the same house: one to place the device and one to collect it. Both belong in what the service costs you, so count both before you set a price.
Radon test floor price
- TDrive time each way, times two visits
- SOn-site time each visit, times two
- LDevice and lab fee per test
- RTarget hourly rate for field work
Work the arithmetic in your own numbers:
- Drive time each way, times two visits
T- On-site time each visit, times two
S- Device and lab fee per test
L- Your target hourly rate for field work
R
Floor price per test = (T + S) x R + L. If that number is close to what you charge for a full inspection, you are underpricing the inspection, not the test.
Two rules keep this line profitable. Never bundle a radon test into a package without adding its cost to the package price. Never let a technician place a device on the way to another job without counting the return trip.
Closed-house conditions are the whole test
A short-term test only means something if the house was closed up for the required period before and during it. EPA's Protocols for Radon and Radon Decay Product Measurements in Homes, the residential testing protocol, calls for closed-house conditions for at least 12 hours before the device is placed, and for the whole exposure period after that.
Somebody has to confirm that. Usually it is the seller, sometimes the buyer's agent, sometimes nobody. Write down who confirmed it and when.
If the house was open, the result is not a result. Say so in writing at the time, not after the client has a number in hand.
The device also has to stay put for the minimum exposure time. EPA's short-term protocol sets a floor of 48 hours, and the devices used in real estate transactions typically run two to seven days. A device retrieved early is not a test you can report.
Keep the chain of custody
Every radon file should hold the same five things:
Radon file chain of custody
- Device serial number and placement location, with photo
- Placement date and time, retrieval date and time
- Written confirmation of closed-house conditions
- Lab report, unedited
- Date the result went to the client
- Device serial number and placement location, with a photo
- Placement date and time, and retrieval date and time
- Written confirmation of closed-house conditions
- The lab report, unedited
- The date the result went to the client
A missing item is a question you cannot answer six months later when the deal has closed and the buyer is calling. Use a lab accredited under the National Radon Proficiency Program (NRPP), and store these with the inspection file, not in a separate folder.
Where inspections stop and mitigation starts
An inspector tests. A mitigator designs and installs. Those are different licenses in most states and different insurance in all of them.
Do not sketch a system, do not estimate a fan size, and do not tell a client what mitigation will cost. Name a mitigator certified by the National Radon Proficiency Program (NRPP) or the National Radon Safety Board (NRSB), or licensed by your state, and hand the report over.
This protects you twice. It keeps you inside your scope, and it keeps the mitigation contractor from blaming your test when the post-mitigation number does not come down.
Make the handoff explicit about what comes next. The system has to be retested after installation, and the result of that retest belongs in the mitigator's file, not in your inspection report. Say so in the referral email so the client knows who is responsible for proving the fix worked.
The call you should script
A result at or above the EPA action level of 4 pCi/L is the moment the client stops hearing you. Have one person who makes that call, and give them three sentences: what the number is, what it does not mean, and who to call next.
Do not speculate about health effects. The EPA and your state radon program publish that guidance, and a Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH) can answer property-specific questions. Your job is to deliver the result and the referral.
Log the call. Date, time, who you spoke to, what you said. If the client later says nobody told them, the log is the answer.
Reviews and records
Ask every client for a review, and ask all of them, not just the ones who seemed happy. The FTC's Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, 16 CFR Part 255, known as the Endorsement Guides, make clear that picking only likely-positive clients, or offering incentives that skew the picture, creates a misleading impression.
On the bookkeeping side, radon adds a device cost, a lab invoice and sometimes a subcontractor. The IRS guidance on business records lays out the standard: a system that clearly shows income and expenses, with the documents behind each transaction. That is the ground IRS Publication 583, Starting a Business and Keeping Records, covers for small business. Your CPA can tell you how long to keep the records and how to treat the equipment.
If you are still deciding whether radon belongs in the service menu at all, work it through in your inspection business plan before you advertise it.
Common questions
Do I need a separate license to test for radon?
It depends on the state. Nationally, the National Radon Proficiency Program (NRPP) and the National Radon Safety Board (NRSB) certify measurement and mitigation professionals, and some states license radon testers through their own radon program — Florida and Illinois, for example — or require the device to be analyzed by an accredited laboratory. Confirm the rule with your state radon program or licensing board before you sell the service.
Can I offer mitigation as part of the inspection?
Not as an inspection. Mitigation is a construction trade with its own licensing and insurance in most states. Refer clients to a licensed mitigator and keep your report separate from the mitigation design.
What do I tell a client whose result came back high?
Give them the number, tell them what it does not mean, and name a licensed mitigator. Do not discuss health effects or estimate mitigation cost. Point them to the EPA and their state radon program for the health guidance.
How long do I keep radon files?
Start by treating radon records as part of the inspection file, not a separate pile. Then set a retention period that is the longer of what your E&O carrier requires and your state's statute of limitations for claims against inspectors. The carrier's schedule sits in your policy — ask the underwriter for the records-retention requirement in writing — and have your CPA confirm the tax side. There is no single number of years that works in every state, and the carrier's requirement usually controls.
