Commercial Radon Testing Falls Church, VA
Service Overview
Biller & Associates provides commercial radon testing for businesses and organizations throughout Falls Church, Virginia. According to the EPA’s publication, “A Citizen’s Guide to Radon”, Radon is a radioactive gas. It comes from the natural decay of uranium that is found in nearly all soils. It typically moves up through the ground to the air above and into your office through cracks and other holes in the foundation. Your office traps radon inside, where it can build up. Any office may have a radon problem. This means new and older offices and/or well-sealed and drafty offices.
Radon from soil gas is the main cause of radon problems. Elevated levels of radon gas have been found in the Falls Church area. Testing is the only way to know if you and your team are at risk from radon.
Radon is estimated to cause many thousands of deaths each year. In fact, the Surgeon General has warned that radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States today. Only smoking causes more lung cancer deaths. If you smoke and your office has high radon levels, your risk of lung cancer is especially high.
A short-term radon test consists of taking air samples from inside your Falls Church office during a two day period. Longer tests can be performed to 90 days. The amount of radon in the air is measured in “picocuries per liter of air,” or “pCi/L.” A radon level of 4 pCi/L or higher should be reduced.
When To Schedule A Radon Test or Measurement
For buildings or portions of a building that are not significantly occupied both day or night, the measurements shall be conducted at time that is representative of normal occupied building operating conditions.
A measurement shall be conducted in all rooms that are occupied, or intended to be occupied, that have floors or walls in contact with the ground and are closest to the ground over untested ground-contact locations, to include the lowest level of the building over a crawl space, utility tunnel, parking garage or other non-habitable space that is in contact with the ground.
Where the office property consists of multiple floors, measurements shall be conducted in at least one and not less than 10% of rooms or offices that are to be occupied or intended to be occupied. These measurements shall be in addition to tests performed in ground-contact locations and rooms that adjoin or are directly above untested ground-contact locations. To further clarify, test locations shall not include hallways, closets and bathroom or shower areas.
For large rooms or open areas that have moveable walls that can physically separate an area into individual rooms, the movable walls shall be configured to divide the area into individual rooms and each resulting room shall be measured separately.
Who Should Attend the Test or Measurement
No attendance is necessary. Simply take steps to ensure the testing areas maintain the following conditions: windows are closed, HVAC temperatures are set to normal range between 65 and 80 degrees, ventilation systems utilizing outdoor air are set to the lowest seasonal setting.
What to expect
Within 24 hours of the completion of the radon test, you will be provided with a comprehensive report describing the radon result and the hourly summary of the radon level, temperature, humidity, and atmospheric pressure.
You can trust Biller and Associates to perform an accurate, through radon tests in Falls Church, VA. We are not a radon mitigation company, which means that we don’t have a financial interest in finding radon in your office. Our only interest is helping you to accurately identify the radon level present at the time of the test.
