Can you test for radon in a condo, and does it matter which floor I'm on?

Yes, and the floor matters a great deal — but an upper-floor unit is not automatically zero risk. Radon enters a building from the soil, so ground contact is the dominant factor. A ground-floor unit, a walkout or garden level, a townhome over a basement or a slab, and any unit over a crawlspace all warrant testing without hesitation, particularly in Iowa, which the EPA designates as Zone 1 statewide, the highest radon potential classification. In Minnesota, the Minnesota Department of Health reports that more than two in five homes have radon levels that pose a significant health risk. Upper-floor units in a stacked building carry lower risk, but soil gas does move upward through elevator shafts, stairwells and plumbing chases, and the pressure-driven stack effect of a Minnesota or Iowa winter is exactly the force that drives it. The multifamily measurement protocol reflects this: ANSI/AARST MA-MFLB-2023 sets initial testing at 100 percent of ground-contact dwelling units plus 10 percent of dwellings on upper floors — a sampling rate that exists precisely because upper-floor risk is lower but real. For a buyer purchasing one unit, a single-unit test under closed-building conditions is the normal scope, and that is what we perform. The one thing to know before you test, and it surprises people: if the result comes back high, the fix is usually not yours alone to make. A mitigation system penetrates the slab and routes a vent stack through common elements and out through the roof, so it typically requires association approval and sometimes an architectural review. Find out what the association's process is before you are in a position of needing one. Add radon testing when you use the free instant quote tool below, or call us to include it with a condo or townhome inspection.