Reports within 24 hours · Get your free instant quote
Certified Master Inspector sealCloser Look InspectorsStatewide Minnesota & IowaFree Instant Quote
Radon Testing · Dow City, IA

Radon Testing in Dow City

Radon Testing in Dow City, IA by Closer Look Inspectors. A photo-mapped digital report within 24 hours.

Get Your Free Instant QuoteSee What's Included
Dow City · Crawford County

Radon Testing in Dow City

Radon Testing in Dow City, Crawford County, by Closer Look Inspectors. Dow City is a Boyer River railroad town on U.S. 30, laid out by Judge S. E. Dow ahead of the tracks.

Radon testing places an EPA-protocol continuous monitor on a home's lowest livable level to measure radon gas — and it matters across Iowa, where Iowa HHS reports 71.6 percent of homes above the action level — the largest percentage of any state.

Dow City is served by our Ida Grove team →  ·  (563) 517-7815

Single-story yellow brick rambler with attached garage — Radon Testing in Dow City, IADow City
Local housing

Homes in Dow City.

Dow City housing runs to houses from the 1870s, when the railroad depot opened, through the early 1900s and postwar years, with little new construction since, across the old townsite laid out by Judge Dow along U.S. 30 and the Boyer River lowlands around it, on the Boyer River valley in the loess-mantled Southern Iowa Drift Plain — and that mix shapes what a radon testing here needs to find.

Local conditions in Dow City

No Iowa law requires a home inspection before a sale — the one mandatory time-of-transfer inspection covers private septic systems (Iowa Code 455B.172) — which makes an independent inspection the only thorough, buyer-side read on a Dow City home. Dow City sits in Crawford County, and every Iowa county is EPA Radon Zone 1. Iowa HHS reports Iowa has the largest percentage of homes above the 4.0 pCi/L action level of any state — 71.6 percent in the Iowa Radon Survey — and the Iowa seller disclosure form asks for any known radon test results. Finished basements concentrate it, and only a 48-hour test gives you this home's number. Iowa leaves frost depth to the local building code rather than one statewide number, and the annual freeze-thaw cycle drives the settlement cracks and ice-dam wear that Dow City-area homes face.

Home inspection in Dow City →  ·  More about radon testing →

Questions

Common questions.

Is radon really a concern in Iowa?
Yes. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources reports that more than two in five Iowa homes have radon levels that pose a significant health risk, and finished basements are where it concentrates.
How long does the test run?
A 48-hour minimum under closed-house conditions; the result is delivered with your inspection report.
How old is the oldest housing in Dow City, and what does that mean for an inspection?
Judge S. E. Dow settled here in 1855, laid out the town in 1869 in anticipation of the railroad, and the depot was built in 1870. The Dow House dates to 1872, so houses from the 1870s are part of the housing stock. Homes that old usually have added and altered wiring, worn plumbing, and layered roofs. We date each system, check framing and foundation, and look at Boyer River valley water: sump, grading and downspouts. With 485 people in 2020 there are also lightly used houses to look at for winter damage.
Keep looking

More across Iowa.

Radon Testing nearby

Other inspections in Dow City

Questions about radon testing

In-depth guides

Free instant quote

Build your quote in 30 seconds.

No phone tag, no callback delay. Price and book your inspection right here — it takes about 30 seconds and there is no obligation.

Free Instant Quote & SchedulerPowered by InspectorData
Free Instant Quote