Radon is a normal home question in high-country Lake County

Radon is a colorless, odorless gas that seeps up from the ground into homes. It is a routine thing to check anywhere in Colorado, and Lake County is no exception. A home’s age, its price, or its mountain view does not tell you whether it has a radon problem.

The reason it comes up so often here is geology. Colorado’s rock and soil naturally release radon in many areas, and it can collect in the lower levels of a house. The good news is that this is a well-understood issue with a clear path: you test, and if levels are high, there are standard ways to reduce them.

For a buyer, the simple move is to treat radon like any other inspection item. A test on the specific home gives you a real answer, while a neighbor’s result or a regional map does not. New construction is not automatically safe, and an older home is not automatically a problem. Each house is its own case.

To understand radon in Colorado and how to test your home, start with the Colorado Geological Survey and the state health department’s radon program.