Radon is a colorless, odorless, tasteless radioactive gas that forms naturally as uranium in soil and rock. The clay type soil in the Fargo-Moorhead area and surrounding communities is known for this gas. It moves up through the ground and into homes through foundation cracks, sump pits, floor drains, gaps around pipes and other openings in basements and crawlspaces.
Nordic Inspections has done more than 3,000 radon tests over the last 16 years and we have organized that data into a map. We can input an address and tell you how many homes within a half mile have been tested and what the results average. Want to know what our data says about your home? Give us a call. Want to know what the radon level is in your home? We also offer a standalone radon test.
Lars explains radon, radon in your home, what we see in the data and more, listen in.
Learn more about radon in the Fargo-Moorhead area in this blog post about Radon in Fargo Homes: Why Every Home Should Be Tested This Winter.
Schedule a professional home inspection with Nordic Inspections. Book on our website or call us today at 701.566.1446 ext. 0
Radon Mapping & Data Explained.
Oct 27, 2026
(0:00) Good morning 6:42, it’s your morning crew. It’s Doug, Robby, and our friend Lars Knobloch back in studio. Good morning, Lars.(0:08) Good morning. (0:09) Lars Knobloch, Nordic Inspections, uh, 15,000 and counting home inspections done in our region. And (0:16) one of the things when you’ve got that many years and that number that I think of is like, (0:22) you can, you can know and tell in a neighborhood, well, you know what, if you’re in this neighborhood (0:28) and you’ve got a block basement, you’re going to need to have that thing braced because I’ve (0:31) done 500 homes in this area and everything with a block basement, they’re caving in, (0:36) they’re cracking.And moving forward with some of the other technology that you have available, (0:44) you’ve got thermal imaging, you do radon testing, mold testing, you can put together a database (0:50) from testing around here that is out of this world. (0:54) Yeah, we have just started on this going back because we have all our inspection reports all (1:00) the way back from 2011 up until today. And, um, everything we have done in all these houses, (1:06) we have so much data and that’s really interesting stats that we’ve been trying to gather now.And (1:11) this is just the beginning for us. But the first thing we did was to create a radon, um, map. (1:18) It looks like a thunderstorm map.(1:20) It does. Yeah, right. It does.And this, this, this is, so I think it’s really cool to understand (1:26) that when, when states in the United States been doing like radon surveys in their state to figure (1:32) out, you know, what was, was our radon levels in our state, they’ve been going by, you know, (1:38) surveys, for example, in Minnesota, the last one they did, as far as I know, was in the late eighties (1:43) and they had about a thousand homes included in that survey. They, um, in all the way for the (1:50) whole state of Minnesota. Yes.Oh, and you’ve done 15,000 plus around here. Yeah. I mean, yeah.So, (1:56) so, so like what we have done actually, like our data set is, I think it might be the largest data (2:02) set that is that exists in the state of North Dakota because we have tested, uh, 5% of occupied (2:10) homes in our region. Wow. That is a huge number for a survey.Right. So that makes it be, (2:17) you know, from my perspective, more, more accurate. Yeah, absolutely.Um, so, so we can go down and, (2:23) and narrow it down really to, to neighborhoods and have identified pockets in, in the Fargo-Moorhead (2:29) region that radon levels are, are far higher than other areas. And we have also found areas where (2:34) it’s lower. Okay.When you, when you have that map, that map, how, is it the data you put into (2:41) it to make that map? Yeah. These are, the map is created based off of the data from our radon test (2:46) for three or 3,100 radon tests that we have done over the last 15 years. Okay.Um, and what we (2:52) have found is that 54% of the tests, 54% of the tests come back with a, about 4.0, which is EPA’s (3:04) recommended action level. About four or five tests were higher than two. And let me remind you that (3:11) EPA recommend that you should take action if radon levels, or should consider to take action (3:18) if radon levels are above two.The World Health Organization recommended 2.7. So we’re talking (3:26) about, you know, four out of five homes should are probably. Two times the level. Yeah.Yeah. (3:33) Yeah. Um, so, so the average of all of our tests is, uh, is 54% comes back about four.Um, (3:41) and in, in, in Fargo it’s, is, or the average is 5.8 in our region. I’m including Fargo, (3:48) I’m including Moorhead right now. Okay.Um, and the indoor average in the United States is 1.3. (3:55) So, um, actually Moorhead is, is a little bit higher. Moorhead sits with 61%. Um, about four.(4:03) Um, there’s some, some, uh, neighborhoods that are higher and I can name some of them here without (4:09) freaking people out. But for example, um, Longfellow, I’ve talked about Longfellow before. (4:15) Here in North Fargo.Yeah. Okay. But I never really had exact data of it.It was just like a (4:21) hat from, from testing up there. And we have done 53 homes. You have tested 53 homes in (4:27) Longfellow and the average rate on levels up there is 8.5. Okay.And what’s high? Where do (4:31) we need to be concerned? Well, you should start considering to be concerned when you’re at two. (4:36) Oh boy. Okay.I know we talked about that last week. And yeah, EPA, you know, they are at, (4:40) you know, four is, is what the, what, what they’re saying. Um, North port is another one.(4:48) Goodness sakes. I used to live in North Fargo. Holy cow.Yeah. North Fargo is, (4:52) is high North port. Uh, we have tested 68 homes in North port and the average of those tests is (4:58) 7.0. Wow.Um, we can go to like one interesting part. We can go to, uh, for example, Castleton, (5:06) the town of Castleton, town of Castleton. Um, I had to look up exactly how many tests we have (5:12) done there, but probably you have tested about between 20 and 30 houses and every single house (5:17) is tested about six.This is unreal. Um, Mapleton, uh, Mapleton is lower on the South end. (5:25) It’s like a medium in the middle of Mapleton and the further North is higher.Um, and again, (5:32) this radon comes from the uranium, right? Is what you said in the, in the, in the ground, (5:38) it comes from the uranium breakdown of uranium that we have in our soil. Uh, so it, it does (5:43) vary. So, but I think what, what this test says is that, uh, or, or, or data says that your, (5:50) your neighbor, um, doesn’t tell you, your neighbor’s radon results does not tell you (5:55) what your results are.Right. So you should, yeah. But it tells you that, that you should (6:00) test for possibly it could be high.It’s yeah. I mean, you can, you can, you can hear the likelihood (6:04) like I can see like, um, uh, Lewis and Clark, 71% is about four of the houses, (6:12) uh, village green and more at 71, uh, 71%. Uh, the highest average is Bronzedale, (6:21) Longfellow.Um, but even our lowest area and in our Fargo-Moorhead area aren’t really that low. (6:28) Davis falls to the bottom of the list where 30% of the homes are above, uh, four. Right.(6:34) And again, these are, this is based on the homes that you have tested. (6:38) Over 3000 inspections. Yeah.We have done 110. We have tested 110 homes in Davis area. Yeah.(6:44) Eagle run, we have tested, uh, 51 homes and it’s about 30%. The Eagle run is also the bottom of (6:52) this list. Um, so, and so what we’re working on right now is that, um, we’re working on a map (7:01) also with, uh, foundation failure.Sure. Yep. Uh, settlement, uh, houses.Cause we have data (7:08) sets of that going back 15 years ago, 15 years as well. Right. So we’re, we’re putting that (7:14) together in a heat map too.So we can actually see which areas in our area region that have (7:21) more selling issues, more foundation issues. If someone wants to get their home checked for radar, (7:26) if they’re wondering about if they’ve got mold issues, if they’re thinking of buying a home, (7:31) selling a home, they want to get their home inspection on your project list. (7:34) How can they do that? Lars? Uh, give us a call 701-566-1446.Or we can also schedule, (7:40) uh, any of our services on our website, nordiccompaniesinc.com. Thanks so much Lars. (7:44) Take care bud.