What's Radon Gas, and How Does it Affect My Build?

"Radon is a radioactive gas, we can't see, smell or taste it: you need special equipment to detect it. It comes from the rocks and soil found everywhere in the UK. The radon level in the air we breathe outside is very low but can be higher inside buildings."¹

It's important to protect your home, as high levels of Radon Gas can cause lung cancer by damaging lung tissue over a prolonged period of time. This typically only happens within buildings, so it's a very important consideration when designing homes.

When we undertake our technical design of your new home or extension, we will procure a Radon Report. This is a very inexpensive report, but will quickly tell us if we need any protection against radon gas, and if we do, what extent of protection is needed. In most cases we find that either no protection or basic protection is required. In the case of basic measures, this is little more than providing a thicker damp proofing membrane.

In the case of full measures, there's a lot more design work required. This is a rare circumstance, but not over burdensome to over come. It's only difficult to manage if you've already cast your floor slab before checking if you need to protect against Radon. So remember to check for Radon gas before you start your next build.