Image credit: EPA

Recently we came across a great post by St. Louis Realtor Karen Goodman on radon risks for Missouri homes, a hot topic for many home builders and buyers in the St. Louis area. It caused quite a buzz among the Hibbs Homes staff.

To get some more insight on the matter we turned to our consulting partner, Matt Belcher of Verdatek Solutions. Matt, one of the country’s leading green home standards experts, recently joined our home building team and brings with him a wealth of knowledge not only about green building standards here and abroad, but also a very unique expertise with radon in Missouri homes.

A few years ago Matt received a grant from the Department of Health to attend a Radon educational symposium in Washington D.C. At the time, he was one of the first builders to begin roughing in a radon mitigation system during new home construction.

Matt said of the symposium, “It really drove home the nature of the importance of these systems in every home we have build. We are one of very few builders who do this or frankly understand Radon and its effects.”

Radon is naturally occurring, radioactive gas produced during the decay of deposits of uranium and radium in the soil and air. When radon enters the home it radioactively charges dust particles, which become carcinogenic and when inhaled can lodge in your lungs. In fact, radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer behind smoking, and the number one cause of lung cancer in non-smokers according to EPA estimates. And studies conducted by the agency show that even a small amount of radon can cause lung cancer.

As the map in Karen’s post points out, Missouri is located in a “median” risk radon zone. This means that while the risk is slightly elevated, concentrations are not as predominant as they are in areas to the North and west of us and mitigation is optional by code.

In terms of risk, Matt explained, “The maximum standard measurement level for Radon is 4 Picocuries/liter (pCi/L). However, that is a somewhat “arrived at” number. The average home has about 1.3 pCi/L indoors. The true effect of any Radiation is time vs. exposure. If you spend the bulk amount of your time in the lowest level of your home and are in an area with even lower levels you may be effected more than someone even in non-conforming areas but spend little time in the lower level.”

Now that many home buyers are aware of the risk a radon inspection is an increasingly common closing inspection, and if detected a mitigation system can be installed by a contractor prior to closing, which can be costly.

However in St Louis new home construction a more proactive approach is being taken with the knowledge that our area has a slightly elevated risk. In new homes a passive mitigation system is being installed in the form of a pip that runs under the lowest floor slab, and using the natural tendency for warm air to rise the vapor vents up through the roof. And even more progressively, Matt explains, “We always leave a length in the attic adequate to install a fan if our client would desire to make it an active system in the future.”

While radon detection and mitigation may only be optional in this area, a radon inspection and a proactive preclusion system is an important when building your home in St Louis to reduce your family’s health risk.

For more information about radon’s risks and effects we invite you to explore the EPA’s radon website, and, like most important homeowner issues, consult a trusted contractor or realtor.

Chesterfield is one among many neighborhoods where Hibbs Homes has built new homes in the St. Louis area.

Recently Bloomberg BusinessWeek named St. Louis suburb Crestwood the best neighborhood in Missouri to raise a family in. Using an index that accounted for median income, crime rates less than 10% above the national average, education and closely located amenities cities were assigned a score and Crestwood came out on top.

Crestwood is one of a number of St Louis communities that are quietly growing due to reasonable home prices and boasting one of the top performing school districts in the state. But sometimes there are variables that just can’t be accounted for when using a strictly numbers based assessment.

Selecting the perfect neighborhood to call home is a very subjective and highly personal process, but one that can be well researched before making a buying decision. If you are looking for the best neighborhood to buy or build your family’s next home, here are a couple of great tools to help you make an informed decision during the buying process.

School Districts-Comparing school districts is a top priority for many families when choosing a community to call home. While standardized scores never really give a complete picture of the value of a school there are several factors that can be compared, such as class size, graduation rate and faculty certifications to get a better picture of what a school is like. There are several performance metrics that can be viewed and compared using the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s website under their guided inquiry section.

Walkable Locations-Many people are starting to realize just how important having a home located in a walkable community is. From a improved access to entertainment and businesses, to better health, to lower car and fuel bills-walkable neighborhoods are becoming a highly coveted and even factor into some green certifications when building. A great site we introduced readers to a while ago actually computes a “walk score” for any given address is walkscore.com and can help put your access to a town’s events and businesses into perspective.

Your Neighborhood-Many people will start the home buying process with a particular town in mind, but what about a particular neighborhood within that town? It’s hard to gather information about the different neighborhoods within a municipality, but an online tool that is really helpful in learning about the people and places you will call neighbors is NeighborhoodScout.com. With information about everything from how many neighbors support the arts to home prices you can learn about your potential fellow black-partiers by doing a quick search on this site.

Crime Rates-Always included in an analysis of a neighborhood is local crime stats. While there are many tools that claim to track local crime, the best and most comprehensive searches can be done on the Missouri Highway Patrol’s website, which also includes an offender registry and the ability to search at many levels. You can see the results for yourself by going to their website and using their search feature.

And nothing beats a resident recommendation. Try doing some searches for local blogs, and even looking at the town’s website before selecting your location or relying on indexes-you will really get a sense of a town from these stories and posts.

An exterior of the progress so far on the Donald family's home in North County, which is being Energy Star and green verified through the St Louis HBA Green Building Initiative.

Construction is well under way at the Donald family’s home in North St. Louis County. Some of our regular readers may recall the family’s home was demolished during the Good Friday storms that ripped through many neighborhoods along highway 70 in St. Louis County. Hibbs Homes is working with the family and several trade partners to rebuild the home, and have the project verified green through the St Louis HBA and Energy Star rated. (You can read more about the Donald’s story and follow the construction updates by visiting to a special section we have created on this blog.)

Hibbs Homes is putting the finishing touches on the exterior of the home this week, and beginning next week we will be pouring the concrete for the front driveway and walk. With the street view almost complete, we are also getting the interior into place! The drywall is already hung and the next steps are just mudding and taping.

There have been many efforts made to keep costs down during the build, and instead of having professionals come in and do the painting work the Donald’s will start putting a little sweat equity into the house before they even move their first piece of furniture in by painting the walls themselves. The money they are saving on painting work will go towards replacing and refurnishing their home. The paint brushes start flying at the end of this week! And cabinets, doors and flooring will start being installed next week.

With all of the pieces falling into place, and thanks to all of the hard work of our crews and the home owners, and we are excited to still be on track to have the family moved into their new home in time to celebrate Thanksgiving.